MR. WARDE AS A BREEDER 31 



hounds, four bitches and two dogs, by Mr. Barry's Blue- 

 cap ; the four former proving all brood bitches, from which 

 the best blood in his kennel was derived ; so that his pack 

 had every reason to be fast, being bred chiefly from the 

 most speedy fox-hound of the last century, and I beheve 

 not one of the present will surpass him in pace. 



Some of the most distinguished packs of that period 

 of which Mr. Warde took notice (besides those already 

 mentioned), were kept by Lords Abingdon, Craven, 

 Monson, Althorp, and Thanet, the Dukes of Bedford and 

 Richmond, Sir T. Mostyn, Messrs. Meynell, Corbet, Selby, 

 Duke Archer, Carson, Cook, Childe and George. Accord- 

 ing to the information furnished me by the late Duke of 

 Beaufort, fox-hounds were first permanently established 

 at Badminton in the year 1753, before which, stag-hounds, 

 fox-hounds, and harriers had been alternately kept by 

 his Grace's ancestors. 



About the same time, although I am inclined to think 

 rather prior to this date, fox-hounds were also established 

 in the Duke of Rutland's family at Belvoir Castle ; and 

 I have a list of noblemen and gentlemen, members of 

 his Grace's hunt, in the year 1758, in number seventy- 

 eight, including two ladies, with two hundred and ninety- 

 four horses, who assembled in and near the good town of 

 Grantham, to do honour to his Grace's fox-hounds. 



The Earl of Yarborough's pack is said to date its origin 

 from a much earlier period than either of the above, as 

 to which I have no correct information ; and in Lord 

 Fitzwilliam's family, fox-hounds have been transmitted 

 from father to son for more than a century, as I find a 

 notice of George Kingston being huntsman previous to 

 the year 1765, when the pack of Mr. Childe (who hunted 

 Warwickshire) were purchased and added to the kennels at 



