The Foxhound. 57 



other quarry. There Is some amount of uncertainty^ 

 as to the earhest date when hounds were kept 

 solely for the chase of the fox. I quite agree 

 with that painstaking and researchful writer, Mr. 

 W. C. A. Blew, who, in his new edition of '* Notitia 

 Venatica,'' ascribes the earliest date to a few years- 

 prior to 1689; for at that time the Charlton Hunt 

 in Sussex, conducted by Mr. Roper, who managed 

 the hounds for the ill-fated Duke of Monmouth 

 and Earl Grey, hunted the fox. Particulars of this 

 appear in the fifteenth volume of the "Sussex 

 Archaeological Collection." In 1750 the Charlton, 

 were called the Goodwood. 



In the Field of Nov. 6, 1875, there is an illustra- 

 tion of an old hunting horn, at that time in the 

 possession of Mr. Reginald Corbet, master of the 

 South Cheshire hounds. On it there is the foU 

 lowing inscription: ''Thomas Boothby, Esq., Tooley^ 

 Park, Leicester. With this horn he hunted the first 

 pack of foxhounds then in England fifty-five years. 

 Born 1677, died 1752." Here is another early date, 

 and where could be found plainer proofs, though some 

 writers have thrown discredit on them because they 

 thought it possible these hounds occasionally hunted 

 any out-lying deer that might be doing damage to the 

 farmer's crops. As well say some of our modern 

 harriers are not harriers because, when the legitimate 



