NOTITIA VENATICA. 101 



rally speedy aud strong, especially in loilly countries. Of slioulders 1 

 have spoken before ; if in the least upright, reject them at once. As 

 to hind-quarters, they should be chosen the same as a race-horse's, but 

 plain ones go well sometimes. The houghs should be near the ground, 

 angular and bony ; what are termed sickle houghs are generally weak ; 

 at any rate they are very unsightly, although they may sometimes stand. 

 Hounds which are loaded about the neck, or fleshy under the throat, or, 

 as it is generally termed, throaty, are usually found to be slow, patient 

 hunters, but not quick enough for modern fox-hunting ; and I have, 

 moreover, frequently observed that where extreme elegance of form ex- 

 isted about the head and neck, the possessor was, nine times in ten, a 

 rogue, when he had the opportunity of so distinguishing himself. The 

 form of a hound's foot should be round and compact, like that of a cat ; 

 and although some sportsmen fancy that a more open foot is more capa- 

 ble of enduring hard work, my experience has always led me to prefer 

 round hard feet, especially in a flinty country, and I am convinced that 

 hounds which have too open feet are continually laming themselves in 

 climbing banks, and in various other ways getting them chafed and in- 

 jured. A hound ought to carry his stern up, and slightly curved over 

 his back, although many excellent hounds travel with them level with 

 their houghs ; nor would I reject a curly-sterned hound, if good in other 

 I'espects, for the sake of one of the best and truest hunters I ever knew, 

 and that was Osbaldeston's old Rambler. As to their tongues, Ave can 

 say nothing about that point till they are entered and tried ; they must 

 then learn to " speak out," and as an old writer has it, " with such 

 tuneful notes to assemble their fellows, and give tidings to their master, " 

 when they have got master reynard on his legs, or, as Will Price once 

 expressed himself to me, they should have " a nice 'ticing tongue" to 

 call the others to the line. 



The most extensive breeders of hounds of the present day are the 

 Dukes of Rutland and Beaufort, the Earls of Yarborough* and Fitz- 

 Avilliam,t Lord Fitzhardinge (late Lord Segrave), Sir Tatton Sykes, and 

 the master of the Cheshire hounds. Numerous other noblemen and gentle- 

 men depend upon the produce of their own kennel for the rising gene- 

 ration ; but the number of puppies put out to quarters is by no means 

 so great, and consequently the annual draft from them are not of tliem- 



* The Yarborough or Brocklesby houads (taking their title from the name of the 

 S3al of the Pelham family) were established considerably upwards of an hundred and 

 fifty years ago ; and it was under the auspices of the first Lord Yarbro' that the 

 character of the pack rose to the high pinnacle of fame to which it has so justly 

 attained, his lordship being, at the lime of his decease, the " father of the field." 

 This nobleman was also a rival, although a friendly one, of the celebrated Mr. Mey- 

 nel, of Quorndon. One of the not least remarkable features connected with these 

 hounds is, that the office of huntsman has descended through the same family of 

 Smiths for four, if not five, generations. The present huntsman has only hunted 

 these hounds two seasons : his father, who had filled the office before him for about 

 twenty-five years, being killed by a fall in hunting, which fractured his spine, while 

 leaping a ditch in the parish of Bariioldby le Beck, near Grimsby. 



t The Earl of Fitzvvilliam's hounds are descended directly from that pack pur- 

 chased from Mr. F0I17 and Mr Crewe (afterwards Lord Crewe), who bought them 



