THE VINE HOUNDS. 11 



their second jubilee ; the Duke of Rutland's, which 

 were bred from the packs purchased of Mr. Heron 

 and Mr. Calcraft, many years since ; Mr. Osbaldes- 

 ton's (purchased by Mr. Harvey Combe for two 

 thousand guineas) descended from the celebrated pack 

 of Lord Monson, and also of Lord Yarborough's ; Lord 

 Middleton's ; Mr. Warde's, and the Duke of Beau- 

 fort's which have been in the family for a very con- 

 siderable period, and are perhaps the best and steadiest 

 pack of hounds of their day ; the sort known as the 

 old Pytchley blood, so justly celebrated when the 

 property of the present Earl Spencer, at that time 

 Lord Althorp, were descended, in a great measure, 

 from the old Beaufort Justice, relationship to which 

 renowned dog, many of the best hounds of the present 

 day can proudly boast.* There is a pack in Hamp- 

 shire, called the Vine hounds, rather low, but possessing 

 great power ; they have now been under the manage- 

 ment of Mr. Fellowes, a relation of Lord Portsmouth, 

 for many years, they were originally bred from drafts 

 of the old Egremont blood, by the late Mr. Chute of 

 the Vine,t (the hunt taking its nomenclature from that 

 place) they have been much crossed by stud-hounds 

 from the Duke of Beaufort's and Mr. Assheton Smith's 

 kennels, still there is a great deal of the original cha- 

 racter of the fox-hound (of days gone by) which is 

 visible in no other established pack, an inclination to 



* Northamptonshire, so much celebrated in modern days as a hunting country, 

 seems to have been equally adapted to the " crafte of venerie" in ancient times ; 

 for " in the forty-third year of Edward the Third, Thos, Engain held lands in 

 Pytchley, in the county of Northampton, by service of finding at his own cost, 

 certain dogs for the destruction of wolves, foxes, &c., iu the counties of North- 

 ampton, Oxford, Essex, and Buckingham." — Bluut's ancient Tenures. — From Strutt. 



t Over Mr. Chute's kennel door were these words, " Multurn in parvo." 



