a town of the ward of Eastington, in the county of Durham, 266 miles from London, and seven from Durham. There is a well-endowed classical school, founded by a former rector; and the livery is a very valuable one, in the gift of the bishop. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 996, in 1811 to 1356, in 1821 to 2905, and in 1831 to 3917. From the combination of various causes, the history of no animal is more interesting than that of the dog. First, his intimate association with man, not only as his valuable servant and protector, but as his constant and faithful companion throughout all the vicissitudes of life. Secondly, from his natural endowments, not consisting solely in the exquisite delicacy of one individual sense, that fineness of olfactory nerve by which the earth and air send forth showers of perfumes; not merely combining memory with reflection that soars above instinctive preservation or self-enjoyment; but qualities of the mind that absolutely stagger us in the contemplation of them, and which we can alone account for in the gradation existing in that wonderful system which (by different links of one vast chain, extending from the first to the last of all things, till it forms a perfect whole) is placed, as Professor Harwood elegantly expresses it, "in the doubtful confines of the material and spiritual worlds." It might have been instinct that enabled Ulysses's dog to recognize him on his re-landing in Ithaca, after an absence which must have set the powers of memory at defiance; and he recognized him with all the acuteness and affection which instinct boasts; but what caused him to expire at his feet on the sudden dawn of unexpected happiness? The heart of man could go no further than this; and although perhaps the poet's fiction is only present to us in this instance, by what name can we call those tender affections, those sincere attachments, those personal considerations, which we ourselves have witnessed in these faithful creatures towards human kind? Virtue alone is too cold a term, as almost every good quality to be found in animated nature is to be found here; and when we reflect upon the miserable existence so often the lot of this kind-hearted animal in this world, and the more than uncertainty that, as Byron says, he will be

"Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth,"

we cannot but feel regret that he should be without his reward. But yet this is a point not exactly decided upon by man; at least it has been considered as a fit subject for speculation by deep and able thinkers. Mr Locke, for example, doubted whether brutes survive the grave, because there is no hint given of it in revelation; but Dr Priestley thought, if the resurrection of the dead be within the proper course of nature, and there be something remaining of every organized body that death does not destroy, there will be reason to conclude that they will be benefited by it as well as ourselves. "The misery," says this forcible writer, and great moral philosopher, "of some animals are exposed to in this life, may induce us to think that a merciful and just God will make them some recompense for it hereafter."

But no animal has met with more variety of respect shown towards him than the dog has. By the law of Moses he was declared unclean, and was held in great contempt by the Jews, as also by the Turks, and kept by both merely for the purposes of scavenging their streets. In every part of the sacred writings, as also in those of Greece and Rome, not only are images introduced from the works of nature, and metaphors drawn from the manners and economy of animals, but the names of them are applied to persons supposed to possess any of their respective qualities. Thus our Saviour, adopting this concise method, applies the word "dog" to men of odious character and violent temper; and, as with us at present, the term of reproach, "he was a son of a dog," was in common use among the Jews. The wife Abigail (1 Samuel, xxv. 3) "was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance; but the man (Nabal) was churlish and evil in his doings, and was of the house of Caleb." But this last, says an able expounder of the Scriptures, is not a proper name. Literally it is, "he was the son of a dog." On the other hand, the idolatrous Egyptians held the dog sacred, and worshipped him in their god Anubis, representing the form of a man with a dog's head, which Juvenal complains of in his fifteenth satire:

"Oppida tota casem venerantur, nemo Dianam."

Anubis, says Strabo, is also the city of dogs, the capital of the Cynopolitan prefecture. "Those animals," says he, "are fed there on sacred aliments, and religion has decreed them a worship." This absurd adoration is confirmed by Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus; and Rome having adopted the ceremonies of Egypt, the Emperor Commodus, when celebrating the Isiac feasts, shaved his head, and himself carried the dog Anubis.

But to proceed to their origin and history. It has been justly remarked, that "all dogs whatsoever, even from the terrible Boar-dog to little Flora, were all one in the first creation;" and every virtue and faculty, size and shape, which we find or improve in every dog upon earth, were originally comprehended in the first parents of the species, nothing having remained constant but their natural conformation; and all the variety which we now behold in them is either the product of climate or the accidental effect of soil, food, or situation, and very frequently the issue alone of human care, curiosity, or caprice. This we take to be the case with other departments of the creation. For example, we only acknowledge two sorts of pigeons, the wild and the tame. Of the first there is but one, the enas, or vinago of Ray. Of the last, the varieties are innumerable. The tame and the wild goose are likewise originally of the same species, the influence of domestication alone having caused the tame ones to differ from the parent stock. Notwithstanding, however, the efforts and effects of human industry and skill, there is fortunately a ne plus ultra in nature which cannot be passed; and as there is a distinct specific difference in all living creatures, a pigeon is still a pigeon, a goose a goose, and a dog remains a dog. Still, although no human device can add one new species to the works of the creation, and nature is still uniform in the main, as we have already observed, in our remarks on the horse, she is always ready to meet the demands of art, a fact beautifully set forth in these lines of Hudibras:

"How fair and sweet the planted rose, Beyond the wild in hedges grows! For without art the noblest seeds Of flowers degenerate into weeds. How dull and rugged, ere 'tis ground And polish'd, is the diamond; Though Paradise were e'er so fair, It was not kept so without care: The whole world, without art and dress, Would be but one great wilderness; And mankind but a savage herd, For all that nature has confer'd. This does but rough-hew and design, Leaves art to polish and refine."

We have good reason to believe that England (in a great measure from the congeniality of its climate) has long been famous for dogs, which, on the authority of Strabo (lib. iv. p. 199), were much sought after by all the surrounding nations. So high indeed in repute were British dogs amongst the Romans after the reduction of our island, not only for excellence in the chase, but fierceness in the combat, that an officer from that country was appointed to reside in the city of Winchester, for the express purpose of collecting and breeding them to supply the amphitheatre, as well as the imperial kennel, at Rome. Nor was this all. As a kind of earnest of our present celebrity in the various sports of the field, all the neighbouring countries, as Dr Campbell remarks, "have done justice to our dogs, adopted our terms and names into their language, received them thankfully as presents, and, when they have an opportunity, purchased them at a dear rate." Thus we find, that when King Alfred requested Fulco, archbishop of Rheims, to send some learned ecclesiastics into England, he accompanied his letter with a present of several dogs, being the most valuable he could, in those times, bestow. The congeniality of our climate has contributed much to this excellence, as our dogs, hounds especially, are found to degenerate in most others; which Somerville alludes to in his poem of the Chase.

"In thee alone, fair land of liberty, Is bred the perfect hound, in scent and speed As yet unrival'd, while in other climes Their virtue fails, a weak degenerate race."

We do not benefit much by research into ancient authors on the subject of dogs; for although they have been much written upon, and immortalised in song by Oppian, Claudian, Gratus, and others (Virgil says little about them), yet, from our ignorance of the sort of animal bred in their time, and the use they made of them, as sportsmen, we can draw no parallel between them and our own that would tend to a good purpose. No doubt the "canis investigator" of Columella, and the "canis odoros" of Claudian, were of what we term a low-scenting sort, as the epithets applied to them signify; but it would be difficult to pronounce an opinion upon the ξενοπόν, or the ἀκαρδίας, of Xenophon, although the characteristic properties of good hunting hounds are very well and accurately laid down by him in the third chapter of his Ἀγροτικά, as well as their defects in form, &c., equally clearly exposed; and his observations on these points might be perused with advantage by huntsmen of the present day.

Great encouragement has been given to the breeding of hounds in England by the various monarchs who have reigned over it. Henry II. was perhaps the first who made himself conspicuous in this department of the sportsman's occupation, being, as one of his historians says of him, "particularly curious in his hounds, that they should be fleet, well-tongued, and consonous." The last epithet is in reference to a property not only little regarded, but nearly lost now, namely, the deep tongue of the old English blood-hound, which Shakspeare alludes to in his celebrated description of those "of the Spartan kind."

"(So flewed, so sanded, and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew. Crook-knee'd, and dewlap't, like Thessalian bulls; Slow in pursuit; but match'd in mouth like bells, Each under each;)"

which would now be considered a disgrace to any man's kennel, and we believe nowhere to be found, bearing the faintest resemblance to the picture drawn of them by this master-hand.

In Queen Elizabeth's time a classification was made by Dr Caius, physician to the queen, in his treatise De Canibus Britannicus, of the different kinds of dogs peculiar to Great Britain; but many of the names (the sleute or sluth hound of the Scotch, for example) having since become obsolete, they were again classed by Mr Daniel, in his Rural Sports, which work contains a full and satisfactory historical account of their origin, different crosses, &c., under the following genealogical heads:—Shepherd's Dog, Iceland Dog, Lapland Dog, Siberian Dog, Hound, Terrier, Large Spaniel, Small Spaniel, Water Dog, Small Water Dog, Bull Dog, Large Danish Dog, Irish Greyhound, English Greyhound, and Mastiff. Taplin, in his Sporting Dictionary, expresses his surprise that the Pointer is omitted; but we consider the Pointer as a dog of foreign extraction, and to our early ancestors certainly unknown.

The original stock from which English hounds have been bred would be very difficult to determine upon; but one thing is certain, namely, that the several sorts with which the country once abounded have been becoming fewer and fewer, in the course of the last hundred years, and now centre in three varieties, namely, the Fox-hound, the Harrier, and the Beagle. The stag-hound is gone, at least there is no pack of stag-hounds now kept in Great Britain, the last having been disposed of and sent abroad, soon after the stag hunting establishment in Devonshire was broken up, a few years ago. The beagle is also become rare; and otter-hounds, such as we may conclude the ξενοπόν of Xenophon to have been, never existed in this country, the dog used in hunting the otter being the common barrier; and perhaps the parent of all, the majestic blood-hound, whose

"Nostrils oft, if ancient fame sings true, Trace the sly felon through the tainted dew,"

is at present very thinly scattered, here and there only, at keepers' lodges in some of our royal forests. But we more than doubt whether a true specimen of the original English blood-hound exists in England at all at the present day; nor is this a matter of regret, as, unlike the rest of his species, his character is said to be that of decided enmity to man. Strabo describes an attack upon the Gauls by these animals, and likewise says they were purchased in Britain by the Celts, for the purposes of war, as well as those of the chase; but it is doubtful whether the most savage of this race would devour man without being trained to it, which we know that they were on a late horrible occasion, when, as stated in Rainsford's History of St Domingo, they were fed upon blood, and a figure representing a negro, containing blood and entrails of beasts, was the object they were led to pursue. In the West Indies, however, the blood-hound, under proper control, has been found useful in tracing runaway negroes, as the sluthound of the Scotch was early applied to discover the haunts of robbers; and to the same purpose also on the confines of England and Wales, where the borderers preyed on the flocks and herds of their neighbours, whenever an opportunity offered. Of deer-stealers, who were so numerous a century or two ago, they were likewise the terror; and well might they have been so, for when once fairly laid upon the foot of one, they seldom failed to hunt up to him. But it is in the civil wars of our own country that blood-hounds are placed in the most conspicuous light, particularly as available to the operations of Wallace and Bruce; and the poetical historians of the two heroes allude to their services to their masters, as well as to the escapes they had from those of their various enemies.

The distinguishing features of the English blood-hound are, long, smooth, and pendulous ears, with a wide forehead, obtuse nose, expansive nostrils, and deep flewed, with an awfully deep but highly sonorous tongue. The prevailing colour is a reddish tan, darkening to the upper part, often with a mixture of black upon the back. In short, the deep-flewed southern hare-hound, now almost extinct in England, very nearly resembles the English blood-hound in form and colour; and a person may picture to

---

1 Campbell's Political Survey, vol. ii. p. 265, note (D). himself the latter, by supposing an animal considerably larger than the old southern hound. In height he is from twenty-six to twenty-eight inches, and sometimes more. The blood-hound of the West Indies is also about the same height, but differs much in form. He has small, erect ears, the nose more pointed, and the hair and skin hard. His countenance is ill featured and ferocious; and although not so heavy as the English blood-hound, he is quite as muscular, and very active.

The distinguishing property of the blood-hound in chase, consists in his never changing from the scent on which he is first laid; and he will hunt by the shed blood of a wounded or dead animal as truly as he will by the foot, which rendered him so useful in pursuit of the deer or sheep-stealer.

The English stag-hound, now nearly gone, is little more than a mongrel blood-hound; at least it is reasonable to conclude, that the cross which produced him was directly from the English blood-hound with some lighter animal of a similar species (perhaps a greyhound, or lurcher) approximating his form, to which conjecture his figure and disposition, as well as his comparative inferiority of scent, appear to add strength. It is asserted in the *Sportsman's Cabinet*, that the stag-hound "was originally an improved cross between the old English deep-tongued southern hound and the fleeter fox-hound, grafted upon the basis of what was formerly called, and better known by the appellation of, blood-hound." But this assertion must have been made without proper reflection; for, in the first place, a cross between the deep-tongued southern and the fox-hound will not produce an animal nearly so large or so strong as the stag-hound; and, secondly, the stag-hound was known in England long before the fox-hound was made use of, or, indeed, before there was an animal at all resembling the one which is now known by that term.

We confess we regret the prospect of the total extinction of the English stag-hound, who, although his form possessed little of that symmetry we now see in the English fox-hound, was a majestic animal of his kind, and possessed the property peculiar alone to the blood-hound and himself; of unerringly tracing the scent he was laid upon, amongst a hundred others; which evinces a superiority, at all events a peculiarity, of nose entirely unknown to our lighter hounds of any breed. The want of being able to distinguish the hunted fox from a fresh-found one is the bane of English fox-hunting; and there are not wanting those who think, that in the breeding of the modern fox-hound, the minor points of high form and blood are more frequently considered than they should be, in preference of a regard to nose.

**The Fox-Hound.**

The English fox-hound of the present day is a perfect living model; but how he has become such, it is in no one's power to determine. Although we do not like to apply the term of mongrel to an animal we so highly respect, yet there can be no doubt of his being one of a spurious race, engrafted with care on the parent stock, namely, the old English blood-hound. There is, we believe also, no doubt that a century and a half ago there was no animal in the world resembling the present breed of fox-hound; and that the fox, when hunted at all in Great Britain, was hunted by a dog much resembling what is now known as the Welch harrier, rough-haired and strong, but of very far from sightly appearance. As all animals, however, improve under the care and guidance of man, until at length they assume the character of a distinct breed; such has evidently been the case with hounds, the breeders of which have, by going from better to better in their choice of the animals from which they have bred, progressively arrived at the perfection we see in them. And such has been the case with all our domestic animals, the breeders of which have alone attained their ends by the choice of individuals of the highest excellence in their kind, and by a judicious selection of size, form, and qualities likely to produce the result. There can be no doubt, then, but that by pursuing this course throughout a number of generations with the hound, an animal has been produced of what may be called quite a new variety in the canine race, answering the description and purposes of our present fox-hound. But the questions may be asked, Whence the necessity for this change, and forcing, as it were, nature from her usual course? Why not be content with the low-scenting, plodding hounds of our forefathers, which, from the superiority of their nose, not only displayed hunting, in the strict acceptation of that term, to the highest advantage, but very rarely missed the game they pursued? These questions are satisfactorily answered in a few words; first, as the fox is not now found by the drag, and the number of those animals is so greatly increased, the necessity for this extreme tenderness of nose does not exist; and, secondly, by reason of the blood of the race-horse having gradually mixed with that of our hunters, the sort of hound we have been alluding to was not found to be adapted to their increased speed; and particularly as, in proportion as nature lavished this fine sense of smelling on the old-fashioned hound, was he given to "hang" or dwell upon the scent, thereby rendering the length of a chase (which, to please the present taste, should, like Chatham's battle, be "sharp, short, and decisive") beyond the endurance of a modern sportsman. It is true, Mr Beckford, in his *Thoughts upon Hunting*, gives an instance of a pack of old-fashioned hounds, which ran in a string, as it were, one following the other, and yet killing twenty-nine foxes in twenty-nine successive runs, each fault being hit off by an old southern hound. But what would our hard-riding, modern sportsmen think of this as pastime? Nevertheless, all who witnessed, as we have done, the style of hunting of the Devonshire stag-hounds, will remember that there was a close similarity between them in chase, and the pack Mr Beckford speaks of. But, as the same eminent author afterwards observes, it is the dash of the fox-hound of the present day that distinguishes him from all others of his genus, and hounds must now "carry a head."

The breeding a pack of fox-hounds to a pitch bordering on perfection is a task of no ordinary difficulty; the best proof of which is to be found in the few sportsmen who have succeeded in it. Not only is every good quality to be regarded, and if possible obtained, but every fault or imperfection to be avoided; and although the good qualities of hounds are very soon reckoned, their faults in shape and performance present a longer catalogue. Independently of shape, which combines strength with beauty, the highest virtue in a fox-hound is not in the exquisiteness of his nose, but in his being true to the line his game has gone, and a stout runner to the end of a chase. But he must not only thus signalize himself in chase; he must also be a patient hunter, with a cold scent, or with the pack at fault. In short, to be a hard runner and a good hunter, and steady on the line, which "a good hunter" implies, constitutes a perfect hound, when combined with good form.

The faults of hounds, too often innate, can only be cured by education. The greatest of all are, skirting, or not being true on the line, and throwing the tongue improperly; first, without a scent, which is known by the term babbling; secondly, not throwing it at all, or running mute; and, thirdly, on a wrong scent, which is called running riot. The latter, however, is the least vice of the two, because generally curable by the lash; but the fault of skirting is too often innate; at all events, too often incurable. Thus has the breeder of the hound to guard against propensities as well as faults; and a late accredited writer on the subject says, "In modern times, the system of hunting is so much improved, so much more attention is paid to the condition of hounds and their style of work, that in this enlightened age a master of hounds thinks it a reflection on his judgment if one hound in his pack is detected in a fault."

The selection of dog and bitch to breed from is a nice point for a master of hounds, or his huntsman, to decide upon; but, if he aim at excellence, he must keep his eye on perfection. In no animal is perfect symmetry so desirable as in a fox-hound, for without it there is no dependence on his services, however good may be his nature. We will first describe him in the words of a very old writer, and afterwards in those of Mr Beckford, when it will appear that there is a strong resemblance in the portraits drawn by each. "His head," says the former, "ought to be of middle proportion, rather long than round; his nostrils wide; his ears large; his back bowed; the fillets great; the haunches large; the thighs well trussed; the ham straight; the tail big near the reins, and the rest slender to the end; the leg big; the sole of the foot dry, and formed like a fox's, with the claws great." The latter says, "There are necessary points in the shape of a hound which ought always to be attended to; for if he be not a perfect symmetry, he will neither run fast nor bear much work; he has much to undergo, and should have strength proportioned to it. Let his legs be straight as arrows; his feet round, and not too large; his shoulders back; his breast rather wide than narrow; his chest deep; his back broad; his head small; his neck thin; his tail thick and brushy; if he carry it well so much the better." Now the hound that would answer to either of these descriptions would disgrace no man's kennel, and one resembling the latter would be an ornament to it; but with regard to the former, it must be borne in mind, that it is from the pen of a sportsman who wrote a century and half ago, when, as has been before observed, there is reason to believe no animal in the perfect form of the modern fox-hound was to be found in this or in any other country. Judges of the animal, however, will be disposed to think with us, that there is much of the real character of the hound in the sentence we have quoted from this old writer; such as the long rather than round head; the wide nostrils (Pliny says they should be flat, solid, and blunt); and the dry, fox's foot. But the "bowed back" appears to spoil all, unless by it is meant that gentle rise in the loins which the judge of hounds admires, and without which, the late Mr Chute of the Vine, in Hampshire, who hunted that country for more than thirty years, gave it as his opinion, no hound was able to maintain his speed for an hour over hilly and ploughed countries when "it carries;"—a technical term for the earth clinging to the foot, which it will do after a slight frost on the preceding night; necessarily adding much to the natural weight of the hound. Beckford gives us the modern fox-hound, and perfect, with the exception of the mention of one or two material points. "His chest should be deep," says he, "and his back broad;" but he has omitted a point much thought of by the modern sportsman, namely, the back ribs, which should also be deep, as in a strong-bodied horse, of which we say, when so formed, that he has a good "spur-place," a point highly esteemed in him. Nor is either of these writers sufficiently descriptive of the hinder legs of the hound; for although the "large haunch and well-trussed thigh" of the former denote power and muscle, nevertheless there is a length of thigh discernible in first-rate hounds, which, like the "well let-down hock" of the horse, gives them much superiority of speed, and is also a great security against lamming themselves in leaping fences, which they are more apt to do when they become blown, and consequently weak.

The fore legs "straight as arrows" is an admirable illustration of perfection in those parts, by Beckford; for, as in a bow, or bandy-legged man, nothing is so disfiguring to a hound as his having his elbows out, which is likewise a great check to speed. In some countries the round, cat-like foot is indispensable, and agreeable to the eye in all; but we would not reject a well-shapen puppy in other respects for somewhat of an open foot, provided his ankles or fetlocks were good, a point we consider of the greatest consequence to all quadruped animals. The shoulders of the fox-hound should resemble those of the horse—oblique, but at the same time strong; for a narrow chested hound is almost certain to get shaken by hard work, and consequently unlikely to endure beyond his third season.

As Beckford recommends the small head, we may presume the form and fashion of this point began to be changed in his time, and has, we think, been carried to too great an excess in the fox-hound of the present day, particularly in one or two kennels (the Belvoir, for example), where very short, as well as small heads, are a leading characteristic. For ourselves, we like some length of head in the fox-hound, not being able to divest ourselves of the idea of a cross with the pointer when we see him with a short head and a snubbed nose. Beckford also says the neck should be thin. We would add, moderately thin. We dislike a thin neck in any animal but the cow or the stag; at the same time we dislike a short, thick neck in a hound. His neck should be moderately long and moderately thick, with the muscles clearly developed; it should rise gracefully out of his shoulders, with a slight curve or crest, and, to completely satisfy the eye, should be quite free from exuberances of flesh and hair on the lower side of it, called by huntsmen "chitterlings" or ruffles, the hound having them being termed "throaty;" although there are numerous exceptions to this rule, as some of the best hounds England ever saw have been throaty; and although we are aware that one individual instance will prove neither the rule nor its exception, we can go as far back as to Mr Meynell's famous stallion hound Gusman, for as throaty, and yet as good a fox-hound as we ever remember to have seen. We agree with Beckford, that the "tail," now called stern, of a hound, should be "thick," and moderately "brushy;" and if well carried, it is a great ornament to a fox-hound. But there is one part of it which the master of a pack likes to see nearly deprived of its covering, and that is its tip, which, when in that state, is an infallible proof of a hound being a good, and not a slack, drawer of covers. As a perfect model we refer to the portrait of Nosegay, a hound belonging to the Earl of Kintore. Plate CCXCIV.

But to return to breeding the fox-hound. In the breeding of some animals, beauty of shape is often dependent on the caprice of fashion, or the taste of the breeder; but in the breeding of hounds no such latitude can be given, for here beauty, or symmetry of shape, is alone in reference to utility, and adaptation of parts to the purposes to which they are to be applied. Yet the breeder of fox-hounds has one point further to go; he must, as we before remarked, guard against propensities, which run in the blood of these animals perhaps stronger than their good qualities, and will sooner or later break out in their work. In the election then of a dog for a bitch, or a bitch for a dog, these matters must be attentively considered; and no man should breed from hounds of either sex that come under any of the following denominations, viz. not of a docile sort, but very difficult to enter to their game; given to run mute; to hang on a scent; or to be skirters; net

1 Colonel Cook's Observations on Fox-hunting, &c. only not true to the line, but given to run riot either in cover or in chase; and, above all things, if found evidently deficient in nose, and not able to run at head. Good constitution should likewise be looked to; but we would not reject a stallion hound, or a brood bitch, merely for being slack drawers, or for not being always at the head in chase, provided they were well bred, of good form, and true to the line, in cover, and out.

As to the proper combination of form, that must be self-evident to the breeder of hounds. If a bitch is a little high on her leg, or light, she should be put to a short-legged, strong dog, and of course vice versa; if rather light in her tongue, that defect may be remedied by an opposite property in a dog. The defects in legs and feet can only be remedied by such means; and fortunate is it for the owner of an otherwise perfect and excellent bitch, that such remedies are at hand. Length and shortness of frame, as well as coarse points, are all to be obviated and altered in the same way, making allowance for the fact, that the laws of nature are not always certain. Constitution can likewise be mended by having recourse to that which is good (and none so easily detected as the dog's); and colour changed if required. In fact, as Beckford says, "It is the judicious cross that makes the complete pack;" and it was the remark of this practical writer, and therefore high authority amongst sportsmen, that "he saw no reason why the breeding of hounds may not improve till improvement can go no further." The question may be asked, is not his prediction verified?

But the act of crossing hounds, as indeed all other animals, although never thoroughly divested of chance, is one of more difficulty than most people would imagine, and one indeed which, by its results, would often baffle, if not puzzle, the profoundest of our modern physiologists. Our space will not admit of our going at length into this intricate subject, but great mistakes, we conceive, have been made by masters of fox-hounds, in breeding too much in-and-in, from nearest affinities, instead of having recourse to an alien cross. This was peculiarly apparent in the packs of two very celebrated masters of fox-hounds, the late Sir Thomas Mostyn, Bart., and the late John Corbet, Esq. of Sundorne Castle, Shropshire (the former of whom hunted Oxfordshire, and the latter Warwickshire, each for upwards of thirty years), who bred in-and-in, Sir Thomas from a bitch called Lady, and her produce; and Mr Corbet from a hound called Trojan, and his produce, to the great injury of their respective packs. We are aware it is asserted that a pack of fox-hounds should have the appearance and character of being of one family; but this expression is not to be taken in its literal construction. It is in the conformity of their character and appearance that they should bear a close resemblance to each other, and not in their close consanguinity. It is true, the celebrated pack of Mr Warde, the present father of the field, and a master of fox-hounds for the unparalleled period of fifty-seven years, which sold for two thousand guineas, only contained, in 1825, three couples of hounds not of his own blood, and those the produce of one stallion hound, Mr Assheton Smith's Reubens. But we have no proof of Mr Warde's hounds being better for adhering so closely to his own sort; on the contrary, it is the opinion, we believe, of the sporting world, reluctantly admitted, in consideration of the well-merited celebrity of their owner, that, latterly, the slackness of this renowned pack, unrivalled in fine form, was to be attributed to that circumstance. On the other hand, the rare but valuable combination of dash and nose, a match for the cold and ungenial Oxfordshire hills, for which the Duke of Beaufort's pack has been so long conspicuous, has been traced to his Grace's late huntsman, Philip Payne (said by Colonel Cook, in his Observations on Fox-Hunting, to be "the best judge of breeding hounds in the kingdom"), going from home for his blood, and sending his bitches to the celebrated stallion hounds of the best kennels within his reach. This, however, it must be remembered, is not within the command of every man's purse, the expenses attending sending bitches to a distance, under any circumstances, being heavy; as not only must they be placed under the care of a trusty servant on their journey, but there are other occult expenses attending them, which none but masters of hounds are aware of. It is, however, a notorious fact, that the produce of some stallion hounds, if they have a fair chance by the bitch, seldom fail in turning out well; and perhaps the most signal instance of "like begetting like" in this species of animal, is that of Mr Osbaldeston's Furrier having been the sire of an entire pack in that gentleman's kennel when he hunted the Quorn country in Leicestershire, which he would occasionally take to the field, amounting to more than thirty-five couples, although, as may be supposed, they were generally mingled with the rest of his kennel, which at that period contained a hundred couples of hounds. These Furrier hounds gave little trouble in the entering of them, and proved very true line-hunters, and every thing that fox-hounds should be. The annals of fox-hunting likewise record similar instances of the peculiar properties of stallion hounds transmitting their virtues to many succeeding generations, especially in the instances of the Pycbey Abelard, the Beaufort, and the New Forest Justice, Mr Ward's Senator, Mr Meynell's Gusman, Mr Musters's Collier, Mr Corbet's Trojan, Lord Yarborough's Ranter, with many others of more recent days, but too numerous to mention here.

The size, or, we should rather say, the height, of a foxhound, is a point upon which there has been much difference of opinion. The long-established pack of the late Mr Chute were at least three inches below the standard of his neighbour Mr Villebois's large pack; also as much below that of his Grace the Duke of Cleveland, who had for many years also a large and a small pack; and at least four inches lower than Mr Warde's, in whose kennel were hounds full twenty-six inches high. Various arguments are made use of by the advocates of large and small hounds. Those of the former assert that they get better across a deep and strongly fenced country than smaller ones; whilst the admirers of the latter insist upon their being better climbers of hills, more active in cover, and quicker out of it when their fox is gone; and are oftener found to be perfect in form and shape. As to uniformity in size, how pleasingsoever it may be to the eye, it is by no means essential to the well-doing of hounds in the field, and has been disregarded by some of our first sportsmen, the great Mr Meynell for one, who never drafted a good hound for being over or under size; neither did Mr Assheton Smith, when he succeeded to his, Mr Meynell's, country. The great object of both was to breed them with muscular power and bone, combined with as much symmetry as could be obtained; and to be equal in speed and good qualities, rather than equal in height.

We consider the proper standard of height in fox-hounds to be from twenty-one to twenty-two inches for bitches, and from twenty-three to twenty-four for dog hounds. The minimum and maximum size of the last fifty years would have been found in the kennels of Mr Chute and Mr Warde; the Duke of Cleveland and Mr Villebois coming next to Mr Warde in what may be called the maximum class. Mr Chute's motto over his kennel door was, "multum in parvo," which was his great aim; and although very full of power, and particularly neat in appearance, his hounds did not more than average twenty-one inches. On the other hand, many of Mr Warde's bitches, the most splendid animals of their kind and sex the world has ever yet seen, were better than twenty-three, and some of his dog hounds twenty-six inches high, which