464 The Book of the Horse. 



is much a matter of fancy ; but where fences have to be run through small hounds are preferred, 

 where great ditches are to be leaped a certain size is essential ; little bitches get lost. 



It is the mark of a high-couragcd fox-hound that he flies his fences in full cry, instead of 

 halting to look for a hole. 



As to music, for which the old English and German hounds were so famous, it has been 

 to a considerable extent diminished by the demands of pace. Certain packs of very high 

 reputation, such as the Brocklcsby and the Belvoir, having a very open country to hunt, are 

 much more mute than those that hunt through wild and woodland countries. In Nottingham- 

 shire, Essex, or Devonshire, a huntsman would soon be lost without the music of his 

 hounds. 



Intelligent a fox-hound must be, but not too intelligent, for such are " skirters," trying to 

 hit off the scent right or left of the pack. Such might make capital pot-hunters in the woods 

 of Virginia. Docility is essential, but not at the sacrifice of courage. It is not the best 

 hounds who submit to the lash without a growl. 



To a stranger to hunting there is no more extraordinary sight than that of a pack of 

 hungry hounds crowded at a door in sight of their feeding trough, and not one venturing 

 to come forward until called by name. 



All great huntsmen are beloved by their hounds, although they could not rule them 

 without severe discipline. 



That earnest poet. Canon Kingsley, who was a daring horseman and a true sportsman, 

 although "he never owned a horse worth fifty pounds in his life," describes "the fox-hound as 

 the result of nature, not limited, but developed by high civilisation. Next to an old Greek 

 statue there are few such combinations of grace and strength as in a fine fox-hound. The 

 old savage ideal of beauty — type of mere massive force — was the lion ; of grace, the fawn. 

 Breeding and selecting, through long centuries, have created the fox-hound, which combines 



both types Look at the old hound, who stands doubtful, looking up at his master 



for advice. Mark the severity, delicacy, lightness of every curve : his head fine as a deer's, 

 his hind-legs as terse as steel springs, his fore-legs straight as arrows ; and see the depth of his 

 chest, the sweep of his loin, the mass of arm and thigh, the breadth of paw ; and, if you 

 have an eye for form, note the absolute majesty of his attitude. Majesty is the only word ; 

 for, if he were ten feet high, instead of twenty-three inches, with what animal on earth could 

 you contrast him .' It is a joy to see such perfection alive ! " 



There are other passages in the same paper, "A Concert in a Pine-wood" — the description 

 of a hunt in Hampshire — so unlike the usual sensational pictures of life in Leicestershire, 

 that I cannot resist the temptation of quoting them. It must be understood that the parson 

 is riding on his old hunter through a pine-wood, to administer spiritual consolation to a poor 

 parishioner. 



"Stay! there was a sound at last— a light footfall — a hare races towards us through the ferns, her great 

 bright eyes full of terror, her ears aloft to catch some sound behind. She sees us, turns short, and vanishes into 

 the gloom. The mare pricks up her ears too, listens, and looks ; but not the way the hare has gone. There 

 is something more coming. Besides, that hare was not travelling in search of food. She was not 'loafing' 

 along, looking around her right and left, but galloping steadily. She has been frightened ; she has been 

 put up ; but what has put her up .' And there, far away among the fir-stems, rings the shriek of a startled 

 blackbird. What has put him rife ? 



" ' Stand still, old mare ! Do you think still, after fifteen winters, that you can catch a fox ?' 

 " A fox it is indeed ; a great dog-fox, as red as the fir-stems between which he glides. And yet his legs 

 arc black with fresh peat stains. He is a hunted fox, but he has not been up long. 



