The Foxhound. 69 



puppy, aged 14 months, for the purpose of trying my 

 hand at training a hound myself to compete with the 

 knowing ones, and thereby also increase the interest 

 in this really pretty sport, by watching my own 

 hound running among the others. In this way I 

 have seen a good deal of this sport, and remarked 

 the extraordinary speed attained by these hounds 

 over hilly and often very rough ground. The usual 

 time occupied in running one of our trails is from 

 twenty-three to twenty-eight minutes, the Hne being 

 circular so as to permit of a view, and to enable the 

 finish to take place as near as possible to the start. 



" Now when you come to discuss the length of 

 the trail, even with the men who have run it (and 

 who of necessity are intimately acquainted with the 

 ground), they will give you the most varied estimates 

 of the distance covered. You will be told seven, 

 eight, nine, or even ten miles. Only the week before 

 last there was a report of one of our trails in a local 

 paper : ' Distance, nine miles ; time, twenty-three 

 minutes.' The time given was correct, but in my 

 opinion the distance was vastly exaggerated. I 

 therefore determined to measure with a chain the 

 course on the fells over which my hound, in company 

 with two or three others (one, Mr. Stanley le 

 Fleming's Rattler, a first prize winner at Grasmere), 

 has been regularly run when exercising. 



