1 88 Modern Dogs. 



them crosses the drag. Let us have a clear 

 understanding as to the difference between speaking 

 on a drag and babbling. The Llangibby master 

 desires me to say that any hound that threw his 

 tongue while casting for a line would cease to be a 

 member of his establishment, for that, in his opinion 

 no fault could be worse. Speaking to a drag is an 

 entirely different thing. This the Welsh hounds do, 

 and, in fact, often hunt the drag of a fox for a 

 considerable distance, with abundance of music, up 

 to where he is lying. 



" The practice in vogue years ago was to drav/ a 

 mountain side or other likely ground very early in 

 the morning, and allow hounds to follow the steps a 

 fox had taken in the night until he was unkennelled. 

 I have heard old sportsmen say that this drag work 

 was the prettiest part of the day's hunting. 



" Nowadays, when hounds meet at ten or eleven 

 o'clock, and when foxes are far more abundant than 

 they used to be, the drag-hunting system is not 

 often tried. Nevertheless, it has been quite common 

 in recent years, and fairly late in the morning, to 

 hear such hounds as old Llangibby Wiseman and 

 Mr. Blandy Jenkins's Charmer, or the present 

 Llangibby Danger, speaking to the line of a last 

 night's fox, and their bell-toned comrades joining in 

 one after another, until a crash of voices, hoarse and 



