PETERBOROUGH 331 



Peterborough, where it has remained ever since. 

 The hound show has thus lasted forty years. 



Now forty years ago, except in a few packs, 

 the questions of straightness, of shoulders, feet, and 

 bone were very little thought of. Even famous 

 provincial packs were a very unlevel lot, and, to 

 use the words of the famous Bramham Moor 

 huntsman, Charles Treadwell, they were all "uncles 

 and aunts and cousins." But now all over the 

 country hounds are more level, straight hounds 

 are to be found in every pack, and the result is 

 that hounds wear better than they did years ago. 

 Of what use, it may be asked, is a hound with the 

 finest of noses if his shoulders are so upright that 

 they give way in his first or second season. I 

 think if I were to be asked what was the best fox- 

 hound I ever saw as a working hound, the hound 

 that entered the readiest and distinguished himself 

 the most during the early weeks of his first season, 

 I should name Bluecap, a hound whose pedigree I 

 forget. Bluecap came of a good strain ; he was 

 well ribbed, had good loins and quarters and 

 plenty of bone, but — his shoulders were upright. 

 He took to his work the first day he was out and 

 ran well at head, indeed he and a three -season 

 hunter were one or other of them always with the 

 lead, and it was a sight to see how Bluecap drove 

 on after his fox down the steep hill-sides of the 

 rough country in which he first was introduced to 

 the business of his life, and he was absolutely the 

 first to take the fox. Next time I was out I asked 

 for Bluecap, and was told he was slightly lame, 

 and by Christmas he was a cripple, and as such 

 condemned. I begged for his life, took him home 

 with me, and with the rest and the liberty he 



