400 HUNTING TOURS. 



an equal share and interest in the said 

 hounds." This curious and somewhat comp- 

 licated agreement specifies certain months in 

 the year during which the respective parties 

 are to keep at their proper costs and charges 

 sixteen couples of the said hounds, the hunts- 

 man, boy, and three horses. The agreement 

 was made for a term of five years, but there 

 appears no evidence of the arrangements 

 after that date. The manuscript lists of 

 hounds commence in 1746, at which period 

 they were in the sole possession of Mr. 

 Pelham. By the kindness of Lord Yar- 

 borough in allowing me a perusal of these 

 ancient relics I am enabled to make a vast 

 number of extracts and observations which 

 give an interesting insight of the progress 

 that has been made in an establishment which 

 justly ranks as the oldest in the kingdom. 

 The remarkable order in which these books 

 have been kept, together with the nume- 

 rous marginal remarks interspersed over a 

 lengthened period of time, explanatory of 

 occurrences connected with these and other 

 hounds, with their treatment and characters 

 occasionally described, affords a pleasing 

 example of the value of little notes, however 



