SYMMETRY OF THE FOX-HOUND. SSo 



nose. Beckford also says the neck should be thin. 

 We would add, moderateltf thin. We dislike a thin 

 neck in any animal but the cow or the stag ; at 

 the same time we dislike a short, thick neck in a 

 hound. His neck should be moderately long and 

 moderately thick, with the muscles clearly devel- 

 oped ; it should rise gracefully out of his shoulders, 

 with a slight curve or crest, and, to completely 

 satisfy the eye, should be quite free from exuber- 

 ances of flesh and hair on the lower side of it, called 

 by huntsmen " chitterlings,*'^ or '' ruffles,'^ the hound 

 having them being termed "throaty;" although 

 there are numerous exceptions to this rule, as some 

 of the best hounds England ever saw have been 

 throaty ; and although we are aware that one in- 

 dividual instance will prove neither the rule nor its 

 exception, we can go as far back as to Mr. Mey- 

 nelFs famous stallion hound Gusman, for as throaty, 

 and yet as good a fox-hound as we ever remember 

 to have seen. We agree with Beckford, that the 

 " tail,""* now called stern, of a hound, should be 

 " thick," and moderately " brushy;" and if well 

 carried, it is a great ornament to a fox-hound. 

 But there is one part of it which the master of a 

 pack likes to see nearly deprived of its covering, 

 and that is its tip, which, when in that state, is an 

 infallible proof of a hound being a good, and not a 

 slack, drawer of covers. As a perfect model we re- 

 fer to the portrait of Nosegay, a hound belonging 

 to the Earl of Kintore. A comparison of this hand- 

 some animal, with that which we subjoin in a wood- 



