FOXHOUNDS 213 



situation, for the pack had a reputation, and we had not 

 been told that the late master had taken his hounds 

 with him to another country. 



As regards hound-breeding, there is no royal road to 

 success, and very little can be done until a considerable 

 amount of experience has been gained. One man will 

 breed a good pack of hounds in half a dozen years. 

 Such a performance is very rare, but it has been done 

 more than once in recent years, and notably Mr. Charles 

 McNeill, the present master of the Grafton, bred a pack 

 of bitches during his five years' mastership of the 

 North Cotswold, which he sold for something like 

 ;^4000, and with which he won prizes at Peterborough. 

 Another breeder will achieve no better result in twenty 

 years. Both may have studied the science of breeding 

 with equal care ; both may have spent the same amount 

 of money on drafts from famous kennels, and both may 

 have sent bitches to the best stud hounds of the day, 

 but one of the two may have that indefinable knack of 

 always doing the right thing, while the other may be 

 unlucky in his attempts at mating, or may, with the 

 best intentions, be without the grasp of hound points 

 and pedigrees which is almost necessary if success is 

 to be achieved. 



A young master of hounds may, when he first takes 

 office, know something of hounds and their breeding. 

 He may be the son of a master, and have spent much 

 time in the kennel. When such are his antecedents 

 there is nothing to prevent his being a successful 

 breeder as long as he really works hard at the business. 

 But the average young man who takes a pack of hounds 

 for the first time probably knows nothing whatever of 

 hounds, and can have had no experience of breeding. 

 He is, naturally, fond of hunting, or he would not 



