THE FOXHOUND 



On the straightest of tegs, and the roundest of feet. 

 With ribs like a frigate his timbers to meet. 

 With a fashion and fling and a form so complete. 

 That to see him dance over the flags is a treat. 



Whyte Melville. 



AS fine a picture of the ideal foxhound as one could wish to 

 put in print is conveyed by these words of Whyte Melville, 

 although the further reminder is necessary that fashion and form 

 without nose are in vain. The handsomest hound in the world is 

 a sorry impostor if he will not own to the line when scent is light. 

 Fox hunting is the essence of sport. There is nothing that can 

 equal it, looking at it all round. Big game shooting has its excite- 

 ments and hair breadth adventures, pig sticking in India, and hunting 

 the wild boar in France are recreations fit for men, but when we 

 come to consider the innumerable qualifications necessary to make 

 a good follower of hounds the palm must be assigned to fox hunting. 

 In the words of the immortal Mr. Jorrocks : " 'Unting is the sport 

 of kings, the image of war without its guilt, and only five-and- 

 twenty per cent, of its danger ! In that word ' 'unting,' wot a 



