72 SECOND DIVISION OF THE 



return to their proper work. The difference in the scent, and the eager- 

 ness of pursuit, and the noise that accompanies fox-hunting all contribute 

 to spoil a harrier. 



Mr. Beckford pleasingly expresses a sportsman's consideration for the 

 poor animal which he is hunting to death. " A hare," he says, " is a 

 timorous little animal that we cannot help feeling some compassion for 

 at the time that we are pursuing her destruction. We should give scope 

 to all her little tricks, nor kill her foully nor overmatched. Instinct 

 instructs her to make a good defence when not unfairly treated, and I 

 will venture to say that, as far as her own safety is concerned, she has 

 more cunning than the fox, and makes shifts to save her life far beyond 

 all his artifice." a 



THE FOX-HOUND 



is of a middle size, between the harrier and the stag-hound ; it is the old 

 English hound, sufficiently crossed with the greyhound to give him light- 

 ness and speed without impairing his scent ; and he has now been bred 

 to a degree of speed sufficient to satisfy the man who holds his neck 

 at the least possible price, and with which few, except thorough-bred 

 horses, and not all of them, can live to the end of the chace. The fox- 

 hound is lighter, or, as it is now called, more highly bred, or he retains 

 a greater portion of his original size and heaviness, according to the 

 nature of the country and the fancy of the master of the pack : there- 

 fore it is difficult to give an accurate description of the best variety of 

 this dog; but there are guiding points which can never be forgotten 

 without serious injury. 



He derives from the greyhound a head somewhat smaller and longer 

 in proportion to his size than either the stag-hound or the harrier. But 

 considerable caution is requisite here. The beauty of the head and face, 

 although usually accompanied by speed, must never be sacrificed to stout- 

 ness and power of scent. The object of the sportsman is to amalgamate 

 them, or rather to possess them all in the greatest possible degree. This 

 will generally be brought to a great degree of perfection if the sportsman 

 regards the general excellence of the dog rather than the perfection of 

 any particular point. The ears should not, comparatively speaking, be 

 so large as those of the stag-hound or the harrier ; but the neck should 

 be longer and lighter, the chest deep and capacious, the fore legs straight 

 as arrows, and the hind ones well bent at the hock. 



Some extraordinary accounts have been given of the speed of the fox- 

 hound. A match that was run over the Beacon Course at Newmarket is 

 the best illustration of his fleetness. The distance is 4 miles 1 furlong 

 and 132 yards. The winning dog performed it in 8 minutes and a few 

 seconds ; but of the sixty horses that started with the hounds only twelve 

 were able to run in with them. Flying Childers had run the same course 

 in 7 minutes and 30 seconds. 



" The size, or, as we should rather say, the height of a fox-hound, is a 

 point on which there has been much difference of opinion. Mr. Chule's 

 pack was three inches below the standard of Mr. Villebois', and four 

 inches below that of Mr. Warde's. The advocates of the former assert, 

 that they get better across a deep and strongly fenced country, while the 



a Beckford on Hunting, p. 1 50. 



