HUNTING TOURS. 341 



his companions quickly join him with their 

 tuneful cry. 



A morning on the flags is to me a source 

 of great enjoyment, more especially so with 

 these hounds, having known the ancestry 

 of several of them from my boyish days. 

 Therefore, before describing them, it may be 

 well to give some little history connected with 

 that portion of the pack. Soon after the late 

 celebrated Mr. George Forester, of Willey 

 Park, in Shropshire, gave up his hounds, 

 which he kept about thirty years, during the 

 latter portion of the past and the early part 

 of the present century, a few couples of 

 hounds were kept by some of the sporting- 

 farmers in that neighbourhood, and eventually 

 under the auspices of the late Sir Richard 

 Acton, Bart., of Aldenham Park ; and they 

 procured some bloodhounds for the purpose 

 of hunting the deer that escaped from the 

 park. These the farmers took out to assist 

 in their foxhunting exploits, and the late 

 Lord Forester, anxious to encourage their 

 sporting tastes, procured for them three very 

 superior brood bitches from the Belvoir 

 kennels. These were crossed with the blood- 

 hound, and I can well remember hunting with 



