The Foxhound. 47 



which finds such favour in our land. Squire Osbal- 

 deston, Colonel Thornton, Mr. John Musters, and 

 others of a past generation owned hounds that, 

 either collectively or individually, could not be sur- 

 passed. With so much attention given to them, it 

 was no wonder a great writer on the subject arose, 

 and in 1810 we have Peter Beckford's magnum 

 opus, which, so far as it goes, has had no rival in 

 its complete description of the foxhound, its work 

 and management. And what he wrote of him is 

 equally true to-day, for no hound or dog has changed 

 so little in appearance and character during a century, 

 as the foxhound. There have been no crazes for 

 fashionable colour, or for head formed, or ears 

 hung, on purely fanciful principles. Hunters wanted 

 a dog for work, they soon provided one, and have 

 kept and sustained that animal for the purpose. 



The work a foxhound has often to undergo is of 

 the most arduous description, he is repeatedly on his 

 legs for eight or ten hours at a stretch, often gallop- 

 ing a great portion of that time, or may be doing 

 more laborious work in the thick coverts, or even 

 walking on the hard road to or from the meet. 



Though not bred with great precision and with such 

 care for pedigrees, as is the case with fashionable 

 packs, there are lightly built hounds hunting in the 

 mountainous districts of Cumberland and Westmor- 



