oo6 THE HOUND. 



every sportsman ought to read, as it gives so pleas- 

 ing a picture of a country life. 



Names. — The naming of hounds and horses has 

 nearly exhausted human invention, as well as clas- 

 sical research. Beckford furnishes a list of more 

 than eight hundred names for hounds, alphabeti- 

 cally arranged. But the naming of hounds is some- 

 what under metrical control ; for it is not only 

 confined to words of two and three syllables, but 

 their quantity, or rather their time, must be con- 

 sulted. For example, a dactyl, as Lucifer^ answers 

 well for the latter ; but who could holloa to Aurora .^ 

 a trochee, or an iambus, is necessary for the for- 

 mer, the spondee dwelling too long on the tongue 

 to be applied smartly to a hound. But there ought 

 to be a nomenclator, as of old, at every kennel 

 door ; for it is but few persons unconnected with a 

 pack that can recollect their names until after a 

 rather long acquaintance with them, from the great 

 similarity of form, character, as well as sometimes 

 of colour, in old-established kennels. " How is it 

 possible," said a young master of fox-hounds a few 

 years ago, " that I should distinguish every hound 

 in my kennel by his name, when I find three spots 

 on one side of their body, and five perhaps on the 

 other r** There have been, however, and still are, 

 persons who can see a large kennel of hounds once 

 drawn to their feeding troughs, and call them all 

 by their names afterwards, the result alone of a 

 keen and practised eye. 



The price of hounds is strangely altered within 



