182 HUNTING TOURS. 



must be understood, with the exception of 

 those from Mr. Drake, were selections, not 

 drafts, from which it is a fallacy to suppose 

 that any man can form an efficient pack for 

 very many years. On the subjects of drafts 

 I will quote an extract from a letter of a very 

 eminent master of hounds, who writes : — 

 *' Except some old family packs, very few can 

 call themselves self-constituted, and all who 

 have anything to do with the breeding of 

 hounds, know that on such packs only can 

 reliance be placed for keeping up the fox- 

 hound in his full excellence, not merely of 

 form and substance, but of the more material 

 points of nose and staunchness." I will, how- 

 ever, venture to introduce a remark on this 

 subject, for even in the old-established packs 

 there are certain strains of blood which run 

 in families so much more valuable for the 

 powers of transmitting good qualities to their 

 progeny, that it is only by the exercise of 

 great judgment and experience, that the 

 satisfactory results will follow. 



Of late years the Heythrop have never 

 made up their entry from other packs, and to 

 Hills is due all the credit of making them 

 what they now are. He has not roamed pro- 



