218 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



or Rambler. There is but one sad side to 

 the pleasure, and that is that the affections 

 lavished upon the maturing visitor are bound 

 very soon to receive the shock of necessary 

 severance. Young Foxhounds are not less 

 mischievous than the puppies of other 

 breeds, but neither are they less winning, 

 and when the time comes for the sturdy 



stones, sharing his bread and cheese at 

 noon, and certain of a good supper at night. 

 She proved the best of the bitch entry, 

 and the cup went to the stone-breaker. 

 Lord Middleton kindly thought that a 

 five-pound note would be more acceptable 

 than the cup, and so sent that proposal. 

 " Na, na," said the road-maker, " I might 



FOXHOUND PUPPIES OF THE LANARK AND RENFREW HUNT. 

 Photograph by C. Reid, Wishaw. 



youngster to be removed to the kennels 

 and entered, one forgets his juvenile in- 

 discretions as 



"... the days went by and the bundle grew, 

 And broke the commandments and stole and 



slew, 



And covered the lawn with a varied loot, 

 Of fowl and feather and bone and bpot ; 

 And scratched in the garden a hundred holes, 

 And wearied our bodies and damned our souls." 



And his departure is not seldom accom- 

 panied by a surreptitious tear. 



In the times of Assheton Smith, and even 

 in those of Lord Henry Bentinck, the puppy 

 walking was all done for honour and glory, 

 but of late years three or four silver cups 

 are presented to those rearing the best. 

 This new development has added to the 

 spirit of the cause. A couple or three years 

 back a puppy was taken by an old stone- 

 breaker in Lord Middleton's hunt. The 

 little thing in her small days would lie 

 upon his coat all day on a near heap of 



spend the money, but the coup I'll keep in 

 memory of her." 



This is the English view in all classes 

 towards the Foxhound, and he is no ordinary 

 animal to be the national favourite. He 

 has been brought to wonderful perfection 

 in beauty and frame, he is quite untire- 

 able ; foxes may run for miles through 

 parishes and almost counties, to bring 

 horses to every kind of grief and distress, 

 but the hounds will not be beaten. They 

 will be always showing the same dash over 

 plough or pasture, ridge or furrow, and 

 leave every kind of fence behind them, amid 

 a music of their own which is charming. 



THE STAGHOUND. 



THERE is very little purpose in saying much 

 about the old Staghound. He practically 

 ceased to exist some sixty or seventy years 

 ago. A writer under the nom de guerre of 

 " Shamrock " in the New Sporting Maga- 

 zine of April, 1840, asserted that the Massy- 



