HUNTS AND THEIR HISTORY 125 



there are more foxes now, and changes are more 

 common, and hounds that change often and are 

 cheered from one scent to another will naturally 

 take the fresher, more fragrant line of the newly 

 found fox in preference to the line of the hunted one. 

 All these difficulties have gone on increasing, but 

 we have always found huntsmen equal to the task. 

 Naturally, the ablest men are drawn to Leicestershire, 

 and their presence and skill have in their turn helped 

 to increase the fame of the countries. One advantage 

 the modern huntsman has, or may have if he will. 

 He has certainly a better instrument in his hounds 

 than had his predecessors. The modern pack of 

 hounds in Leicestershire includes few bad ones. I 

 do not know, indeed, whether individual hounds are 

 better than they were, but I think that the average 

 excellence of packs of hounds is steadily growing. 

 There will, of course, always be hounds of special 

 gifts that will stand out from the others, but all are 

 up to a certain standard of make and shape. All 

 have shoulders and loins ; few indeed are crooked 

 or flat sided ; all can stay, and if a special failing is 

 noted, it is corrected. The modern fox-hound with 

 bone and stamina is, for example, growing more 

 musical, silence being a mark of a certain want of 

 strength and constitution. " Oh, sir," exclaimed a 

 Eurasian lady to an Indian M. F. H., " how do you 

 make your dogs to run and bark so ? " Now hounds 

 " run and bark," because they are sound. Gillard, 

 the best hound-breeder of our day, restored the music 

 to the Belvoir at the same time that he increased 

 their bone and stamina. The Cottesmore bitches 

 could always sing as they went, and Mr. Wroughton 

 left behind with the Pytchley a lady pack which can 

 leave the horses when there is a scent and yet dis- 



