HUNTING TOURS. 401 



unimportant some of them may appear at 

 the time, but yet abounding with valuable 

 information to a future generation. The first 

 year enumerates five couples of brood bitches ; 

 and a hound called Ringwood, supposed to 

 have been introduced from the Duke of 

 Richmond's kennels, was their most approved 

 partner ; likewise Streamer, from Lord 

 Awforth's (qy., Lord Althorp), and Bellman, 

 from the Duke of Grafton's; information which 

 assures us that those were fashionable kennels 

 of the age. The breeding department was 

 not extensive in those early days, and about 

 six couples appear to have been about the 

 average. Appertaining to 1752, but in the 

 handwriting of W. Smith, there is a mar- 

 ginal note in compliment to Rattler, "a 

 very famous hound in the late Mr. Pelham's 

 time and my grandfather's. He had a paint- 

 ing of hira very badly executed." This iden- 

 tifies Mr. Pelham as the master, and the 

 g-randfather of William Smith as the hunts- 

 man in the aforesaid year. There is a note, 

 in 1764, that the distemper first made its 

 appearance in these kennels, when they lost 

 thirteen couples of hounds. Four years 

 after this Mr. Meynell's Hounds came into 



