PREFACE 



Very little excuse need be offered for the production 

 of the present work, as the author believes that 

 hitherto no other small manual exclusively devoted 

 to hounds of the various kinds has been published. 



That elaborate and costly books upon the Fox- 

 hound and Greyhound have appeared from time to 

 time is indisputable, but such have never satisfied 

 the demand so frequently made for a book of general 

 utility within the grasp of the sportsman whose means 

 do not permit him to encompass the more pretentious 

 works devoted to this subject. Without fear of con- 

 tradiction, the " Hounds " afford sport not attainable 

 through any other varieties of the canine tribe, and 

 such " sport " constitutes indirectly the backbone 

 of the British Empire, calling, as it does in the 

 case of fox-hunting, for the exercise of quahfications 

 essentially manly — for pluck, for endurance, for skill, 

 and a commensurate respect for the equality, or it 

 may be superiority, of brother sportsmen. 



F. T. Barton. 



