THE STAG HOUND 121 



heroes. Very often the artist is not satisfactory, nor the 

 hound, but the type is a foxhound type and not a staghound 

 type. Indeed, as against Mr. Fitt's ' Windsor ' theory, in the 

 picture at Cumberland Lodge, by Chalon, of Sharpe with 

 the King's hounds, the hounds are more hke the modern 

 foxhound-harrier than the redoubtable ' Ultimus Romanorum ' 

 of the ' Sporting Magazine.' 



The Duke of Eichmond gave me the other day the con- 

 temporary account of the great Charlton run, when twenty- 

 three ' glorious ' hounds ran into a bitch fox after having 

 run her from 7.45 a.m. till 5.50 p.m.. on January 26, 

 1738, fifty-seven miles, two furlongs, ten yards by measure- 

 ment as hounds run. No wonder Charles Davis declared 

 there was nothing like the old Goodwood sort, and stuck 

 to them. These were foxliounds,' of course, and the chronicler 

 tells us with unction that after crossing Halnaker Hill to 

 Sebbige Farm, the Master of the King's (George II.) Stag- 

 hounds, Mr. Jenison, had had enough of it : ' thoroughly 

 satisfied ' is the way he puts it.^ 



But to return for a moment to Merkin and her owner. 

 Colonel Thornton thought such great things of Merkin 

 that he backed her to run any hound of her year on a 

 drag or train scent five miles over Newmarket, giving 220 

 yards start, for 10,000 guineas.-* Merkin's time trial — 

 incredible as it sounds — was four miles in seven and a 

 half minutes. The match does not appear to have come 



' William III. took the Grand Duke of Tuscany to hunt with the Charlton 

 foxhounds. 



- The inference is that neither he nor his horse was accustomed to such 

 runs with the slow and heavy staghounds. 



^ These contests were very fashionable at this period. In the match for 

 500/. between a couple of Mr. Barry's and a couple of Mr. Meynell's hounds, 

 sixty horses started, and only twelve got to the end. Seven to four was bet on 

 Mr. Meynell's hounds, who were badly beaten. The course was from the 

 rubbing-house at the town end to the starting-post of the B. C, and the distance 

 was covered in a little over eight minutes. The last horse was Rib, ridden by 

 Will Crane, and he was a King's Plate winner. 



