W. C. A. Blew, who, in his new edition of "Noticia Venatica," ascribes the earliest date to a year or two prior to 1689; for at that time the Charlton hunt in Sussex, conducted by Mr. Roper, who managed the hounds for the ill-fated Duke of Monmouth and Earl Grey, hunted the fox. Particulars of this appear in the fifteenth volume of the "Sussex Archæological Collection." In 1750 the Charlton lapsed into the Goodwood.

In the Field of Nov. 6, 1875, there is an illustration of an old hunting horn, at that time in the possession of Mr. Reginald Corbet, master of the South Cheshire hounds. On it there was the following inscription: "Thomas Boothby, Esq., Tooley Park, Leicester. With this horn he hunted the first pack of foxhounds then in England fifty-five years. Born 1477, died 1572." Here is another early date, and where could be found plainer proofs, though some writers have thrown discredit on them because they thought it possible these hounds occasionally hunted any out-lying deer that might be doing damage to the farmer's crops. As well say some of our modern harriers are not harriers because, when the legitimate chase is scarce, they have a day or two with the "carted" deer.

There was a very interesting old hunting story Lord Wilton writes, in his "Sports and Pursuits of

the English," that, not until 1750 were hounds entered solely to fox; but against his statement must be placed that of Charles J. Apperley, who died in 1843, and is favourably known under his nom de plume of "Nimrod." He says that an ancestor of Lord Arundel of Wardour had a pack of foxhounds at the close of the seventeenth century, thus about coeval with the Sussex and Leicestershire already named; and the same reliable writer proceeds to say that, remaining in the same family, they hunted in Wiltshire and Hampshire until 1782, when they passed to Mr. Meynell, a name so historical in foxhound annals. Another such pack was that of Mr. Thomas Fownes, who was hunting from Stapleton in Dorsetshire very early in the eighteenth century; but the Charlton Hunt and Squire Boothby's hounds had before this been entered to fox, and, with our present knowledge, with them must rest the credit of being the earliest packs of foxhounds in this country.

Mr. Fowne's pack went to Mr. Bowes, of Streatlam, Yorkshire; and the Belvoir hounds kennelled at Melton Mowbray, with the Duke of Rutland as their master, are lineally descended from those alluded to by Lord Wilton. Since these early times and up to the present every care has been taken, and no expense spared, to produce a foxhound as near perfection as possible, in order to follow the calling

which finds such favour in our land. Squire Osbaldeston, Colonel Thornton, Mr. John Musters, and others of a past generation owned hounds that, either collectively or individually, could not be surpassed. With so much attention given to them, it was no wonder a great writer on the subject arose, and in 1810 we have Peter Beckford's magnum opus, which, so far as it goes, has had no rival in its complete description of the foxhound, its work and management. And what he wrote of him is equally true to-day, for no hound or dog has changed so little in appearance and character during a century, as the foxhound. There have been no crazes for fashionable colour, or for head formed, or ears hung, on purely fanciful principles. Hunters wanted a dog for work, they soon provided one, and have kept and sustained that animal for the purpose.

The work a foxhound has often to undergo is of the most arduous description, he is repeatedly on his legs for eight or ten hours at a stretch, often galloping a great portion of that time, or may be doing more laborious work in the thick coverts, or even walking on the hard road to or from the meet.

Though not bred with great precision and with such care for pedigrees, as is the case with fashionable packs, there are lightly built hounds hunting in the mountainous districts of Cumberland and Westmor

land whose stamina must be phenomenal. Their country is the roughest imaginable, over mountains and down the vales, edging precipices and scaling dangerous passes. Every season these hounds have a run that may last into the teens of hours, beginning soon after daybreak and not ending when stars have studded the heavens and hunters are left far behind. Last season hounds were heard in full cry at ten at night, and next morning stragglers found their way home to the kennels, others turning up a day or two later. Some had to be looked for, having become "crag bound," z.e., clambered down to a cleft in the rock from whence they could not return. During such runs as these, they do not, owing to the rough country, go the pace of ordinary foxhounds, but they possess greater patience in working out a cold line, and are perfect in making casts on their The latter a most necessary gift when they are at fault, and no one near them to assist in hitting the lost line, for this hunting at the Lakes is done on foot-horses could not follow, nor mules either, where men and hounds have

own account.

to go.

So recently as the end of March, 1892, the Coniston hounds, the Rev. E. M. Reynolds, master, had an extraordinary run in the neighbourhood of Troutbeck and Kentmere. They were either dragging or

hunting for over ten hours, over a terribly rough and wild country, and their fox, dead beat and only just in front of them, had his life saved by a severe storm-the like of which is only known in the Lake district-coming on, and effectually driving both hunters and hounds off the mountains into the valley. Although the finish was not far from kennels, the hounds had been out for thirteen hours before they were safe at home again.

Other more fashionable packs have had extraordinary runs in their day, over a flatter country, and where hounds were going hard and fast the whole of the time. The Duke of Richmond's run near Borough Bridge in 1738, which lasted from a quarter to eight in the morning until ten minutes to six in the evening, deserves to be a record. Other runs of almost equal duration are still talked about, but with a good country, fast hounds, and bustling the latter on by hard riding, to say nothing of the late hour of meets, hunting runs are not of such long duration as they were years ago. Mr. Vyner tells us of one with his hounds, in which the first eleven miles were covered over pretty rough ground in about fifty-three minutes, which must be taken as something quite extraordinary, when fences and one thing and another are taken in consideration. Such a run in the open cannot be placed side by side with the "trail"