The Sinnington. 319 



prototype, ever was : while, to sliow tliat he contrives 

 to mount himself in a style quite equal to his work, it 

 has only to be mentioned that for one of his two 

 present hunters he has repeatedly refused an offdr of a 

 hundred and twenty pounds. 



Some four-and-twenty couple of hounds constitute 

 the present Sinnington pack ; and the whole of these, 

 with the passing exception of a few brood-matrons 

 and whelps, are walked at out-quarters. Small kennels 

 have been built at Kirby Moorside ; whither the young 

 hounds are brought in March for preliminary disci- 

 pline, and where during the season the whole pack is 

 collected each day before hunting. It might be thought 

 that the latter would be a work of difficulty ; but it is 

 always effected with the greatest ease by Parker, and 

 his son, who go round the quarters each Monday and 

 Friday. The hounds know the object of the visit 

 perfectly; and are only too delighted to avail them- 

 selves of the expected outing. Should a hound be 

 absent with his foster-master when the kennel official 

 calls, he is nearly certain — if of any experience — to 

 recognise either that the visit has been made or that 

 the time has passed when it should have been ; so 

 trots off to the kennel of his own accord. The scent 

 that tells him of some of his comrades having passed 

 would probably be his clue in the former case. In the 

 latter he is only obeying the force of habit, and his 

 instinctive delight in the sport. Who shall say that 

 the faculties of a foxhound do not almost amount to 

 reasoning power, when it is added that, should the 

 weather appear so unfit for hunting that no steps are 

 taken to collect the pack, yet almost all the old hounds 



