FORM BREEDING ANECDOTE. 



utmost consequence to have his dogs good in their kind, of good ages, well trained, 

 well hunted, and well kept ; for the expense of a pack of hounds is a serious one, 

 demanding another guise remuneration than disappointment. In general, over- 

 sized hounds of whatever variety, are ill formed, and therefore defective in quali- 

 fication ; thence the middle size has always been preferred, and this animal, like 

 the horse, should be selected, with the union of as much perfection of form as cai 

 be attained, the most important or cardinal points being chiefly considered. 

 Head not too thick, open nostrils, high crest, deep shoulder, back strong an< 

 straight, rising towards broad fillets, huckle-bones round and hidden, tail higl 

 long, and rush-grown, or big at the lower end and tapering; legs flat, largt 

 boney, and lean, thighs and fore arms long, broad and muscular and well apart 

 foot round, high-knuckled and well clawed, with a dry and hard soal : of a houi 

 thus formed, it will be difficult to determine by a level rule, whether his fore 

 hinder part be the higher. The hair under the belly of the hound being hai 

 and wiry, denotes constitutional hardiness. Our present fashionable Fox-hoiufls 

 are of a far more slight and Greyhound-like form than the above descripti^i, 

 which however may serve to pourtray a hound of sufficient swiftness, for aty 

 country or purpose, with the possession of some desirable qualities in which /he 

 former is deficient. 



The Sportsman, at the outset, may be compelled to purchase, by which, howler, 

 he will not expect to obtain a complete and faultless pack, few persons, except on 

 very particular occasions, being inclined to dispose of capital hounds at almost any 

 price. Breeding, then, is the mean of arriving at a superior stock, and thit re- 

 quires a judicious and fortunate choice of males and females, and the patieif and 

 persevering attention of a number of years for the completion of the object. Firther, 

 great taste and skill are required in the proprietor himself; qualifications which 

 do not always enter into the composition of a HUNTSMAN, who never performs his 

 duty with such consummate ability, as when he has a Master capable of directing 

 him in essentials : one great branch of these is provision for the full support, the 

 comfort, the gay, vigorous, and full-toned appearance of the inhabitants of the 

 kennel. On this head, we will present our Sporting friends with a shining con- 

 trast, from our only Monthly Repository, the SPORTING MAGAZINE, date Sept. 

 1819, which on enquiry, turns out to be a shabby fact. 



INHUMANITY TO DOGS.---" Passing by a Kennel of Hounds this morning, with 

 which I have frequently enjoyed a day's sport in the Hunting Season, I suddenly 

 missed one of my dogs : seeing the Kennel door open, I naturally entered it for 

 the purpose of seeking him. I found him in the Court-yard, in company with 

 the Terriers belonging to the pack, together with a Pointer dog, and a bitch 

 which had whelps in an adjoining place. The Terriers looked wretchedly poor ; 

 and I was induced to ask a little boy who was there, what they had to eat. ' O,' 



K 



