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CHAPTER X. 



On the Flags and in the Show Yard. 



Yorkshire has always been famous for its hounds. The 

 old chronicles are full of long runs which have taken place 

 over half a score of parishes, and which have given the bard 

 a subject for his ingenuity. In Yorkshire dales are still to 

 be heard, when occasion serves, songs of almost interminable 

 length, in which the stoutness of the foxes, the drive and 

 perseverance of the hounds, and the prowess of their 

 followers are expatiated upon in more or less happy terms, 

 but always to the delight of an appreciative audience, who 

 are never tired of listening, and who are ever ready to 

 prompt the singer if he shows signs of missing a verse. 

 And the old pictures show that make and shape were kept 

 in view as well as nose and hunting qualities ; and though, 

 perhaps, Colonel Thornton's hounds would not have cut a 

 very great figure at Peterborough, we know they showed 

 plenty of sport, whilst the portrait of Modish shows them 

 to have been good looking according to the standard of 

 their time. 



Of famous hunting matches in which Colonel Thornton's 

 hounds took part I have already spoken, but an incident 

 relating to one of them should certainly be referred to. 



