2o8 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



England.^ The great safeguard in connection with the 

 hound show as conducted at the present time is that the 

 classes are only open to hounds from any established 

 pack in the United Kingdom. This prevents any one 

 but a master of hounds exhibiting and does away with 

 the hound fancier. Not that such a man can be said to 

 exist, for practically no foxhounds are kept in any part 

 of the kingdom except for hunting purposes. At the 

 same time if there were many hound shows, exhibiting 

 would become a business, as it has done — with dis- 

 astrous effects — in connection with other varieties of 

 dogs used for sport, and therefore a very close curtail- 

 ment of the number is absolutely essential. 



To glance at the reverse side of the case it is probable 

 that the Peterborough shows have done a great deal of 

 good. They are held at a time of year when there is 

 no hunting, and when masters of hounds and hunting 

 folk generally can attend, and they are conducted on the 

 soundest and strictest lines. There can be no question 

 of pot hunting, for the prizes are of little value, and in 

 fact the winning of three or four at one show would 

 hardly pay for the cost of sending hounds and men 

 from a distant part of the country. The honour and 

 glory of winning at Peterborough is then the great 

 goal which ambitious masters of hounds aim at, and it 

 can fairly be said that in all its thirty years of existence 

 there has been no real change with regard to type. In 

 fact, the best hounds of thirty years ago were of much 

 the same stamp as the best hounds of the present day — 

 from the onlooker's point of view. Peterborough does 

 not — cannot, in fact — point out which in every class are 



^ In July of the present year a hound show, confined to packs hunting 

 in Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, was held at Exeter, and 

 met with a fair measure of success. 



