THE WELSH HOUND. 



221 



is hard to say if Mr. LawTence had Harrier 

 blood in it in 1856. 



Some of the packs in \^'ales are pure 

 Enghsh Foxhounds, but those that are 

 known to have at any rate some Welsh 

 blood in them are the Llangibby, the 

 Xeuadd-FawT, kept by Mrs. T. H. R. 

 Hughes — that lady having twenty couples 

 described as Welsh and first cross of Welsh- 

 English — but every effort is made to keep 

 them as Welsh as possible. Then there is 

 the Ynysfor, the Master of which is Mr. 

 Evan Bowen Jones of Ynysfor, Penrhyn- 

 Deudreath. The pack has been in that 

 gentleman's family for a hundred years, 

 having been hunted by his great-grandfather 

 from 1765 to the date of his death at 

 eighty-five years in 1829. His son then 

 held the reins of government until 1851, and 

 a son of the latter again from 1851, when an 

 uncle carried it on for another twenty-one 

 years, to be succeeded by the father of the 

 present Master, whose death took place in 

 1 90 1. The hounds are of the old Welsh 

 breed, some rough, some smooth, and 

 many are of the old black and tan colour. 



The Teme Valley pack is cross-bred, 

 English and Welsh, and the Gelligaer, of 



which Mr. David Jones was the recent 

 Master, was as pure Welsh as that gentle- 

 man could get them, as he had a strong 

 belief in the stamina and excellence of 

 those so bred. 



There is no doubt that the breed is still 

 to be had, but so many Masters of the 

 Welsh hunts have endeavoured to improve 

 by the admixture of English blood that it 

 has made it extremely difficult to breed the 

 pure ones excepting through continual in- 

 breeding, which is always fatal. It is said 

 that the English cross is not to be depended 

 upon, as sometimes the results of such 

 alliances have been good working hounds, 

 with the qualities perceptible from both 

 sides, and in other cases there has been a 

 loss of nose and tongue, and no great advant- 

 age shown in either pace or stamina. Again 

 also, when a good hound has been obtained, 

 his progeny has been of no use. Very few 

 English Masters would venture on such 

 experiments, and, in fact, they are not 

 wanted, as there are English Foxhounds 

 in goodly numbers with nose and tongue 

 equal to any Welsh Hound, and they are 

 naturally better to breed true to their own 

 kind. 



THE MONMOUTHSHIRE PACK 



