BREEDING. 19 



in the length and shape of their tails. Drafts from 

 such kennels as hunt the Mendip hills, the north of 

 Yorkshire, or the hills between Wales and Shropshire, 

 should be regarded with a jealous eye. If foxes are 

 plentiful, they should be taken out two or three times 

 before the puppies are entered, and such as are noisy 

 or wide, should be put away decidedly for the first 

 offence; old hounds which cannot run up, if steady 

 and not noisy, may be extremely useful, at any rate for 

 the first season ; and, after the young ones have joined 

 them, no others should be received into the pack, even 

 as presents : no one parts with a hound at that season 

 of the year which is worth a farthing, and new ac- 

 quaintances invariably create wildness and jealousies ; 

 the constantly rating and flogging those which are 

 wild and vicious, tend considerably to alarm and 

 disturb those which are already steady, and from 

 shyness and distrust, they become themselves reckless 

 and ungovernable. " Dimidium facti qui bene ccEpit 

 habet,'' is a motto which cannot be too forcibly 

 impressed upon the mind of any one making his debut 

 as a master of hounds. If you have sufficient walks 

 or qviarters, as they are sometimes called, to enable 

 you to breed your own, begin from a good stock at 

 first ; there is plenty of choice, and bad blood once 

 introduced, may blight the fruits of your undertakings 

 for many years to come ; and above all, remember the 

 words of the dying huntsman, " Breed em wi' plenty 

 of bone."* A new pack will seldom allow of the 

 breeding establishment being very extensive for the 



• Almost tbe last words of old Tom Grant, many years huntsman to his Grace 

 the Duke of Richmond. 



c 2 



