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That the cry of hounds is a voluntary noise, proceeding 

 from a powerful organic impulse, is quite apparent, as is 

 also the purpose for which the impulse is given, namely, 

 to announce their having discovered the scent of an animal, 

 either obnoxious to their notice, or desirable as food ; and 

 also by calling their straggling companions together and 

 uniting their forces, the better to enable them to secure 

 their prey. On the other hand, here is mercy shown 

 to the prey they are in pursuit of. The tongue of the 

 hound gives notice of his approach ; and he does not 

 pounce upon his victim as the silent greyhound does, 

 which Gratius, in his poem on coursing, alludes to in the 

 following line : 



'Sic canis ilia suos taciturna supervenit hostes.' 



" But the cry of hounds, melodious and heart-stirring 

 as it even now is, lias lost much of its poetical interest 

 from the change man has made in the natural organization 

 of the animal from which it proceeds ; and we shall never 

 again hear of a master of a pack, after the manner of 

 Addison's knight, returning a hound that had been givea 

 to him as an ' excellent bass,' whereas the note he wanted 

 was a 'counter tenor.' Beckford, however, was something 

 of the worthy knight's opinion on this point, for he says, 

 ' If we attended more than we do to the variety of the notes 

 frequently to be met with in the tongues of hounds, it 

 might add greatly to the harmony of the pack.' This is 

 well in theory. The natural organization of the dog is 

 musical ; he is, in fact, a victim to musical sensibility, 

 and we may reasonably suppose that the notes of his 

 companions in the chase may be as pleasing to himself as 

 to his huntsman ; but I do not think a huntsman of this 

 day would draft a highly-bred and beautiful young bitch, 

 as good too as she looks to be, merely because her light 

 fox-hunting tongue might be somewhat drowned, and now 

 and then lost, in the general chorus of the pack. He 

 would rather say, ' Let every tongue be to a fox, and I 

 leave the rest to chance.' But on a good day for hearing 

 it (there is a wide difference in this respect), what natural 

 sound is more delightful and animating than that of 

 hounds in full cry, in the deep recesses of an echo-giving 

 wood 1 Neither would those writers who have availed 

 themselves of the beauty and sublimity which allusion to 

 sounds in nature stamp on their various compositions, have 



