THE STAGHOUND. 



219 



buck hounds was a crack pack in the Baron Rothschild's hunt, established in 

 'thirties, and he describes their breeding as the Vale of Aylesbury late in the 'thirties, 

 a cross of the Irish Wolfhound and the was made up entirely of Foxhounds from 

 Irish Bloodhound, whatever that was, a the very beginning. They were bred by 

 Spanish dark red Bloodhound, and last of the Baron, and walked by his tenantry and 

 all with the large English Bull-dog, friends in the Vale. Old Fred Cox, who 

 Dreadful mongrels, therefore, and as a was nearly fifty years in the service of 

 matter of course they 

 did not last long. 



There was an old 

 Staghound breed in the 

 Royal kennels at Wind- 

 sor as late as 1820, 

 and one called Windsor 

 has been described as 

 a white hound with a 

 small spot of yellow 

 on each ear, and a large 

 mark of the same 

 colour on his right 

 flank. He stood thirty 

 inches high, and showed 

 all the points of a lordly 

 breed, having the full 

 and kindly eye, heavy 

 dewlap, immense fore- 

 quarter, and somewhat 

 cat hammed. As he 

 was bred in 1815, he 

 must have been very 

 nearly the last of the 

 old race in the British 

 Islands. It was shortly 

 after this date that the 

 eccentric Colonel 

 Thornton bought the 

 whole of the old Royal pack, consisting of the family, had carte-blanche to go where 



DOG HOUND ARGUS. 



THE PROPERTY OF SIR R. R. WILMOT, BART. 



MASTER OF THE BERKS AND BUCKS STAGHOUNDS. 



Photograph by Russell and Sons. 



forty couples of recognised Staghounds, 

 and took them to France, and at the same 

 time the Duke of Richmond gave his 



he pleased for blood, and in " Will " 

 Goodall's time at Belvoir, he was con- 

 stantly there selecting sires, and dipped 



Majesty the King his Goodwood pack, pretty deeply into the Singer and Senator 

 composed mostly of Foxhounds. Since that blood. He also visited Harry Ayris at 

 date the Royal Buckhounds were to all Berkeley Castle, and gave patronage to 

 intents and purposes Foxhounds. Charles Cromwell in 1857-58. He did not forget 

 Davis, the huntsman for over forty years, to go to Belvoir again in the days of Weather- 

 bred a few, but he mostly got them from gage, and one of his last hits was getting a 

 the Leicestershire or the Duke of Beaufort's famous litter by Gambler, a son of Weather- 

 kennels. Any breed of Staghounds was gage. Whenever Fred Cox heard of a 

 unknown in Davis's time, and he commenced 

 as whip to the Royal hunt in 1816, and was 



promoted to the post of huntsman in 1824. 



good hound he was always after him, pro- 

 vided he belonged to a crack kennel, as 

 the old man was very particular about 



