SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 219 



enabled to creep under them, and in gorse-co verts 



he has on this account a decided advantage over 



larger hounds. In a flinty country also he can 



travel much more easily, where Aveight tells against 



a big one by his feet being sadly bruised against 



these sharp obstacles lying so thickly over the 



fields. The late Mr. Ward, it is true, hunted the 



Craven country for many years with a very large 



and heavy sort — the largest pack of foxhounds in 



those days ; but he must have known and seen 



that they were little adapted to the country from 



the number of lame hounds always in hospital 



during the season ; and in dry weather a third of 



the hunting pack would become invalided, after a 



hard day, with bruised feet, the only remedy for 



which used by their huntsman was to let 6ut the 



blood from the ball of the foot, by means of a sharp 



incision of his penknife. Through this surgical 



operation the hound was of course unfitted for 



work again until the wound healed. There were 



two reasons for Mr. Ward persevering with this 



large sort of hound in such a country. The first, 



that he had, throughout his earlier career as M.F.H., 



been accustomed to breed hounds of large size, well 



suited to the grazing districts he had previously 



hunted, and on chano-incr countries he did not choose 



to change his style of hound. 



Perhaps there was another, not confessed, although 

 suspected : knowing heavy hounds could not run 

 away from him when more advanced in years, and 

 become slower himself over those flints and fd\- 

 lows ; in confirmation of which we remember a 



