PETERBOROUGH 329 



thereunto appertaining. Say they, " We have not 

 the sport which we used to have ; hounds are bred 

 entirely for appearance and not for work ; nose is 

 entirely neglected, and 'cry' is thought nothing 

 about. In fact, the show-yard standard is alone 

 considered when breeding hounds." To this I 

 am almost inclined to say with the celebrated Mr. 

 Birchill, " Fudge ! " 



Let us examine the objections of these critics 

 one by one. In the first place is it true that we 

 have not as good sport now as our ancestors 

 enjoyed ? I am inclined to think, taking the 

 altered circumstances under which hunting is 

 carried on, that we have. Short-running foxes 

 there are, and some of the reasons for this I have 

 already stated ; but short-running foxes are not to 

 be charged to the account of hounds. Given a 

 good stout fox, hounds hunt as well and chase as 

 hard as they did in the earlier years of the century, 

 and the Pools Osiers run with the Warwickshire, 

 and the Melbourne Hall run with the York and 

 Ainsty are worthy of a place beside the great 

 Billesdon Coplow run itself. It may be objected 

 that on these occasions there was a great scent. 

 Granted, but on many and many an occasion in 

 recent seasons I have seen hounds, when the field 

 would let them, hunt as closely as beagles when 

 scent served badly — seen them walk up to a fox 

 and then bustle him up for ten minutes, as I have 

 had occasion to relate. 1 As for the question of 

 cry, no one can deny that many packs are very 

 light tongued ; but pace the critics, this is not a 

 modern defect. It is many years since Sir Thomas 

 Mostyn hunted the Oxfordshire country, and his 



1 See page 321. 



