52 DOMESTICATED DOGS, 
packs, which trace back for nearly or quite two hundred years. 
Now, success in breeding generally leads to a confession of the 
method by which it has been attained, as is exemplified in the case 
of Lord Oxford with his bulldog and greyhound cross, and it is 
argued that if the greyhound had been used as alleged, some record 
of the fact would have been handed down to us. Hence this point 
in the history of the foxhound must be regarded as unsettled. At 
all events, it cannot be denied that great trouble and expense have 
been for a long time expended in arriving at the present high 
development of this breed, and that it is now existing in the 
highest state of perfection in those numerous hunting counties 
into which a great part of England and Scotland is divided, vary- 
ing, of course, in proportion to the skill and care possessed for the 
time being by the several Masters of foxhounds and their hunts- 
men. The theory of breeding was carefully laid down a hundred 
years ago by Beckford, and has not been improved on since his 
time ; but careful selection founded on his principles has, without 
doubt, produced a faster and at the same time stouter hound, 
capable not only of staying through a long run, when such a rare 
event occurs, but of getting away from acrowd of horsemen, which, 
in his day, was completely unheard of. In some fashionable 
countries this last-named faculty is cultivated and bred too in a 
most remarkable manner, and to such an extent that individual 
hounds belonging to the packs, when left behind in covert, thread 
through two or three hundred horsemen and get to the front with- 
out injury. This requires a high combination of speed, courage, 
and judgment, which ordinary hounds do not possess, and they 
would be sure either to be too slow, or too timid, or too stupid, 
to seize the right moment to overcome each successive obstacle. 
Speed is of course a sine gud non for success in such a feat, but it 
likewise requires high courage to risk being ridden over, and with 
this must be combined judgment to make a push at the right 
moment, and to wait patiently till it occurs, 
In looking at the modern foxhound, the uninitiated are apt to 
be misled by the “rounded” ears, which detract very much from 
his artistic appearance. Compared with the bloodhound’s long 
sweeping appendages, the small semi-oval attached to the head 
of the foxhound looks mean, and detracts from his dignity and 
