The Foxhound. 61 



that, according to his idea, were incomparable. The faults of even 

 good foxhounds must be, therefore, numerous far more so, I 

 expect, than the casual observer could detect, as faultless hounds, 

 it would appear, crop up in the smallest proportions in the lifetime 

 of a huntsman. Mr. Osbaldeston was generally in a position to 

 have the best of hounds only, as in the heyday of his career, at 

 any rate, he had an immense pack, hunted his own hounds six 

 days a week, and, in the style in which he rode over Leicestershire 

 and other countries, it can be fairly asserted that he was never 

 separated from them. It is said that he depended on his hounds 

 with a flying fox, speaking very little to them, but observing all 

 they did, and in strong gorse he went in with them himself, and 

 could make them hunt like spaniels. With all this experience, 

 though, Osbaldeston had one hound out of the many he had to 

 do with, of which he would speak with exceptional regard up to 

 the very time of his death. I remember it was told me that a 

 friend met the veteran in a billiard room, years after he had given 

 up hunting, and, the conversation drifting into matters of the 

 chase, the squire got upon the line of Furrier, and there was no 

 getting him off it. He expatiated on the merit of this hound as 

 the best ever bred ; and it must be remembered also that, when 

 Osbaldeston bred hounds, he supported his opinion by breeding 

 from this hound to such an extent that he could take a pack into 

 the field made up entirely of Furriers progeny. 



Harry Ayris lived, I think, sixty years with the Fitzhardinge 

 pack, and in an interview with him about fifteen years ago, when 

 the old fellow was over eighty, I put the question straight to him 

 as to the best hound he had ever seen. " Cromwell," was the 

 ready reply, "and no man ever hunted another like him." It was 

 difficult, then, to get Harry Ayris off the line of Cromwell ; and it 

 was no easier task to make the late John Walker believe that a 

 better foxhound had ever been bred than Sir Watkin Wynn's 

 Royal. Lord Henry Bentinck had several favourites, and, for the 

 benefit of those after him, he left a written record, showing how 

 these particular hounds excelled their fellows. This is in manu- 



