A Glance at the Evolution of a Foxhound 79 



" Fox-hunting, as we know it now, with its pace 

 and hard riding, its sumptuousness and refinement, 

 may be said to have come on with this century. . . . 

 Whether the sport is now what it was in the days 

 whose glories ' Nimrod ' has written of and Aiken 

 painted, it would be as ungenerous to ask as difficult 

 to answer." 



It was perhaps during the first twenty years of 

 the eighteenth century that hound breeding was 

 taken up with enthusiasm, whilst half a century later 

 it had really become a science. In speaking of the 

 evolution, most enthusiasts and authorities go back 

 to Mr J. Corbet's Trojan, whose date was about 

 1783. He was toasted, idolized, made the subject 

 of verse and song, pilgrimages were made to gaze 

 upon him, and Mr Corbet considered him infalhble 

 and incomparable. To Mr Hugo Me5mell, however, 

 if the history and legend of the chase speak the truth, 

 is due the beginning of the change in the character 

 of fox-hunting and the foxhound. He began to 

 breed hounds for pace and soon had some disciples. 

 It is generally admitted, too, that he was the one to 

 introduce the forward cast as the first cast, thus 

 encouraging dash, and at once saying good-bye to the 

 harrier and the old, slow-dwelling, scent-drimken, 

 Southern hounds. During the next quarter of a 

 century there were hound matches and races galore. 

 The evolution in pace was assured, and the real 



