242 FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE 



if you put them to torn cats, the puppies would 

 come right ! " It was an unconscious tribute 

 to the high standard of feet and legs in the kennel ; 

 and the services of a grand array of stallion hounds 

 are there available for the needs of any pack in 

 the United Kingdom, seeking quality, symmetry, 

 bone, constitution, power of frame — and hunting 

 abilities as a matter of course. The nicest science 

 has to be exercised when breeding a sire whose 

 blood will suit the matrons of his own kennel ; 

 and in doing so, at critical moments, Sir Gilbert 

 Greenall and Ben Capell have been most fortunate. 

 If it had been otherwise, the results would at once 

 have been disastrous ; for when a kennel arrives at 

 the zenith of its fame, only the most skilled expert, 

 backed by good fortune, can keep it there. To-day, 

 when hound breeding has improved in a marvellous 

 manner throughout the country, and many beautiful 

 packs have sprung into existence ; so that stallion 

 hounds are not hard to find as was once the case, 

 Belvoir sources are in greater demand than was 

 the case twenty years ago. 



On the occasion of our last visit, Ben Capell was 

 showing to quite a large party assembled on the 

 flags, assisted by the first whipper-in. Jack Hewitt ; 

 the dog-hounds being put forward in rotation. To 

 enjoy an hour or two so spent, it is necessary to 

 know something about the antecedents of this most 

 interesting family of foxhounds, bred out into 

 branches which never get very far away from the 

 parent tree. The gradual development of the 

 kennel from 1850— when WiU Goodall brought Rally- 

 wood from the Earl of Yarborough's kennel — has 

 been set forth at length in the preceding volume, 

 " Good Sport." ^ To-day the blood of Brocklesby 



1 See "Good Sport," vol. i., chap. xvii. 



