HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



most like the modern foxhound, but heavier and 

 slower. The southern hound, now extinct, was 

 more like the bloodhound; he had a good nose, 

 long ears and a deep, bell-Hke note, and was used 

 for both hare and deer, but was too fast for one and 

 too slow for the other. The fox or northern beagle 

 resembled a small modern foxhound, and had long 

 been used in the bolting and smoking operations 

 which were the orthodox way of dealing with the 

 fox in the northern counties. He possessed great 

 dash, and the foot beagle of the present day owes 

 his many good qualities to this strain. It is from 

 crosses of the buckhound with the fox beagle, with 

 some slight admixture of the blood of the southern 

 hound and perhaps a dash of that of another 

 beagle, the blue mottled beagle, that the modern 

 foxhound has been evolved. 



This evolution of the modern hound was doubt- 

 less very gradual. The owners of the great packs of 

 buckhounds had learned the virtues of fox-hunting 

 from the smaller gentry, who one after another were 

 converting their trencher-fed harriers into packs 

 of foxhounds. At Badminton the tradition of the 

 conversion is still alive, and the date of the dis- 

 covery of the virtues of the fox as a beast of chase 

 is fixed definitely in the year 1762. In the winter of 

 that year the fifth Duke of Beaufort was passing 

 with his hounds through Silk Wood when a fox 

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