THE BROOKSIDE HARRIERS. 305 



of harrier and fox-hound, and it is true, insomuch as occasionally, 

 at very long intervals, a fox-hound sire has been used amongst 

 them, such a course being occasionally inevitable, as there is no 

 other kennel of their own sort in the world to which they could 

 go for change of blood, and without an occasional outcross they 

 must have dwindled and degenerated. But the fox-hound cross 

 has not been persevered in ; and the infusion of new blood ob- 

 tained, they have been very carefully bred back to their old 

 characteristics, and thus the family likeness has been kept up. 

 Certainly in no other pack have I seen such a striking likeness 

 as in this. Another cross they have had of late years is from a 

 hound of Major Gais ford's, who kept harriers near Worthing (of 

 what type I do not know, never having seen them), and here 

 again I believe the same system has been observed as when 

 using a fox-hound. These infusions of fresh blood, however, 

 are very seldom resorted to, and they depend entirely on their 

 own sires as a rule, so that it is a wonder that the pack has been 

 kept up to the state of perfection in which we now find it — a 

 fact which proves what an immense amount of vitality there 

 must be in the breed. As they do not go to other kennels, so 

 are they equally chary of allowing the blood to go out of their 

 own hands ; and it would be nearly as difficult to get a stud- 

 hound from them as to obtain an Arab mare of the I^edjid caste. 

 In fact, I have heard that a neighbouring master of harriers, in 

 his anxiety to procure some of the blood, once resorted to the 

 following ruse : — He found out at what hour there would be 

 probably no one about at the kennels, and, taking a bitch in 

 season in a light cart or some similar conveyance, drove quickly 

 over and turned her into the kennel amongst the lot, trusting to 

 chance as to the paternity of the whelps, and then, after a little 

 time, went and claimed her again. How the scheme turned out 

 I cannot say, though I certainly saw some hounds in the kennel 

 of the concoctor thereof which were said to have a Brookside 

 cross in them. 



I^either is any draft ever allowed to leave the kennel, those 



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