14G LONG TAILS AND SHORT TAILS. 



hounds and horses. Fine noses are unquestionably 

 most desiral^le in all hounds and in all countries, but 

 are more indispensable in some instances than in 

 others. I should say, Avhere the very finest arc re- 

 quired is in an open bad-scenting country. Here 

 hounds have little or nothing in the shape of fences 

 to stop them ; and to carry on a slight scent at a 

 racing pace requires the 7ie j^^^s ultra of a nose. 

 A very thickly enclosed country does not allow 

 hounds to go this pace ; consequently, if it is a bad- 

 scenting one, hounds are more disposed to stoop to a 

 scent. Speed is also a great desideratum in a hound; 

 but, as in horses, there are two distinct sorts of speed, 

 something like that of the greyhound and the rabbit. 

 Now matcli these to run a hundred yards and 8tai% 

 I am not quite clear but bunny would have the best 

 of it. He would o:et half the distance before the 

 longtail would get to half his speed. Perhaps we 

 should call the first quickness, the latter speed. It is 

 this sort of rabbit-like quickness we want both in 

 hounds and nags in a very inclosed country : both 

 must be able to get to their best pace at once. Put 

 me in a country where the fields were only an acre 

 each, and on a quick cob, I would beat old Vivian in 

 his palmy days, unless he is very much altered since 

 the time I knew him ten years since — I mean, altered 

 as to being quick and handy : he is altered enough in 

 every other Avay. Now these different requisites a 

 huntsman has to get into his hounds for his particular 

 country, which can only be effected by judicious 

 crosses: nor are they to be obtained in the first 

 generation. Put a remarkably speedy, dashing, flighty 

 dog to a meek, steady, slow, close line hunting bitch, 

 or vice versd, we must not flatter ourselves Ave shall 



