The Staghound. 



which it is hoped will take a straighter line, affording 

 the hounds an opportunity for hunting, and, what in 

 modern times is unfortunately considered of more 

 importance, give horses a chance to gallop and 

 exhibit their jumping powers at the fences, or their 

 amiability in the lanes or on the roads. 



As a loyal subject, I ought to make some mention 

 here of Her Majesty's Staghounds or Buckhounds, 

 kept by the State, which, kennelled at Ascot, hunt 

 the country round about, where the overworked city 

 man seeks to regain his failing health by a gallop 

 over a highly cultivated country. The Royal pack 

 of forty couples, as at present constituted, may be 

 said to date back to 1812, when the Goodwood 

 foxhounds were presented to the Prince Regent, as 

 they were faster than the old-fashioned, lemon-pied 

 Southern hounds or talbots, the original constitution 

 of the pack. 



Of the original hounds, much has been written, 

 and in 1895 ^^ J- P- Hore published his "History 

 of the Royal Buckhounds." Without quite agree- 

 ing with all the painstaking compiler tells us as 

 to the antiquity of the hunt, there is no doubt buck- 

 hunting was a Royal sport even as early as the time 

 of Edward HI. In Queen Anne's time there were 

 two packs, and when Ehzabeth reigned, the hounds 

 cost the national exchequer ;^ 1 64 6s. "jd. They cost 



