90 HUNTING THE FOX 



close together. His fore-ribs are deep, but not so 

 widely sprung as to push his shoulders forward. 

 The upward curve of the under-line is not unduly 

 pronounced, even when he has not been fed for 

 twenty-four hours. His muscular back is flat and 

 straight right up to the point where his feathery 

 and delicately curved stern is set on. The thighs 

 are wide and muscular, supported by straight hocks 

 near to the ground like his knees. His coat is 

 smooth, glossy, and so supple that you can pick 

 up a handful of it from his back and see it glide 

 back into its place the moment it is released. 



A Hound built on these lines would be difficult 

 to beat in any country. If, however, we wish to 

 perpetuate the type, the question arises whether 

 the mating of dogs and bitches of the middle size 

 may not tend to breed Hounds that are too small, 

 until eventually we get our Foxhounds as small 

 as harriers. There seems to be no danger of that 

 at present. " Keep your own hounds of the 

 middle size," said an old breeder, " and you 

 can always go to other kennels where they keep 

 big ones for a stallion hound." But the prob- 

 ability is that in many Kennels during the last 

 fifty years the more massive sort has become the 

 more fashionable. 



The celebrated Brocklesby Rallywood, entered in 

 1843, with Sir Richard Sutton's and Mr. Osbaldis- 

 ton's best blood in his veins, came to Belvoir in 



