AGE. 353 



the notes frequently to be met with in the tongues 

 of hounds, it might greatly add to the harmony of 

 the pack." This is well in theory. The natural 

 organisation of the dog is musical ; he is, in fact, a 

 victim to musical sensibility ; and we may reason- 

 ably suppose that the notes of his companions in 

 the chase may be as pleasing to himself as to his 

 huntsman ; but we more than doubt whether a 

 huntsman of this day would draft a highly -bred 

 and beautiful young bitch, as good too as she looks 

 to be, merely because her light, fox-hunting tongue 

 might be somewhat drowned, and now and then 

 lost, in the general chorus of the pack. He would 

 rather say, " Let every tongue he a fox^^ and I'll 

 leave the rest to chance." But, on a good day for 

 hearins: it, what natural sound is more delisrhtful 

 and animating than that of hounds in full cry, in 

 the deep recesses of an echo-giving wood I Neither 

 would those writers who have availed themselves of 

 the beauty and sublimity which allusions to sounds 

 in nature stamp on their various compositions, have 

 at all descended from their eminence if they had, 

 like Shakspeare, delighted as much in bringins: the 

 soul in contact with such a sound as this, as with 

 the rolling of the thunder, or the howling of the 

 storm. 



Age of Hounds. — The dog exhibits no exact 

 criteria of age after the first two years, during 



* " Ever\' tongue a fox," is a well kno^n sporting phrase, imply- 

 ing, that a hound should not throw his tongue, unless on the scent 

 of a fox, either on the drag or in chase. 



2g 



