Welsh Hounds. 189 



heavy, long-drawn and deep, shorter and higher 

 pitched, where EngHsh ancestry comes in to modify, 

 proclaims that an old traveller is on foot to try 

 conclusions with the relentless foes, ' the yell of 

 whose war cry is borne on the breeze.' 



'' But let all houndmen interested in my favourites 

 take notice that they are a dying race, as every year 

 passes fewer in number, more and more crossed with 

 English strains. Soon they will be ' improved off 

 the face of earth,' unless more lovers of such 

 antiquities are found. The policy of crossing with 

 English blood has been admirable up to a certain 

 point ; but the difficulty now is to find a real Welsh 

 hound to maintain the balance of qualities. They 

 are nearly all half, quarter, and eighth bred. Never- 

 theless, there is sufficient of the old-fashioned blood 

 in some South Wales kennels to preserve the old 

 reds and grizzles well into the next century, if some- 

 one would stick to breeding them without further 

 admixture of English blood." 



Another correspondent, signing himself '^ Welsh- 

 man," wrote : '' I am quite ready to admit that some 

 people may have noticed peculiarities in the Welsh 

 hound, such as ' speaking to a drag,' which must 

 have astonished them considerably. In days gone 

 by, when hounds were kept in Wales (as they are 

 now in some of the more mountainous and unride- 



