The Otter Hound. 1 1 7 



were as invincible on the show bench as by the river. 

 Then " the Kendal " sprang up in the sister county, 

 and, with the late Mr. Wilson of Dallam Tower as 

 master, Troughton as huntsman, and having extra- 

 ordinary success in breeding young hounds, they took 

 all before them in the ring. Perhaps some of their 

 excellence might arise from the fact that the Hon. 

 Geoffrey Hill and Mr. Wilson, and later Mr. Tatter- 

 sail, interchanged services of their best stallion 

 hounds. 



The Kendal Ragman was particularly successful 

 at stud no one ever had a better hound at work, and 

 he lasted eight seasons. He was a black and tan, 

 rather short in coat to be quite right, but what there 

 was had an extraordinary texture, so hard and close 

 and crisp that I have seen the water standing in drops 

 thereon quite unable to penetrate the dense covering. 

 This hound it was I saw take the head of an otter right 

 in its jaws as the game came up for a breather close 

 to the bank upon which Ragman was standing. 

 The otter was very nearly finished outright ; it would 

 have quite killed any other animal, for the fangs of 

 the hound had gone deeply through the bone of the 

 skull, perhaps just missing what might have been a 

 vital part. These Kendal hounds were sold for 

 something over ^200 to Mr. Carnaby Forster, 

 of Tarporley, Cheshire, at the commencement of 



