The Burton and the Blankney. 41 



only at tlieir best. It is argued^ iu fact, that to the 

 hound as much as to the horse applies the aphorism 

 that an ounce of blood is worth a pound of bone. 

 To what extent this may be successfully carried, we 

 do not pretend to say. Certain it is that the 

 experiment is here a high one : and so far from any 

 failure being' recorded, the theory is maintained to be 

 proved. It is asserted that no virtue has been lost, 

 no power of wear and tear sacrificed ; but that, like a 

 thoroughbred horse, a hound of this type has twice 

 the endurance of one of meaner blood and more 

 cumbrous build. Bone, ho7ie doicn to the feet, has 

 been the common kennel cry of late years ; and every 

 hound-show has seen the judges more exacting than 

 before on this point. But you would go to the 

 Blankney kennels rather to look upon beautiful heads 

 and necks, to fill your eye with clean-cut shoulders, 

 and to see hig-h breeding* typified. Drive and dash 

 are, perhaps, their most conspicuous characteristics in 

 the field ; though, that selection has not induced these 

 qualities only, to the extinction of others equally 

 important, may quickly be gathered by watching 

 them on a cold-scenting afternoon. That is the time 

 to which their admirers point, as proving the truth 

 of the principles on which the pack has been built. 

 " That is the time,'' they say^ " which shows how 

 blood can stay ! '^ 



Both kennels are within easy riding distance of 

 Lincoln — the Burton at Eeepham, a station on the 

 Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln line, four miles to 

 the north-east ; the other ten miles to the south-east, 

 at Mr. Chaplin's seat at Blankney. The two countries 



