SEPARATION OP THE SEXES. So5 



in the kennel and in the field, the former are less 

 inclined to quarrel, and the latter are more at their 

 ease, than when subject to the constant, and, at 

 times, importunate solicitations, of the male sex. 

 Of their performances in the field, however, when 

 taken into it separately, some difference of opinion 

 exists ; and each sex has its advocates. With a 

 good fox before them, and a warm scent, bitches 

 are decidedly quicker, and more off-hand in their 

 work, than dog hounds ; but with a colder scent, 

 or at fault, the general opinion is, that they are not 

 so patient, and more given to over-run it. That 

 they are superior in " dash,'''' which, Beckford says, 

 is the distinctive characteristic of a fox-hound, we 

 believe is universally acknowledged ; and a cele- 

 brated master of hounds,* who hunted them him- 

 self in Leicestershire and other countries, has been 

 heard frequently to say, that if his kennel would 

 have afforded it, he would never have taken a dog 

 hound into the field. That, in the canine race, the 

 female has more of elegance and symmetry of form, 

 consequently more of speed, than the male, is evi- 

 dent to a common observer ; but there is nothing 

 to lead us to the conclusion, that, in the natural 

 endowment of the senses, any superiority exists. 

 It is, however, remarkable, that the Latins, when 

 speaking of hunting, or '' sporting dogs,'" as we 

 call them, generally use the feminine gender, one 

 instance of which is to be found in the second ode 

 of the fifth book of Horace {multa cane,) which ode 



'■' Sir Bellinghaui Graham, Bart, of Norton Conyers, Yorkshire. 



