224 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
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 rua 
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 ata 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 infinitesimally 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 
ease being that he is regularly restrained from hunting by 
nose, discouraged from attempting it, and destroyed, ag 
worthless, if he persist in doing it. 
