CHAPTER XIX

THE FOXHOUND

THE Foxhound may fairly claim to be the means of circulating more money than all the other members of the canine race put together. It has been estimated that there are now about 160 packs hunting the country at a cost of-well, anything the reader likes to fancy, per annum. Calculations more or less wild have been made by various writers, and sums named differing to the extent of from one and a half millions to four millions of pounds, a little variance which causes the cautious man to hesitate before accepting any one of them as being even approximately accurate.

How difficult it is to form a reliable estimate is shown by the difference of opinion existing at the very outset. "Stonehenge" in 1865 considered it should cost £845 per annum to maintain a three-day pack in a state of efficiency-a very low estimate, we should consider it; but other authorities place it as high as £3,000. The fact is that where so much depends upon the taste and fancy of the Master or the reputation and character of the Hunt, no general estimate can be made. That hounds can be hunted cheaply, efficiently, and in a sportsmanlike manner is well known to many an old hand who loves hunting for hunting's sake; but the Master must be here, there, and everywhere, with a personal knowledge of every detail, and a whole-hearted love for the business which takes him to the kennels at all hours and at all seasons of the year. If he lives miles away, visits the kennels "sometimes," but during the season meets the hounds at the appointed place in spotless attire, and leaves for home when a reasonable opportunity occurs, if he tires of the "honour" after a couple of seasons and makes room for another gentleman with money, or the inexperience plus the ambition of youth, then the bills mount up and the highest estimate may be often exceeded.

We live in an expensive age-everything has to be done in an expensive style; and as in Society we see people with small incomes making desperate and painful attempts to copy their rich neighbours, so we can see small, poor, and unfashionable Hunts making desperate

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and unhappy attempts to be a mild and distant copy of those fashionable packs having as much money at their backs as they desire to spend. How much less their difficulties and happier their lot if they could be content with being "unfashionable," and aimed only at being "sporting "—a virtue which money cannot buy. Stonehenge" writes: "I have seen a pack costing little more than £700 a year show more sport in the same country than another subsequently established costing £1,400 per annum.

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When money" fails to provide "sport," keepers are blamed, farmers are blamed, shooting tenants, wire fences-anything, everything, except what is often the real reason, the absence of the sporting spirit and a knowledge of the huntsman's craft. Give us more money," is the cry; and how very often they get the money but no increase of sport ! Give us men with the sportsman's knowledge, zeal, and devotion would be a more useful prayer in many a Hunt. Not that present-day difficulties should be under-estimated, for they are very great, and increasing every season, many of them being quite unknown to our ancestors.

The Foxhound has been bred with undoubted purity for very many years, and his pedigree recorded from generation to generation with the utmost care; but how he was originally obtained is an open question. Richardson, who made a careful study of hound breeding and who wrote in 1840, was decidedly of opinion that the modern Foxhound is the result of a fortunate blend between the blood of the Talbot, Greyhound, and English Terrier ; other writers substitute Bulldog for English Terrier. All consider the Talbot to be the foundation stock and apparently believe in a Greyhound cross. It is, of course, quite probable that the Foxhound may have been "made" by some such method. As the country became clearer and speed more to be desired or even essential, the Greyhound would naturally have been regarded as the proper corrective for the slow, painstaking Talbot, and the high courage of the Bulldog would also have been considered a desirable commodity to introduce. It seems to be allowed that at one time some Greyhounds had Bulldog blood in their veins, and it may well be that these were found to provide what was wanting in the old Talbot. There is, however, no necessity to presume any direct cross in bringing the Foxhound to his present pitch of perfection; skilled breeders, given time and a wide choice, would in a course of years, by a process of careful selection, produce a race far lighter, quicker, and more dashing than the parent stock.

How type, size, character, and constitution can all be altered in the course of a few years by breeders with an object in view is well known to most of us, even middle-aged men being often astounded by alterations made in a breed which was perhaps the favourite of their boyhood, and then lost sight of for a time.

The Foxhound has always enjoyed enthusiastic, skilled, and wealthy owners; he has not been dependent upon the whims of ladies and gentlemen taking him up for a hobby, proud and delighted with the new toy so long as they can win prizes at shows, cast away and ignored when the owner no longer shines through his dog. On the contrary, Foxhound stud books have been carefully preserved for generations. The history of every important strain is known for many a year, fresh blood and the right stuff can always be obtained, and Masters of experience, desirous neither of making money nor of winning prizes, have, as a rule, given every facility to less favoured packs to improve their hounds and get or breed the really high-class specimens now often to be seen in very "local" Hunts. Foxhound breeders have thus for many years had an ideal opportunity, and have taken full advantage of it.

Although speed and endurance may be considered the chief characteristics of the modern Foxhound, and to have elbowed out nose from first or even second place, it must not be supposed that every strain is bred on the same lines or with the same object. In the great hunting counties of the Midlands a pack is required of beautiful clean thoroughbreds, full of hard muscle, fit and ready to "run for their lives." They skim like a flying cloud before the wind over the wide, scent-holding pasture-lands only a few minutes behind a perfect Greyhound of a fox racing in a direct line for the covert of which he knows a few miles distant. Usually there is no time for music, no time for feints and dodges, no necessity for puzzling out a line; on-on-without a pause, at a pace which one writer describes as "the envy of every second-class Greyhound." Men press down their hats and gallop for their lives in order to keep even within sight of the race. But what would be the good of all this in a country mostly composed of sticky plough, small holdings, or steep hills? In such the Master requires careful, painstaking hounds able to carry on a stale line over a cold plough or along a high road, or, as in parts of North Hampshire, over fields seemingly little else than a bed of flints. Then, in a big woodland country a pack with great push and plenty of music is of immense importance if foxes are to be forced into the open and the field to be kept informed of where hounds are. For these reasons Foxhounds which are a complete failure in some packs often, when drafted, perform most useful service and are highly valued by the huntsmen.

Still, allowing to the fullest extent for the different sort of hound required to meet the needs of a different sort of country, the English Foxhound should in make and shape follow closely certain well-defined lines. Thus, the head should be of fair size and well balanced; good length of skull and muzzle, which should be broad with wide nostrils; the eye should have a bold, keen, determined look, and the

whole head denote power. The neck should be long, clean, and muscular, quite free from dewlap, except when such is characteristic of a particular strain. The shoulders are very important; they should be nicely sloped, and free from any suspicion of being "loaded." It is generally considered that to insure speed the elbows should be perfectly straight in a line with the body. The chest should be deep, ribs coming down well, giving a certain appearance of square

ness; the back and loins should be very strong and disclose to the touch any amount of muscle; the thighs should be full of power and muscle. The legs should be straight as gun-barrels and the bone great. A failure here is fatal: these legs have to carry a heavy hound for many miles at a great pace over every sort of country, consequently "legs " are the first thing at which a huntsman looks; but bad feet will render good legs useless, so see that the feet are round and compact, with a hard, firm pad and strong nails. The stern should be thick at the root, gradually tapering, carried well up,

and is usually fringed slightly with longish hair. The coat should be short, dense, and rather hard in texture; but as a final covering for all these excellent "points" we must have a coating of "quality." A horse or a hound without "quality" is never really pleasing, and a pack of Foxhounds failing in quality can never be regarded with strong approval. Such is a verbal description of a high-class Foxhound (Fig. 48); but an object-lesson is worth all the written descriptions ever published, and any one wishing to make a study of the breed cannot do better than pay a visit to the summer Hound Show held annually at Peterborough, where he will see Foxhounds in perfection from some of the best packs in England, and as only the very best are sent, the eye is not so confused as when a whole pack is under inspection.

It is now rapidly becoming the custom to leave the ears of the Foxhound as nature intended, it being more than suspected that the time-honoured custom of "rounding " is of no real advantage. One man says he "rounds" his hounds as it "prevents canker to a great extent"; another says he does it "to prevent their being torn"; a third thinks "the loss of blood entailed by the operation does the young entry so much good"; and the great majority do it "because it is the custom." But we live in an enquiring age, and the result of enquiry is to cast considerable doubt upon the value of any of the reasons given.

A pack of Foxhounds, to look well and to work well together, should be uniform in size; what that size should be depends largely upon the country hunted and the taste of the Master. The majority seem to prefer medium-sized hounds, and always have done so, judging from the ancient literature of the breed; but there have been some wonderfully smart, quick-killing "small" packs about 21in. It is generally supposed that bitches are smarter in their work and "cast" quicker than the dog hounds, and many packs divide the sexes and hunt all dog hounds one day, all bitches the next.

The speed of a Foxhound has been a subject of interest for very many years, and it is quite a mistake to suppose it was little thought of in old days. On the contrary, we meet with repeated accounts of matches between favourite hounds of different packs, and challenges being issued to run for sums of money up to ten thousand guineas. "Blain" reports an interesting match for five hundred guineas between a couple nominated by a Mr. Barry and another couple nominated by Mr. Meynell. The distance was four miles on a hot drag, and the time taken was eight minutes and a few seconds. It is recorded that sixty horsemen followed the race, but only twelve could see the finish. A celebrated hound called Merkin is stated by Mr. Daniel to have in a trial covered the same distance in seven minutes.