SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



CHAPTER II. 



Huntsman and Whipper-in — General want of harmony between them 

 as to the occult science — He comes too near who comes to be 



denied — Old S and his successor in office — The test of 



sound discretion in breeding foxhounds — An instance of its 

 failure in a lai-ge hunting establishment — John Ward's delibera- 

 tion — Early whelps the strongest and straightest — Difficulty of 

 selecting the best — Dark colours preferable to light. 



It does not follow as a matter of course that the 

 most talented field huntsman is equally clever as 

 a breeder — the reverse, we might say, is generally 

 the case. Immense numbers of young hounds are 

 annually produced, yet quantity does not compen- 

 sate for loss of quality. Every huntsman, when 

 first installed in ofiice, has this onus jprohandi 

 thrown upon his shoulders, and how is he to meet 

 it ? As whipper-in, his knowledge of breeding, how- 

 ever, must be very limited, since huntsmen, from 

 jealousy, rarely admit their probable successors 

 into their confidence ; and in large establishments 

 whippers-in are almost excluded from the kennel, 

 the feeder acting as assistant to the huntsman in 

 all these matters. The register of marriages and 

 births has been hitherto to the whipper-in a sealed 

 book. He has seen by the published list how 

 each entry is bred, and knows the characters and 

 dispositions of those parents which have fallen 



