1845.] OF HAMPSHIRE. 131 



of his country, and four, and sometimes five, 

 days' hunting a week, require. I asked him 

 one day how many of his hounds he thought 

 were, on an average, cut by flints after a hard 

 run ? When he told me, at least one-half ! 



" There are no coarse hounds in the H. H. 

 kennel ; and, what I think is rarely met with, 

 there are as many, if not more, handsome 

 dog-hounds than bitches. 



" As may be supposed, there are different 

 opinions on the respective merits of the large 

 and the small pack ; and, as it may also be 

 supposed, in a country such as I have been de- 

 scribing, they are generally in favour of the 

 small one. I do not feel myself qualified to 

 decide so nice a point, but this I can say, I 

 never saw the large hounds miss killing a 

 fairly-found fox but once. I was asked lately 

 whether I thought they carried so good a 

 head ? I replied that there are parts of Hamp- 

 shire on which no hounds can carry a good 

 one. In the first place, they are so often in 

 covert, from whence they cannot all get away 

 with the scent at once, and in the next place, in 

 a great extent of the ploughed country, both 

 hounds and horses are obliged to go up the 

 furrows and follow each other in a string. In 

 the last run (an hour and thirty-seven minutes) 



k2 



