THE HORSE. 231 



pass with general approbation. Indeed, it did not ; 

 many struggled for the old leaven, with which them- 

 selves, their sires, and grandsires, had leavened their 

 daily bread of hunting ; insisting, that the acquisition 

 of mere speed was literally Irish, and gaining a loss — 

 that hunting ought not to be racing — that the confu- 

 sion and hurry of spirits, or temporary madness, in- 

 duced by flying, instead of fairly galloping over the 

 country, entirely neutralized all the legitimate plea- 

 sures of the chace — that the melodious and deep toned 

 or cheering harmony of the old hunt was lost, in 

 riding to a pack of dumb hounds, which, even did 

 they possess tongue, from their excessive speed, 

 would have no time to use it: lastly, it was the 

 opinion of these dissentients, that one of the chief 

 qualifications of this new and speedy breed of hounds 

 was their superior ability to run horses to death in 

 the field. 



Whilst writing a book, some few years since, inti- 

 tled the " Sportsman's Repository," in which there 

 are excellent engravings by the late Scott, I endea- 

 voured to trace the origin and breed of most of our 

 sporting dogs, and should have been extremely glad 

 to have obtained information as to the precise date of 

 the improvement of the hound to which I have just 

 adverted, and also of the names of the sportsmen who 

 worked the improvement ; but I could obtain nothing 

 definite or satisfactory, even from Colonel Thornton, 

 which leads me to conjecture that it may have occur- 

 red earlier than I have stated. It, however, most 

 probably originated in the sporting days of that 

 prince, among British Nimrods, Hugo Meynell, 

 with equal probability under his direction ; since the 



