230 The Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present. 



brocliures upon hunting-matters strongly animadverts. 

 His lordship — prop and pillar of the Oakley Hunt through 

 many a season — and now in his eighty-first year, both 

 able and willing to give a lead at a " yawner,^^ thus speaks 

 of hound-breeding at the present day : " The modern 

 system of farming, less rough country, fewer grass-baulks 

 and headlands, fences neatly trimmed, early ploughing^ 

 steam- cultivation, artificial manures, and more stock — 

 all tends to lessen the hold of scent. Game-preserving 

 produces a quantity of bad fat foxes, and a fat bad fox is 

 less easy to kill than a lean wild one. These new diffi- 

 culties should be encountered by more hunting-power ; 

 more attention should be paid to the faculty of scent. At 

 Hound- Shows there are prizes for make and shape, but 

 none for merit. No notice is taken of the all-important 

 and indispensable nose. Everything is sacrificed to fashion 

 and quality : only one type is recognized, and that the 

 one best adapted to the small minority of hunting-coun- 

 tries — the flying grass ones. Any special provision for 

 a class of hounds suitable for an enclosed, hilly, wood- 

 land, plough, or moorland country is not taken into con- 

 sideration, everything being sacrificed to the craves for 

 speed. ^ Most haste, less speed.^ The pack that stops 

 the least goes the quickest ; and the one that carries 

 most head and has the greatest number of line-hunters 

 will be gaining on their fox; while the one that might 

 shine for a short time in a catchy scent will be getting 

 farther and farther behind, after the first check. '^ Such 

 are the words of one of the most acute, observant, and 

 experienced judges of hunting now existing; the moral 

 of them being that the one thing needful in a hound is 

 Nose. 



