FOXHOUNDS 203 



was taken of the challenge, and one is inclined to think 

 that on their own native fells the Cumberland hounds 

 would have had the best of it, while in any ordinary 

 enclosed country the boot would have been on the 

 other leg. 



But when foxhounds are spoken of, it is, as a matter 

 of fact, only one type which comes into consideration, 

 viz. the hound which is entered in the Foxhound 

 Kennel Stud Book, and which is used all over the 

 kingdom, except in some half-dozen or more remote 

 countries. Every modern foxhound may now almost 

 be said to be of the same family, so much inbreeding 

 has there been in the last fifty or sixty years, and 

 so much out-crossing on the part of the old family 

 packs. Perhaps Mr. Robert Vyner, whose Notitia 

 Venatica was published just sixty years ago, was 

 the most interesting writer on foxhounds, and he 

 appears to have known a good deal as to the original 

 foxhound, but even then he did not think it worth 

 while to put his knowledge into writing. He said 

 that "since the commencement of hunting the fox 

 in the open, so many different descriptions of hounds 

 have been bred for the purpose, that to describe all 

 the sorts, and to give a statistical account of the divers 

 strains of blood which have been celebrated in their 

 time, would be far too tedious for my readers, and quite 

 foreign to my present purpose ; the following short 

 account of the pedigrees of some of the principal 

 packs of the present day will suffice." Vyner then 

 goes on to state that the original stocks from whence 

 the most fashionable sorts were descended were from 

 the packs of Lord Yar borough, from that of Lord 

 Fitzwilliam ; the Duke of Rutland's (which were 

 bred from the packs purchased of Mr. Heron and 



