THE LOUTH HOUNDS. t I I 



CHAPTER V. 



THE LOUTH HOUNDS.* 



Few occupations are so congenial to my taste as that 

 of inspecting a pack of hounds on the "flags," and 

 every true and devoted lover of the " noble science " 

 will coincide with me in thinking that a sportsman can 

 desire no greater pleasure. I fear I could not find so 

 many to agree with me on this point (if they would 

 make an honest confession) as in the days of our fore- 

 fathers. I am not going to write about the degeneracy 

 of the age, or to affirm that hunting and other manly 

 sports and pastimes are not now as formerly, or that 

 the breed of horses and hounds are deteriorating. 

 Our canine pets — foxhounds, staghounds, greyhounds, 

 and others — have all been improved in every particular 

 by judicious breeding and management within the 

 last quarter of a century. Some fifty years ago there 

 were no foxhounds in the country except the slow old 

 Irish breed, whereas now we may see in almost every 

 kennel in the land hounds perfect in symmetry and 

 faultless in shape, descended from importations from 

 the kennels of such hunting celebrities as the Duke 

 of Beauford, Lords Henry Bentinck, Portsmouth, 



* This chapter, and a part of my biography of Henry, Marquis 

 of Waterford, and of the chapters on the Meath, Westmeath, and 

 Queen's County Hounds, were published in the Irish Sportsman 

 some months ago. They were written by me for that paper under 

 the nom de pluine of " Harkaway." 



