10 DIFFERENT BREEDS OF HOUNDS. 



what sort of a figure he would cut is quite another 

 thing,J at any rate I fear he would not be gratified 

 with quite so much music as he was entertained with by 

 the old-fashioned Towlers of Sir J. Harrington. Since 

 the commencement of hunting the fox in the open, 

 so many different descriptions of hounds have been 

 bred for the purpose, that to describe all the sorts, and 

 to give a statistical account of the divers " strains of 

 blood," which have been celebrated in their time, would 

 be far too tedious for my readers, and quite foreign to 

 my present purpose ; the following short account of 

 the pedigrees of some of the principal packs of the 

 present day, will suffice. The original stocks, from 

 whence the most fashionable sorts are descended, are 

 from the packs of the Earl of Yarborough (the family 

 of Pelham having possessed hounds of the same breed 

 for nearly two centuries) ; from that of the Earl of 

 Fitzwilliam, which may soon be entitled to celebrate 



skirted the Spiny, and was killedat Blackberry Hill. The Duke of Camhridg^e 

 received the brush on this his first initiation to Leicestershire fox-hunting. The 

 second fox found at Musson Gorse, went away in gallant style to Woolsthorpe, 

 returned in the direction of Redmile; but falling into a lock of the canal, he was 

 taken out by the whipper-in, muzzled, and conveyed to the royal carriages for the 

 inspection of the ladies. This concluded the day's sport, which gave infinite 

 pleasure to all engaged therein, 



t The reader will perceive by the following true picture of this sporting 

 monarch by Sir Walter Scott, the ludicrous style in which he was wont to pursue 

 this, his favourite diversion. 



"A single horseman followed the chase upon a steed so thoroughly subjected 

 to therein, that it obeyed the touch of the bridle, as if it had been a mechanical 

 impulse operating upon the nicest piece of machinery ; so that, seated in his 

 demi-pique saddle, and so trussed up there as to make falling almost impossible, 

 the rider, without either fear or hesitation, might iucrease or diminish the speed 

 at which he rode, which, even on the most animating occasions of the chase, 

 seldom exceeded three-fourths of a gallop, the horse keeping his haunches under 

 him, and never stretching forward beyond the managed pace of the academy. 

 The security with which he chose to prosecute even this favourite, and, in the 

 ordinary case, somewhat dangerous amusement, as well as the rest of his equipage, 

 marked King James." — The Fortunes of Nigel. 



