HUNTING TOURS. 323 



tbe late Sir E. Smythe, of Acton Burnell, as 

 the Shropshire Hounds changed masters he 

 was in the employ of Mr. Smythe Owen, 

 Lord Hill, and Mr. T. C. Eyton. He was 

 also at one period with the Worcestershire, 

 and with the Cottesmore; in Ireland some 

 ten or twelve seasons, and came to hunt 

 these hounds in 1860. 



It is only by carefully investigating the 

 properties, qualifications, propensities, and 

 constitutions of predecessors that success can 

 reasonably be expected to follow the arduous 

 undertaking of breeding a pack of hounds, and 

 these are details which Mr. North and his 

 huntsman very sedulously regard ; indeed, it is 

 very seldom that I have met with any one more 

 thoroughly conversant with the pedigrees of 

 hounds than Matthews. The ancestors of the 

 present pack were got together by Mr. New- 

 ton Fellowes, as already mentioned, upwards 

 of thirty years ago, but that gentleman's suc- 

 cessor, Mr. Russell, only hunting three days 

 in the week, reduced their numbers, which 

 were again restored by Mr. Thornhill, prin- 

 cipally from Lord Lonsdale's kennels, which 

 stood in high repute for large hounds. The 

 favourite blood of Tarquin and Saffron has 



