LETTER XXIII. 



Over heath and moorland there is generally a capital 

 scent, and in such countries the best and stoutest running 

 foxes are found, principally of the old greyhound sort. 

 They have often long distances to go for food, and the 

 fresh mountain breezes add vigour to their frames. The 

 famous run so lately recorded by Lord Drumlanrig proves 

 the distance these fine mountain foxes will run ; it also 

 proves my assertion, that a good pack of hounds, in a fair 

 scenting day, will kill, unassisted, the best fox that ever 

 wore a brush. I quite agree with Mr. Delme RatclifFe, 

 that it is the finest run in the annals of sporting, either 

 of the present or by-gone days. The runs we see and 

 hear of continually as the runs of the season, your five- 

 and-forty minutes, hour-and-a-half, &c., averaging some 

 ten to fifteen miles distance, are but as pigmies compared 

 to this mighty giant. I felt all my ardour revive when 

 reading this unprecedented performance of thirty miles 

 by this gallant pack, with its glorious termination ; and 

 in my younger days I would certainly have gone even so 

 far north to have had a peep at them. 



We have column after column of winning greyhounds, 

 names, pedigrees, and colours ; but the name of a high- 

 bred foxhound — superior in every respect to a greyhound 

 as fox-hunting is to coursing — never makes hi» appear- 



