SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 57 



the two tips may be effected within one minute, 

 and the hound led back in his couples to the lodg- 

 ing-room. There is a great difference in the width 

 and length of foxhounds' ears ; some are of such 

 extent as to require excision all round, and others 

 so narrow that the tips only come under the iron ; 

 and this distinction in the ear, as well as the size 

 of the head, proves the two original species of 

 hound, still retaining their characteristics through 

 a variety of crosses, and after the lapse of many 

 centuries. 



The Northern hound was distinguished from the 

 Western and Southern by greater size, larger head, 

 deeper note, and finer nose, whereas the latter is 

 represented by ancient chroniclers of sports and 

 pastimes to have been more nimble of foot, lighter 

 form, and lighter tongue, but not endowed with 

 equal patience and perseverance, as his more stalwart 

 competitor in the chase. Some sportsmen have 

 gone the length of assuring us, that our finer-framed 

 foxhounds of the present age owe that neatness of 

 head, swanlike neck, depth of chest, and thinness of 

 stern, to an original cross with greyhound blood. 

 The greyhound shape is there, and moreover the 

 greyhound tongue and the greyhound ear ; but this 

 cross must have been of ancient date, since for more 

 than one hundred years pedigrees of foxhounds in 

 the large breeding kennels, from which minor es- 

 tablishments throughout the kingdom are supplied, 

 have been scrupulously and carefully registered in 

 their stud-book. Moreover, we know that hunting 

 qualifications were considered of the highest im- 



