FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



middle weight (lucky men !) may easily mount 

 themselves for about these figures ; but of course 

 when they promote themselves to a fast pace and 

 a big jumping country, they must expect to pay 

 accordingly. We are not now considering those 

 matters, but providing for a line where fences do 

 not run (or need not run) over three feet six 

 inches to four feet, as a general thing, that be- 

 ginners may be encouraged, and not dismayed 

 or hurt by celerity of progress or altitude of 

 obstacle. 



" Draft hounds " may be procured from any 

 established pack for next to nothing, often two or 

 three dollars each, especially if several couple are 

 taken, and, for a beginning, almost "any old 

 thing " that will gallop and hunt will answer. 

 "Babblers," "skirters," non-hunters (so that they 

 go along with the rest), anything will do at first, 

 and as experience teaches and knowledge increases, 

 so the pack may be re-drafted and improved along 

 reasonable, sensible, and economical lines. Eng- 

 lish hounds are always to be preferred for such 

 work, and for the handling of the neophyte 

 master, as, both by inheritance and education, 

 they "pack" better, are more manageable on 

 road and in kennel, more picturesque in appear- 



256 



