SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 219 



enabled to creep under them, and in gorse-coverts 

 he has on this account a decided advantage over 

 larger hounds. In a flinty country also he can 

 travel much more easily, where weight tells against 

 a big one by his feet being sadly bruised against 

 these sharp obstacles lying so thickly over the 

 fields. The late Mr. Ward, it is true, hunted the 

 Craven country for many years with a very large 

 and heavy sort the largest pack of foxhounds in 

 those days ; but he must have known and seen 

 that they were little adapted to the country from 

 the number of lame hounds always in hospital 

 during the season ; and in dry weather a third of 

 the hunting pack would become invalided, after a 

 hard day, with bruised feet, the only remedy for 

 which used by their huntsman was to let out the 

 blood from the ball of the foot, by means of a sharp 

 incision of his penknife. Through this surgical 

 operation the hound was of course unfitted for 

 work again until the wound healed. There were 

 two reasons for Mr. Ward persevering with this 

 large sort of hound in such a country. The first, 

 that he had, throughout his earlier career as M.F.H., 

 been accustomed to breed hounds of large size, well 

 suited to the grazing districts he had previously 

 hunted, and on changing countries he did not choose 

 to change his style of hound. 



Perhaps there was another, not confessed, although 

 suspected : knowing heavy hounds could not run 

 away from him when more advanced in years, and 

 become slower himself over those flints and fal- 

 lows ; in confirmation of which we remember a 



