SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 5 



form what we call symmetry, experienced masters 

 and huntsmen are very generally agreed ; but on 

 other and less important points there exists a 

 diversity of opinion, even amongst the learned in 

 such matters. One admires the greyhound fore- 

 hand with 



*' Head like a snake, 

 Neck like a drake, 

 Cbest like a bream, 

 Back like a beam." 



Others, like Gallio, care for none of these things,, 

 preferring heads rather square than long or thin ; 

 — about necks, indifferent, provided they ai"e not 

 too short and thick, preferring wide ribs to deep 

 chests, and arched loins to flat ones. If a hound 

 has plenty of brains, it matters little as to the shape 

 of the skull in which they are contained ; and if his 

 neck is not too short to prevent his nose touching 

 the ground, it is long enough to answer the purpose 

 for which it was given him, and we incline to the 

 opinion that the coarser-necked ones are generally 

 found to be the better hunters. 



A stranger, when for the first time meeting the 

 late John Ward's foxhounds, was making comments 

 — not very complimentary — in his hearing on their 

 large heads, when the jocose master, turning round, 

 said, " Your observations, sir, are very true ; our 

 hounds possess rather large knowledge-boxes, but 

 there is this advantage connected with them : their 

 heads are so heavy, that when once their noses 

 reach the ground, they manifest great reluctance in 

 raisin f? them ao-ain/'' 



