170 REMINISCENCES OF HOUNDS. 



throughout the season (our pack being so short that 

 the same hounds often hunted three days a week), it 

 may easily be imagined, was very severe ; and my 

 impression is that no pack of the present day, under 

 the present treatment, would or could undergo this 

 wear and tear of frame and constitution without 

 exhibiting the appearance of scarecrows. To our 

 hounds, of course, good legs and feet were as 

 necessary (and these they possessed in perfection) 

 as stoutness of limb and frame and good consti- 

 tution, and for their performances in the field there 

 are many still living in the old country who can 

 bear testimony to the sport afforded for nearly 

 thirty years by the now old Squire and his quon- 

 dam pack. Sic transit gloria mundi. 



The fashion now is to keep a large body of 

 hounds, which are fed lightly (nearly half-starved), 

 to run a burst in the morning, but they have not 

 stamina to cope with a stout afternoon fox. A few 

 years since, a gentleman, who kept a very large 

 establishment of horses and hounds, from ilLhealth 

 resigned part of his outlying country, and reduced 

 his pack very considerably, intending to hunt only 

 two or three days a-week: but it so happened 

 that his neighbour resigned also soon afterwards, 

 leaving his country imoccupied. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, he was solicited to draAv some of the 



