THE STAGHOUND. 



219 



buck hounds was a crack pack in the Baron Rothschild's hunt, estabhshed in 

 'thirties, and he describes their breeding as the Vale of Aylesbury late in the 'thirties, 

 a cross of the Irish Wolfhound and the was made up entirely of Foxhounds from 

 Irish Bloodhound, whatever that was, a the very beginning. They were bred by 

 Spanish dark red Bloodhound, and last of the Baron, and walked by his tenantry and 

 all with the large English Bull-dog. friends in the Vale. Old Fred Cox, who 

 Dreadful mongrels, therefore, and as a was nearly fifty j^ears in the service of 

 matter of course they 

 did not last long. 



There was an old 

 Staghound breed in the 

 Royal kennels at Wind- 

 sor as late as 1820, 

 and one called Windsor 

 has been described as 

 a white hound with a 

 small spot of yellow 

 on each ear, and a large 

 mark of the same 

 colour on his right 

 flank. He stood thirty 

 inches high, and showed 

 all the points of a lordly 

 breed, having the full 

 and kindly eye, hea\-y 

 dewlap, immense fore- 

 quarter, and somewhat 

 cat hammed. As he 

 was bred in 1815, he 

 must have been very 

 nearly the last of the 

 old race in the British 

 Islands. It was shortly 

 after this date that the 

 eccentric Colonel 

 Thornton bought the 

 whole of the old Royal pack, consisting of 

 forty couples of recognised Staghounds, 

 and took them to France, and at the same 

 time the Duke of Richmond gave his 

 Majesty the King his Goodwood pack, 

 composed mostly of Foxhounds. Since that 

 date the Royal Buckhounds were to all 

 intents and purposes Foxhounds. Charles 

 Davis, the huntsman for over forty years, 

 bred a few, but he mostly got them from 

 the Leicestershire or the Duke of Beaufort's 

 kennels. Any breed of Staghounds was 

 unknown in Da\-is's time, and he commenced 

 as whip to the Royal hunt in 1816, and was 



DOG HOUND ARGUS. 



THE PROPERTY OF SIR R. R. WILMOT. BART. 

 MASTER OF THE BERKS AND BUCKS STAGHOUNDS. 

 Photograph by Russell and Soiis. 



promoted to the post of huntsman in 1824. 



the family, had carte-blanche to go where 

 he pleased for blood, and in " Will " 

 Goodall's time at Belvoir, he was con- 

 stantly there selecting sires, and dipped 

 pretty deeply into the Singer and Senator 

 blood. He also visited Harry Ayris at 

 Berkeley Castle, and gave patronage to 

 Cromwell in 1857-58. He did not forget 

 to go to Belvoir again in the days of Weather- 

 gage, and one of his last hits was getting a 

 famous litter by Gambler, a son of Weather- 

 gage. Whenever Fred Cox heard of a 

 good hound he was always after him, pro- 

 vided he belonged to a crack kennel, as 

 the old man was very particular about 



