56 DOMESTICATED DOGS. 



It should, however, be remembered that, in comparing the horse's 

 powers with that of the hound, we are apt to forget that the 

 former is weighted with his rider while the latter is turned loose. 

 Still the difference is so great, that even this will not account for 

 it. It is generally supposed that this extraordinary combination 

 has been obtained by crossing the old-fashioned hound (whether 

 Northern or Southern) with the greyhound; but of this cross 

 there is no record in the kennel books of our earliest foxhound 

 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, varying, of course, in proportion to the 

 skill and care possessed for the time being by the several 

 Masters of foxhounds and their huntsmen. The theory of 

 breeding was carefully laid down a hundred years ago by 

 Beckford, and has not been improved on since his time, but care- 

 ful selection founded on his principles has, without doubt, pro- 

 duced 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 a crowd of horsemen, which, 

 in his day, was completely unheard of. In some fashionable 

 countries this. last-named faculty is cultivated and bred to in a 



