Welsh Hounds. i8' 



them about six times before you can get them off a 

 fox's line, and they will break away and rush at a 

 covert through all the whips that ever rode and 

 holloaed. But did not Whyte Melville write of his 

 typical hound that 



Rating and whipcord he treated with scorn ? 



Independent, wilful, determined they are, and not 

 the sort to be ' tufters ' staghunting, and stand still 

 politely at the crack of a thong. Shy they are not. 

 If shyness were one of their weak points, would they 

 stand the crowds out otter hunting, or would those 

 two bitches by Llangibby Danger and Sultan, to 

 borrow ' Brooksby's ' words, ' in fair weather and 

 foul, on a cold scent or a hot one,' have gone to the 

 front with the Pytchley ? No, they would have 

 come home post haste to Wales to recount how 

 those terrible ' fields ' of the shires rode over their 

 sensitive sterns. 



" And now as to their babbling when casting for a 

 line. I think I speak correctly when I say that this 

 fault is rare. I have often seen Welsh hounds mad 

 to begin work, hardly restrained by the whips, 

 throwing their tongues all the way from the meet 

 to the first draw. Allowed to go, I have often seen 

 them rush with a crash of music, at the fence of the 

 covert. Once inside, silence reigns until one of 



