328 THE HOUND. 



as it were, one following the other, and yet killing 

 twenty-nine foxes in twenty-nine successive runs, 

 each fault being hit off by an old southern hound. 

 But what would our hard-riding, modern sportsmen 

 think of this as pastime? Nevertheless, all who 

 witnessed, as the writer of this article has done, 

 the style of hunting of the Devonshire stag-hounds, 

 will remember that there was a close similarity 

 between them in chase, and the pack Mr. Beck- 

 ford speaks of. But, as the same eminent author 

 afterwards observes, it is the dash of the fox-hound 

 of the present day that distinguishes him from all 

 others of his genus, and hounds must now-" carry 

 a-head." 



Breeding of Hounds.^ — The breeding a pack of 

 fox-hounds to a pitch bordering on perfection is a 

 task of no ordinary difficulty ; the best proof of 

 which is to be found in the few sportsmen who have 

 succeeded in it. Not only is every good quality to be 

 regarded, and if possible obtained, but every fault or 

 imperfection to be avoided ; and although the good 

 qualities of hounds are very soon reckoned, their 

 faults in shape and performance present a longer 

 catalogue. Independently of shape, which com- 

 bines strength with beauty, the highest virtue in 

 a fox-hound is not in the exquisiteness of his nose, 

 but in his being true to the line his game has gone, 

 and a stout runner to the end of a chase. But he 

 must not only thus signalize himself in chase ; he 

 must also be a patient hunter, with a cold scent, or 

 with the pack at fault. In short, to be a hard 



