SPEED OP DOGS AND IIOPvSES. 5 



occupied for several years, until, worn out by infir- 

 mities, and that plague to the vulpine race, the 

 scab or mange, he was at last found dead one 

 morning, lying on the mat at the hall door ; his 

 selection of this spot to lie down and die in, being 

 almost as extraordinary as the two runs he had 

 given, when in his prime of life. 



The vexata qicestio as to the comparative speed of 

 fox-hounds of the last and present centmies, Vv'oukl 

 in all probabihty have been settled last spring or 

 summer, in the proposed match between horses and 

 hounds, to be decided over the Beacon course at New- 

 market, by a test which isinfalhble — time; but as that 

 event has not taken place, I have no hesitation in 

 stating my opinion, that the hounds which might have 

 been employed in that race would not equal in 

 speed Colonel Thornton's bitch, Merkin, which ran 

 four miles in seven minutes and half a second ; or 

 Mr. Barry's Bluecad, accomplishing the same dis- 

 tance in eight minutes and a few seconds. I have 

 also an impression that in this match the horses 

 would have beaten the hounds. 



As a child, I Avas not nursed in the lap of luxury ; 

 and although not, like Achilles, dipped in the waters 

 of the Styx to render me invulnerable to javelins 

 and arrows, I can very well recollect being tho- 

 roughly Avell dipped in the sea, Avhen a squalling 



