HOUNDS AND HORSES 257 



try the water ' as well as can be desired ; indeed, there 

 is no better otterhound than a broken-down stag- 

 hound, and their noses are good enough, as has been 

 mentioned previously, to enable them to hunt a deer to 

 his bed hours and hours after he has gone thither from 

 his feed ; while their courage, drive, and pace enable 

 them to do more work, and to kill more deer, than any 

 pack that preceded them. 



People sometimes ask why we prefer such tall 

 hounds, and why we are not content with a pack of 

 ordinary stature. It is probable enough that twenty- 

 three- to twenty-four-inch hounds would do the work 

 as well ; but nobody ever parts with hounds of that 

 size unless there is something wrong with them, and 

 the extra inch is a distinct advantage in long heather ; 

 the big ones can stride over it, where little ones would 

 be always jumping. In the water, too, the height is a 

 help ; not only because they can wade where shorter- 

 legged hounds would have to swim, but also because 

 they can more easily scramble out of the flooded 

 streams in winter ; the size and weight must also be 

 in their favour when tackling a stag at bay. However 

 this may be, the 24^-inch standard practically limits the 

 pack to dog hounds, and in the last twenty years there 

 has been but one lady in the kennel Restless, by the 

 late Lord Portsmouth's Reveller from B.V. Remnant. 



s 



