VARIETIES OF THE DOG. 



73 



admirers of the latter insist on their being better climbers of hills and 

 more active in cover. As to uniformity in size, it is by no means essential 

 to the well-doing of hounds in the field, and has been, disregarded by some 

 of our best sportsmen : Mr. Meynell never drafted a good hound on 

 account of his being over or under sized. The proper standard of height 

 in fox-hounds is from 21 to 22 inches for bitches, and from 23 to 24 for 

 dog-hounds. Mr. Warde's bitches, the best of the kind that our 

 country contained, were rather more than 23 inches. A few of his dogs 

 were 25 inches high. The amount of hounds annually bred will depend 

 upon the strength of the kennel. From sixty to eighty couples is the 

 complement for a four days a- week pack, which will require the breeding 

 of a hundred couples of puppies every year, allowing for accidents and 

 distemper." a 



THE FOX-HOUND. 



Nimrod very properly observes, that " Mr. Beckford has omitted a 

 point much thought of by the modern sportsmen, namely, the back-ribs, 

 which should also be deep, as in a strong-bodied horse, of which we say, 

 when so formed, that he has a good 'spur place;' a point highly esteemed 

 in him. Nor is he sufficiently descriptive of the hinder legs of the 

 hound ; for there is a length of thigh discernible in first-rate hounds which, 

 like the well-let-down hock of the horse, gives them much superiority of 

 speed, and is also a great security against their laming themselves in 

 leaping fences, which they are more apt to do when they become blown and 

 consequently weak. The fore legs, ' straight as arrows,' is an admirable 



a The Horse and the Hound, by Nimrod, p. 340. 



