"FEESHER" PEASE AND "JUDY" CARE-ELLISON 161 



THE REVISION AND ENLARGEMENT OF THE PACK 



With some Notes on Hound Management 



At the end of Pease's time there were a good many hounds that 

 were quite done, in fact they were " has beens " ; and as I did not see 

 the good of keeping on old hounds or useless ones (as they eat quite 

 as much as good ones), I got rid of a good many, I put down some, 

 sold some, and gave some away. I had not quite a strong enough 

 pack to do three days a week properly, I found out, so during the 

 October term I bought a small pack (in numbers), about 9| couples, 

 that I had seen advertised in The Field, at a moderate price, from a 

 Mr. Wynne in Cheshire. They were just about the size I wanted. 

 Of course it was rather a risk buying a pack without seeing them, 

 but under the circumstances that could not be avoided. I was quite 

 excited to see them on their arrival at Cambridge. There were some 

 nice-looking ones among them, and I don't think there were more 

 than one or two that were not good hunters. There were 2| or 3 

 couples black-and-tan hounds among them. Chancellor, Captain, 

 and Annabel were, I think, three black-and-tans. Some good bitches 

 were Mischief, Meddlesome, Favourite, and Fancy, but I have, I fear, 

 rather forgotten their names. 



The first day we could, Allgood and I had a bye day to see what 

 they were like, how they hunted, and how they were as to levelness, 

 pace, etc. With what we saw that day we were quite pleased, and 

 after this, now having about 22 couple of hounds in kennel, I divided 

 them into two packs for hunting purposes, so as to get them level for 

 pace and also size as much as possible, and I was also able to draft a 

 few more of the hounds I had taken over from Pease, so as to leave 

 about 22 couple. I then hunted four days a week, Monday, Wednes- 

 day, Friday, and Saturday, and I nearly averaged killing a hare for 

 every day I hunted, and on the whole we had a good season. 



On non-hunting days I used to take out some or all of the hounds 

 for exercise, jogging along the roads ; the distance we went depended 

 on what I considered they required. 



I am a great believer in having hounds fat before you start con- 

 ditioning, and then plenty of long slow work on the roads to harden 



M 



