192 Modern Dogs. 



qualities of their hounds cannot be benefited by the 

 cross, their reluctance to try it is intelligible, for 

 most assuredly the Welsh blood will not improve the 

 appearance of their packs ; but can they be thus 

 sure without a fair trial ? I think not." 



About the same time, '' Cymru Bach," who also 

 thoroughly understood what he was writing about, 

 said : "As a Welshman who has hunted Welsh 

 hounds all the year round for some fifteen years, 

 the epitaph on the tomb of my father's old hunts- 

 man, containing the following doggerel, defines the 

 various sports : — 



Here lies old Rice, a huntsman nice, 



Who cares for neither fox, hare, or otter ; 



His hounds he'd feed whene'er they'd need. 

 With horseflesh from the slaughter. 



And he hunted all in their turn, with an occasional 

 moonlight diversion after a badger. . . . Were 

 I still hunting in Wales I would have none other 

 than Welsh hounds, considering them to be more 

 suitable to the country than the English, which, 

 from high breeding, high feeding, or continual 

 lifting to get out of the way of the modern 

 steeplechaser, have not such good noses as the 

 Welsh hounds. In England I should be very glad 

 to see a judicious cross to help to remedy this 

 serious defect ; but this will never be as long as 



