224: MANUAL FOE YOUNG SPOTSTSMEN. 



those which the mighty Nimrods of the day, Mr. Meynell, 

 old Lord Forester, and their contemporaneous worthies 

 followed within these sixty years over the classic ground 

 of Melton Mowbray. 



The ordinary time of throwing off in those days was at 

 daybreak ; the fox was trailed by his cold scent from the 

 pheasant preserve or farm-yard which he had been plun- 

 dering, to the wood where he had laid up, and was run 

 down after a chase of from ten to thirty miles, accomplished 

 in a space of time varying from two to half a dozen hours, 

 the hunters following them at a hard gallop on stout three- 

 part-bred horses, which we should now condemn as too 

 coarsely bred for the carriage, with ample time afforded 

 them to pick the easy places in fences, to ride round by- 

 lanes, and to nick in somehow or other in season for the kill. 



What is the cross, or whether there is any, by which 

 the modern foxhound has been brought to his present per- 

 fection, cannot be easily ascertained, as the secret has been 

 well kept by the breeders. Stonehenge believes that there 

 has been a cross of the greyhound, and perhaps of the 

 bull-dog. 



Of the former I am not prepared to speak positively, 

 beyond this, that if there be any cross of greyhound blood, 

 it is innnitesimally small, and has left no trace of its 

 existence in form, in coat, in color, or in any thing unless 

 it be speed. It is an error to believe that the greyhound 

 has naturally no power of scenting, the true state of the 

 case being that he is regularly restrained from hunting by 

 nose, discouraged from attempting it, and destroyed, as 

 worthless, if he persist in doing it. 



