CHAPTER II. 

 THE FOXHOUND. 



THE most perfect of his race is the foxhound 

 perfect in shape, in pace, in nose, in courage. Not 

 one of his canine companions is his equal, for in 

 addition to his merits as a mere quadruped, as a 

 hound he is the reason for the maintenance of 

 expensive establishments, for the breeding of high 

 class horses, and generally for giving an impetus 

 to trade and causing a " turnover," without which 

 the agriculturist might starve and the greatness of 

 our country be placed in peril. Our bravest soldiers 

 have been foxhunters ; our most successful men 

 in almost every walk of commerce have had their 

 characters moulded in the hunting field, or later in 

 life have regained their shattered health by gallops 

 after hounds across the green meadows of the 

 Midlands or along the broad acres of Yorkshire. 



At the present time there are over 190 packs of 

 foxhounds hunting regularly in the various districts of 

 Great Britain, and I am well within the mark when I 



