THE FOXHOUND. 



215 



question whatever. The fact that from as able as ever, but the drawbacks to good 

 the very first they were both countenanced sport are more numerous now than they 

 and supported by such great sportsmen used to be. The noble hound will always 



as the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Willoughby 

 de Broke, and Mr. Robert Arkwright, was 



be good_enpugh, and ever and anon this is 

 shown by a run of the Great Wood order, to 



every hound will be up. There has been 



a certain guarantee that the policy of the hunt over five-and-twenty to thirty miles 

 show ring was correct and sound. Lord at a pace to settle all the horses, and yet 

 Willoughby de Broke gave the greatest 

 evidence of all this, as 

 in twenty-five years he 

 made the Warwickshire 

 to be as nearly as pos- 

 sible equal to the Bel- 

 voir, and he never missed 

 showing. He used such 

 champions as the Quorn 

 Alfred, the Fitzwilliam 

 Richmond, the Pytchley 

 Prompter, and others 

 seen on the Peter- 

 borough flags. Then 

 his lordship's own prize- 

 takers, Hermit, Wild- 

 boy, Furrier, Trampler, 

 Sampson, and many 

 more had the patronage 

 of the kingdom through 

 their good looks at 

 Peterborough. Lord 

 Willoughby's quiet re- 

 buke to a would - be 

 fault-finder that he was 

 not at all likely to 

 breed from or even to keep a faulty 

 hound was quite enough to show that only 



OLD BERKELEY FOXHOUNDS GEOFFREY AND HAWKER. 

 PROPERTY OF ROBERT LEADBETTER, ESQ., M.F.H. 



Photograph by Russell and Sons. 



a slight tendency to increase size of late 

 years. The Belvoir dog-hound is within 



the best were good enough for his lord- very little of 24 inches instead of 



ship. Splendidly managed by a strong 

 committee and most able secretary, Mr. 

 John Smart, who has held the post for 

 twenty-seven years, the Peterborough shows 



the standard of twenty years ago, and this 

 increase has become very general. In 

 elegance of form nothing has been lost, and 

 there can be no other to possess beauty 



afford excellent opportunities for seeing combined with power and the essential 



the best hounds and for breeders to com- 

 pare notes as to what they are breeding 

 themselves, and how other people are 



points for pace and endurance in the same 

 degree as a Foxhound. 



William Somerville's poetical description, 



breeding. At any rate, Foxhounds have written in 1735, still applies to the perfect 

 very much improved in looks during the Foxhound of to-day. 



past five-and-twenty years, and unques- 



"See there with countenance blithe, 



tionably they are quite as good in the field And with a courtly grin; the fawning hound 



or better. Whenever hounds have good Salutes thee cowering, his wide opening nose 



foxes in front of them, and good hunts- Upwards he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes 



men to assist or watch over them, they are Melt in soft blandishments, and humble joy ! 



