SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 241 



loose somewhere. The best plan is to get together a 

 large body of young unentered hounds from different 

 kennels. Select some twenty-five or thirty couples 

 of the best blood, in which you will be assisted by 

 the huntsmen from whom they are purchased, and 

 begin working them together as early as possible in 

 the cub-hunting season, so that they may become 

 tolerably steady by Christmas. With such young 

 recruits much cannot be expected for the first two 

 years, in hunting a cold scent ; but with a good 

 one they are likely to give a good account of their 

 foxes. What they do will be done brilliantly, all 

 at head ; but failing the sine qua non, the io 

 triumphe will also be wanting, i.e., scalps easily 

 counted on the kennel door. In their third season 

 these will be a pack of hounds, and their motto, 

 Labor vincit omnia. 



A brother master and contemporary, some years 

 ago, formed his establishment in this manner, but 

 his country being principally arable with large 

 woods, his sport for the first season was miserable. 

 In the second there was some improvement, and in 

 the third his pack was quite efficient in their work, 

 although not very level or e^^e-taking. Huntsmen 

 cannot afford to draft clever young hounds, unless 

 of doubtful parentage ; and if there is one better 

 looking than others in the whole lot, be sure he is not 

 worth his porridge. It is said that we have reached 

 the height of perfection in breeding foxhounds ; and 

 yet at the late Yorkshire Hound Show, representing 

 twenty odd kennels, and containing over eighty 

 couples, the best looking out of each pack, selected, 



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