CHAPTER III 



PUPPY WALKING 



Unto thy choicest friends 

 Commit thy valued prize : the rustic dames 

 Shall at thy kennel wait, and in their laps 

 Receive thy growing hopes . . . 



and dignify their little charge 

 With some great title, and resounding name 

 Of high import. Somerville. 



The most superficial observer whose experience 

 has reached over a period of a score years cannot 

 fail to be struck with the marked improvement 

 which is shown in the modern foxhound. He has 

 lost that heavy, throaty appearance which at 

 one time prevailed ; badly placed shoulders such 

 as once passed muster are seldom, if ever, seen ; a 

 shoulder-shaken hound is almost unheard of. 



Now I do not wish to infer that the present 

 generation knows more about hounds than those 

 which have gone before it ; the " system of Mey- 

 nell " was not a creation of the nineteenth century, 

 and what one Peter Beckford did not know about 

 hunting was not worth knowing. So, long before 

 the present century put in an appearance, there 

 were packs of hounds as well managed both in the 

 shires and in the provinces as any are to-day. But 

 in the provinces but few hounds were bred, com- 



c 



