as about the standard of the original Devonshire stag- hounds. It may be said of hounds, however, as has been said of horses, that their height has little to do with their size, as far at least as their powers of action are concerned; and doubtless in all animals that labour, a medium height is the best.

The amount of hounds bred annually will depend on the strength of the kennel, and the number of days hunt- ing in the week which the country they are intended for requires. From sixty to eighty couples are about the complement for a four-days-a-week country, which will require the breeding of a hundred couples of puppies every year, allowing the usual diminution of the entry by mal- conformation, under size, and that bane to the kennel, the distemper, which often takes off a moiety of them. As the period of gestation in the female dog is somewhat over two calendar months, the fox-hound bitch should, if she can be spared, be put to dog in January, as then she will litter in the spring, when the weather is comparatively mild (cold being destructive of young animals of this sort), and the puppies will then come early into kennel, gene- rally be of good size, and powerful; and be entered with- out loss of time. The tips of their sterns being pinched off, and their dew-claws cut, whelps should be taken to their walks at about two months old; and if to one where there is plenty of milk or whey, they will be the better for it. Whelps walked at butchers' houses grow to a great size, but they are apt to be heavy-shouldered and throaty, and otherwise out of shape. If possible to avoid it, puppies should never be tied up, as perpetually drawing at the collar-chain throws their elbows out, and otherwise da- mages their legs, particularly by spreading their feet, and altering the form of their ankles, although it is some- times almost impossible to avoid it, from their proneness to do mischief. If old bitches are bred from, they should be put to young dogs, and of course vice versa; and a bitch should not be worked for at least the last month of her time; and immediately on her whelps being taken from her, a dose of physic should be given her.

It is said that the dog in a state of nature is subject to few diseases, and for these he finds his cure by an instinctive faculty; in a domesticated state, however, he is subject to many, and some of an awful nature, which may be classed among the opprobria medicorum, no certain remedy being discovered for them. Amongst these is one called the distemper, not known by our forefathers, but at present become a sort of periodical disorder in kennels, to the de- struction of thousands of young hounds annually. The first symptoms of this disease are, generally, a dry husky cough; want of appetite, and consequent loss of flesh; extreme dulness, and a running from the nose and eyes. As the disease advances, it is attended with twitchings of the head, while the animal becomes excessively weak in the loins and hinder extremities; is greatly emaciated; runs at the eyes and nose, and smells very offensively. At length the twitchings assume the appearance of con- vulsive fits, accompanied with giddiness, which cause the dog to turn round; he has a constant inclination to dung, with obstinate costiveness at one time, or incessant purg- ing at another. Finally, the stomach becomes extremely irritable; everything swallowed is instantly thrown up; and the dog generally dies in a spasmodic fit.

For the cure of this disorder many remedies have been prescribed; but as none of them can be relied upon as specific, we decline giving them, and prefer transcribing the following observations of an intelligent and experi- enced huntsman in the service of a noble duke, accom- panied by a comment upon it by a noble lord, also a prac- tical sportsman, hunting his own fox-hounds.

"As soon," says the former, "as the young hounds come in from quarters, a sharp look-out is kept for the distemper; and as soon as any of its symptoms appear, a dose of cold-drawn castor oil is given, and the following morning a dose of calomel and jalap. About seven grains of the former and twenty of the latter made into a bolus, and put over their throats before they have tasted any thing, and their heads coupled up above the level of their bodies for two hours, so as to prevent them from vomiting up the medicine, which they are certain to do if this is not carefully attended to. They are then to have their broth and their meat. The oil and bolus to be repeated in a day or two as symptoms require; that is to say, if the fever runs high, repeat the bolus, and, if only to keep the bowels open, the oil in small quantities. Indeed the great thing is attending to circumstances, and acting accordingly; as, for instance, nothing can be more different than when flux attends the distemper, and when fits and obstinate costiveness is the case. I believe, however, that at first a good scouring in both cases is of service. In flux, of course, don't repeat the calomel, but take moderate means to stop it, as flux in a minor degree tends to keep off both fever and fits. To allay the flux, arrow-root, or boiled milk and flour porridge. There is no doubt that laudanum is the surest method to stop it, but then it is sure to end with fits. Fits at the beginning are no bad sign, and at the end nothing can be worse. I never either approve of bleeding or vomiting in the distemper; the first weak- ening too much, the latter creating and adding to the ir- ritability of their stomachs."

"With the foregoing plain, sensible, and simple treat- ment," says the noble lord in his comment on the fore- going observations, "my junior experience perfectly agrees with the opinion of ...............; but I revert to what he justly adds about 'circumstances,' and differ with him about the bleeding, as I think a good scouring out, and bleeding, before any thing symptomatic of the dis- ease has fairly begun, highly commendable. But, vice versa, for instance, if you bleed after the disease has fairly taken root, the lungs, nine cases in ten, being affected, it is ten to one you kill the dog; but, if done early in the day, I cannot but think it is of much service, prevents fever, and in many cases makes the disease less violent. I think perhaps the treatment of whelps, after they come in from their healthy walks to the close confinement of sometimes an ill-kept kennel, is the cause of the distemper taking more violent hold of them than it otherwise would do; and amongst the hundred pretended receipts of many huntsmen, the remark is a justly correct one, of what may cure one dog will kill another. But here .............. and his 'circumstances' put you right. What might be advisable would be this: As soon as your puppies come in, look them attentively over; divide the well-walked whelps from those that have been ill walked; bleed and scour well out the fat lot, paying of course attention to their diet, cleanliness, and exercise; and cherish the poor lot by the best food, giving them the castor oil without the calomel or the lancet. But a lot of well-bred fox-hound whelps are not to be left to the care of a whipper-in or a boiler, unless he is a perfectly sober, attentive, experi- enced man; for in this disease in the animal, as in the human species, the patient must be most attentively and closely watched."

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1 Colonel Cook says he has "sometimes" found the following, efficacious:—Calomel three grains, cathartic ext. seven ditto, soap seven ditto, emetic tartar one half grain. Make three pills, and give one every other day. Vaccination was tried in some kennels as a preventive, but it failed, and was abandoned. The management of hounds in kennel has undergone great changes for the better since Mr. Beckford's day; and, divesting the mind of the inferiority of horse flesh over cow or bullock flesh, the food of hounds, both in its nature and the cooking of it, is such as man might not only not reject, if necessity compelled him to have recourse to it, but such as he would thrive and do well upon.

It is a common expression, that "anything will do for dogs," and experience informs us they will exist upon very miserable fare; but hounds, to be in condition, must have everything good of its kind, and also well cooked. Were a master of hounds, or huntsman, of the present day, to follow Beckford's advice, of putting his hounds to a horse fresh killed, after a hard day, his brother sportsmen would think him mad; nor is there scarcely anything now used in our first-rate kennels but the best oatmeal (Scotch or Irish is the best), one year old, and well-boiled horse flesh, quite free from taint. The meal is put into the copper when the water boils, and should be boiled up a second time, and, in all, for at least two hours; for nothing is worse for the wind of hounds than meal not thoroughly boiled. When taken out of the boiler, it forms a substance resembling coarse rice pudding; and when the fresh flesh, which is shredded, and the broth in which it is boiled, are added to it in the trough, and very well mixed, it forms the best and highest food that can be given to hounds.

In some kennels, after the example of that famous huntsman the late Thomas Oldacre, the meal and flesh are boiled together, with the idea that more of the virtue of the flesh is then imparted to the meal than when it is merely mixed with the broth; but the practice is not general. But such is the difference of constitution in hounds, and the aptitude of some, over others, to gain flesh, or become foul, persons who are particular as to the condition of their pack have troughs filled accordingly, that is, one with thinner food than another, for hounds of the former description. No animal in the world is so soon up and down in his condition as the dog; and, strange as it may appear, the effect of two or three extra mouthfuls of thick meat will be visible on some hounds on the second day after they have eaten them. Nevertheless, the dog being strictly a carnivorous animal, cannot stand hard work without flesh, which he should have a fair allowance of once a day, according as his constitution may require it.

Some masters of hounds, however (the justly celebrated Mr Ralph Lambton one of them), do not feed with flesh on the day before hunting, giving only meal and broth; and this on the supposition that the faculty of scent is more delicately susceptible without it. Young hounds lately come from walks should be fed twice in the day, as they do not always, at first, take to kennel food.

Colonel Cook is thus explicit and correct on the subject of feeding hounds, and their condition, the result of many years experience, and great attention to the kennel. "It is quite certain," says he, "a hound too high in condition cannot run a burst, neither can a poor half-starved one kill an afternoon fox; a hound, therefore, cannot be considered as fit to be brought out, if he is either too high or too low. I like to see their ribs, but their loins should be well filled up, and they should be hollow in their flanks: he that is full in the flanks is sure to be fat in the inside, and consequently not fit for work. The feeding of hounds, and the bringing them to cover, able to run a burst, or kill an afternoon fox, is not altogether a thing so easy as some people imagine; in fact, it requires nearly as much trouble to get a hound into condition as it does a horse; and if the greatest attention is not paid to this particular, you cannot expect to catch many foxes. It is the condition of a hound which gives him the advantage over the animal he hunts. Nevertheless their constitutions differ as much as those of the human species; some require thick food, others thin; the same quantity which may be requisite for Ranter, if given to Rallywood, would render him unable to run a yard. Some time before hunting (say about three weeks), they should have plenty of walking exercise, and salts given them once a week. If a hound is at any time very foul, the following receipt is very efficacious:—Three grains of Ethiops mineral, five grains of calomel, made into a ball: the hound must of course be carefully kept from cold water."

In the summer time, when hounds are out of work, they do not require flesh more than twice a week, and succulent vegetables in their food are at this time useful. They are also physicked and bled at the close of one season, and before the commencement of the next; and, if necessary, dressed over with a sulphureous mixture during the idle months. But some owners of hounds, and huntsmen, object to dressing them, conceiving that it opens their pores too much, and subjects them to rheumatic affections.

One recent and great improvement in kennel discipline is, a small reservoir of water within the walls, of sufficient depth to cleanse the legs of hounds, but not to wet their bodies, which they are made to walk through immediately on their coming home. Upon being turned into their lodging room, they commence licking themselves dry, which, as a dog's tongue is proverbially called his "doctor," is most beneficial to their feet, by clearing them of sand or gravel, as well as healing any trifling wounds which they may have received. In the Duke of Cleveland's kennel, this reservoir is filled with broth, which, in addition to its healing properties, induces hounds to lick their feet still more than water does. In flinty countries, the feet of hounds are very frequently wounded, which is a great disadvantage to those a little inclined to do wrong, as they are compelled to miss their turn, and so get above themselves. It also obliges a gentleman to keep a larger number of hounds than this country would otherwise require.

Hounds are fed on the day before hunting about eleven o'clock A.M., but some delicate feeders require to be let into the troughs a second time. After hunting, they are fed as soon as they have licked themselves dry, which, by the warmth that arises from their bodies when shut up, is very soon effected; and in the summer time it is reckoned safer to feed them in the evening, as they then rest quieter throughout the night, and are less disposed to quarrel.

Colour of Hounds.

Independently of the justness and elegance of figure in animals, which adapt them to the uses or ends of their creation, nature has been profuse in the adornment of the surface of their bodies by various beautiful colours. But in proof that the Creator never errs from his design in any of the qualities he has communicated to his creatures, and that he adorns not merely for the sake of ornament alone, these beauties conferred upon them are found greatly to contribute to their well-being; for with them they have received the consciousness of possessing, and a desire to preserve them. In fact, it is this which attaches them so closely to their being, and renders them so attentive to cleanse, ornament, and take care of themselves, as we every day see they do; and to preserve, in all its lustre, the enamel which nature has given them. And we may go even one step farther than this. An accurate observer of animals will perceive, that they are not only conscious of their own beauty, but are capable of beholding and admiring it in others. This is undoubtedly the case with regard to both sexes of the same species: never are they so atten- tive to display the graces which nature has bestowed upon them, never are they so ostentatious, as when they are together, which is evident from their gambols and frolics; and, if we may judge of them from our own feelings, how greatly must this disposition contribute to their mutual felicity.

In no animal is variety of colours more conspicuous than in hounds, and it adds greatly to their appearance when we see them in a body in the kennel, but still more so in the field. The prevailing ones with the fox-hound are these: Tan (not common); black (not common); black and white and tan (the most common); milk white (not common); red (very rare); blue (the same). Next come the blended, or mixed colours, known in the kennel as "pies." There is the red pie; the blue pie; the yellow pie; the grey pie; the lemon pie (very handsome); the hare pie; and the badger pie, which last is very characteristic of the fox-hound. The fox-hound is sometimes ticked, that is, his coat is dotted with small white specks on a dark ground, but he is rarely what is called "mottled" (motley); and, we believe, what is known by "a blue mottled hound" is not to be found among fox-hounds, being peculiar to harriers and beagles. There was for many years a pack of "blue mottled" harriers kept near Croydon, in Surrey.

It is asserted that the original colour of the English fox-hound was fallow, or pale yellow (Shakspeare speaks of a fallow greyhound); and we are inclined to this opinion from its being spoken of in several old works upon hunting, as the "best colour for hounds that hunt the hart or roe;" and there can be no doubt of our fox-hounds being originally descended from that breed of dog, be it what it may. As we know that a recurrence to original colour frequently takes place in animals and birds, after its disappearance throughout several generations, this may probably account for the various pied hounds we see in kennels, the produce of hounds of distinct colours, perhaps merely black and white, and often of those nearly black. Moreover, at Ashdown Park, in Berkshire, an old seat of the Craven family, there is a picture of a pack of fox-hounds, above a hundred years old, in which every hound is either fallow coloured or red.

The Tongue, or Cry of Hounds.

During the early stages of mental progress, the ear is of more importance to man than the eye. Indeed at all times sounds, by association, become the signs of ideas; and the great variety in the voice of nature must have been designed to meet the peculiar tastes and purposes of the countless multitudes that dwell on the face of the earth. That the cry of hounds is a voluntary noise, proceeding from a powerful organic impulse, is quite apparent, as is also the purpose for which the impulse is given; namely, to announce their having discovered the scent of an animal, either obnoxious to their notice, or desirable as food, and by calling their straggling companions together, and uniting their forces, the better to enable them to secure their prey. On the other hand, here is mercy shown to the prey they are in pursuit of. The tongue of the hound gives notice of his approach; and he does not pounce upon his victim as the silent greyhound does, which Gratius, in his poem on coursing, alludes to in the following verse:

"Sic canis illa suos taciturna supervenit hostes."

But the cry of hounds, melodious and heart-cheering as it even now is, has lost much of its poetical interest, from the change man has made in the natural organization of the animal from which it proceeds; and we shall never again hear of a master of a pack, after the manner of Addison's knight, returning a hound that had been given to him as an "excellent bass," whereas the note he wanted was a "counter-tenor." The great Bedford, however, was something of the worthy knight's opinion; for he says, in his Thoughts upon Hunting, "If we attended more to the variety of the notes frequently to be met with in the tongues of hounds, it might greatly add to the harmony of the pack." This is well in theory. The natural organization of the dog is musical; he is, in fact, a victim to musical sensibility; and we may reasonably suppose that the notes of his companions in the chase may be as pleasing to himself as to his huntsman; but we more than doubt whether a huntsman of this day would draft a highly-bred and beautiful young bitch, as good too as she looks to be, merely because her light, fox-hunting tongue might be somewhat drowned, and now and then lost, in the general chorus of the pack. He would rather say, "Let every tongue be a fox," and I'll leave the rest to chance." But, on a good day for hearing it, what natural sound is more delightful and animating than that of hounds in full cry, in the deep recesses of an echoing-giving wood? Neither would those writers who have availed themselves of the beauty and sublimity which allusions to sounds in nature stamp on their various compositions, have at all descended from their eminence if they had, like Shakspeare, delighted as much in bringing the soul in contact with such a sound as this, as with the rolling of the thunder, or the howling of the storm.

The Age of Hounds.

The dog exhibits no exact criteria of age after the first two years, during which time the whiteness and evenness of his teeth are a pretty certain test of his not exceeding that period. An old hound, however, cannot be mistaken if only looked in the face, where he shows old age nearly as distinctly as man. As to the length of services of hounds, that depends upon circumstances. Few are found in a kennel after their eighth year, and very few after their ninth; and not many hard-working hounds can "run up," or keep pace with the rest, after their fifth season at most. Hounds are in their prime in the third and fourth years; and although there are a few instances, such as Sir Richard Sultons Lucifer, the Beaufort Nector, and the Cheshire Villager, of their hunting in their twelfth, eleventh, and tenth year, the average of their work cannot, we fear, be placed beyond four seasons. Old hounds are useful in the field, but when they cannot run up with the pack, they should be drafted. The perfection of a pack consists in the great body of it being composed of hounds quite in their prime.

Separation of the Sexes.

The separation of the sexes in the kennel and in the field is one of the late innovations in the sporting world, and generally considered as a good one. In the first place, it pleases the eye to see a pack of hounds nearly all of a size, which cannot be the case when it is composed of dogs and bitches mixed; and the character of the animal is likewise more uniformly displayed when confined to one individual sex. Secondly, by the total separation of dogs and bitches in the kennel and in the field, the former are less inclined to quarrel, and the latter are more at their ease, than when subject to the constant, and, at times, importunate solicitations, of the male sex. Of their performances in the field, however, when taken into it separately, some difference of opinion exists; and each

1 "Every tongue a fox," is a well-known sporting phrase. sex has its advocates. With a good fox before them, and a warm scent, bitches are decidedly quicker, and more off-hand in their work, than dog hounds; but with a colder scent, or at fault, the general opinion is, that they are not so patient, and more given to over-run it. That they are superior in "dash," which, Beckford says, is the distinctive characteristic of a fox-hound, we believe is universally acknowledged; and a celebrated master of hounds, who hunted them himself several seasons in Leicestershire, has been heard frequently to say, that if his kennel would have afforded it, he would never have taken a dog hound into the field. That, in the canine race, the female has more of elegance and symmetry of form, consequently more of speed, than the male, is evident to a common observer; but there is nothing to lead us to the conclusion, that, in the natural endowment of the senses, any superiority exists. It is however remarkable, that the Latins, when speaking of hunting, or "sporting dogs," as we call them, generally use the feminine gender, one instance of which is to be found in the second ode of the fifth book of Horace (multa cane), which ode every sportsman ought to read, as it gives so pleasing a picture of a country life.

**Names.**

The naming of hounds and horses has nearly exhausted human invention, as well as classical research. Beckford furnishes a list of more than eight hundred names for hounds, alphabetically arranged. But the naming of hounds is somewhat under metrical control; for it is not only confined to words of two and three syllables, but their quantity, or rather their time, must be consulted. For example, a dactyl, as Lucifer, answers well for the latter; but who could hollon Aurora? a trochee, or an iambus, is necessary for the former, the sponde dwelling too long on the tongue to be applied smartly to a hound. But there ought to be a nomenclator, as of old, at every kennel door; for it is but few persons unconnected with a pack that can recollect their names until after a rather long acquaintance with them, from the great similarity of form, character, as well as sometimes of colour, in old-established kennels. "How is it possible," said a young master of fox-hounds a few years ago, "that I should distinguish every hound in my kennel by his name, when I find three spots on one side of their body, and five perhaps on the other?" There have been, however, and still are, persons who can see a large kennel of hounds once drawn to their feeding troughs, and call them all by their names afterwards, the result alone of a keen and practised eye.

The price of hounds is strangely altered within the space of half a century, or less; and on this subject we cannot do better than quote Colonel Cook. "Hounds," says he (p. 6), "have always been much undervalued; we sometimes hear of eight hundred or even a thousand guineas as the price of a hunter, and the sum of three or four hundred is often considered as a mere trifle; whereas a pack of hounds, on which every thing depends, was only considered worth a few hundreds. Yet Shakspeare himself appears to have known the value of a hound; for in his "Induction" to the Taming of the Shrew, a nobleman returned from hunting thus speaks of his hounds with delight to his huntsman:

"Huntsman. Why, Belman is as good as lie, my lord; He cried upon it at the meerest lost, And twice today pick'd out the dullest scent; Trust me, I take him for the better dog.

"The sum of twenty pounds for a single hound in Shakspeare's time," continues the colonel, "and that not the best in the pack either, was no considerable price. I am not alluding to 'a lot of curs;' but surely a well-bred, established pack of fox-hounds, including brood bitches, and puppies at walk, must be cheap at a thousand or twelve hundred pounds."

Now the value of anything is what it will fetch; and how far an established pack of fox-hounds is cheap at a thousand or twelve hundred pounds, is a matter of consideration with reference to concomitant circumstances; but that they will have cost the seller a great deal more, there can be no doubt. We should put the average price at something less than either of the above sums, although, within the last dozen years, several packs have been sold for the former sum; and the justly renowned one of Mr Warde, the present Father of the Field, fetched two thousand guineas; and the late Lord Middleton gave Mr Osbaldeston the same sum for ten couples of hounds out of his kennel.

**The Harrier.**

The modern harrier bears no greater resemblance to the one in use fifty years back, than the hunter of the present day to that ridden by our grandfathers. In fact, he is now nothing less than the fox-hound in miniature, which it is the endeavour of all breeders to have him. Their qualities also are as opposite as their form, the one delighting to dwell upon the scent, the other a little inclined, perhaps, to the other extreme. But the taste of the day for all sports of the field would not endure the tedious exactness of the old psalm-singing harrier; and not only in point of diversion, but on the score of the pot, the balance is greatly in favour of the improved variety. Before the old-fashioned harrier, the hare had time to play all sorts of tricks, to double on her foil, and so stain the ground that she often escaped by such means; whereas the modern hound, if the scent be tolerably good, forces her from her foil to fly the country, and very often beyond her knowledge, when a good straightforward run is the almost invariable result. The observation of Mr Beckford holds good here. He could not, he said, imagine a hound too well bred to show sport, and kill his game; but he could readily conceive the reverse, when the game ran stout and well.

To Sir John Dashwood King, Bart. of West Wycombe Park, Bucks, is the credit due for what may be termed the living model of the present improved harrier; and so characteristically stamped are his sort of hound, now widely spread, that they are recognised by a sportsman at the first glance. Their standard height did not exceed eighteen inches, and therefore, in that respect, they were not an over-match for their game; but from the great equality of their size and speed, combined with rare hunting qualities, they killed more hares, with good runs, than any other pack in the kingdom, and for many, many years in succession certainly "bore the bells." Sir John kept them more than thirty years, at Bourton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, near the four-shire stone on the Oxford and Worcester road, where his father kept them before him; hunting partly in the vales of Warwickshire and Worcestershire, and partly over the Cotswold Hills, which latter country is famous for the stoutness of its hares, frequently standing an hour before this celebrated pack, after having been driven be-

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1 Sir Bellingham Graham, Bart. of Norton Conyers, Yorkshire. yond their knowledge by their pressing method of hunt- ing up to them, a method quite unpractised by the old long-eared harrier. The parent stock of this pack was a small fox-hound from the Duke of Grafton's kennel, called Tyrant, whose blood, form, and character, were strikingly apparent throughout; and so great was its celebrity, that it fetched the highest price ever known to be given for harriers, namely, seven hundred guineas, by Lord Soudes of Rockingham Castle, Northamptonshire. Sir John, however, deserved success. He bred upwards of seventy couples of hounds every year, and had an establishment of horses, &c. nearly equal to fox-hounds. The hure- hounds bred for many years by Mr Yeatman of Stock House, Dorsetshire (who lately resigned the Blackmore vale country, in which he hunted foxes), came next to Sir John's in the true form and character of the modern harrier.

The Stag-Hound.

The English stag-hound is now known only by name, as there are none of the breed kept for the purpose of hunting the wild stag; and such deer as are turned out before his majesty's, and the few other packs that follow this game, are hunted by fox-hounds of the highest blood that can be procured. And the change is a good one; for al- though the English stag-hound was a noble animal of his kind, he was not sufficiently speedy, nor perfect in his work, to satisfy the present taste, and he was likewise too much given to dwell on the scent in chase, as well as of very delicate constitution in kennel. He is originally sup- posed to be the produce of the old English blood-hound, by a cross of some kind of greyhound, such as the Highland deer-greyhound, approximating his own form. At all events, it is certain that the former, the blood-hound, was the dog first made use of in hunting deer in England; and it is probable that, as the taste for following hounds on horseback increased, a turn of speed was given to the original breed by a cross with a speedier sort. We may add, the old paintings of English stag-hunting favour this hypothesis.

The Beagle.

This variety of the dog is now nearly extinct, and for the same cause as the stag-hound. Time is at present con- sidered as too precious to afford an hour at least, and per- haps two, to the hunting down one hare, which is now ac- complished in a more off-hand manner, in twenty minutes. To an admirer of nature, however, and of the endowments given to inferior animals, the busy, intelligent, and highly- gifted beagle certainly affords a treat. His form, also, when not out at his elbows, is handsome in the extreme, and his perseverance in chase is exceeded by none. But he has one of the greatest faults that hounds can possess; he is noisy, and dwells upon the scent, whilst his game is flying the country before him. In fact, his only use or value now is (independently of being looked at and ad- mired, for he is a perfect animal of his kind), to accom- pany a brace of greyhounds when a hare is wanted, and not ready at hand. There is, however, one pack of beagles kept in Dorsetshire, known as the Mountain Harriers, whose performances are much spoken of in the sporting world.

The Greyhound.

The greyhound has now lost his place in the catalogue of the dogs used in chase, neither can be classed as such, since man has deprived him of the necessary faculty of smell; but he was held in such high estimation in the middle ages, as to be considered as the peculiar companion of a gentleman. He never went abroad without these dogs; the hawk which he bore upon his fist, and the grey- hounds which ran before him, were certain testimonies of his rank; and in the ancient pipe rolls, payments appear to have been often made in these valuable animals. But at no period of his existence was the greyhound the sym- metrically elegant animal we now see him, nor possessed of nearly so much speed; neither was the diversion of the leash at any time carried on with so much spirit as within the space of the last thirty years, in various parts of Great Britain. But the necessity for, or rather the cause of, the change in the form of the greyhound, may be traced to his being no longer, as formerly, made use of to course and pull down deer, but chiefly to exhibit his speed at our different spirited coursing meetings, for the various prizes contended for, as also in private matches.

The Courier's Manual or Stud Book, by Thomas Good- lake, Esq. (1829), has the following interesting passages on the alteration effected in this species of dog. "In the days of Elizabeth," says the author, "the greyhound seems to have been a fine and effective animal, but approaching more to the bony, wire-haired make of the Highland grey- hound represented in the pictures of Edwin Landseer, and deficient in the symmetry and fine glossy coat which mark a high-bred kennel of modern times. It is probable, that during the early part of the seventeenth century, judicious crosses were made, partly from the beautiful Italian grey- hounds, which we often see in family pictures, accom- panying our fair ancestresses in their parks and plaisances, and partly from the stouter breed of dogs represented in Flemish hunting-pieces; and that even Persia and Arabia, whose greyhounds are not to be despised in point of form and speed, contributed their quota of blood; as it is shown by the history of Cromwell's Coffin Nail, that the wealthier gentry of that period spared no expense or pains in improving the more highly-prized breeds of sport- ing animals. If we mistake not, some of the pictures of Charles the First contain portraits of greyhounds ap- proaching nearly in point of coat and shape to the pre- sent breed."

Speaking of the late Lord Orford, who, with respect to modern coursing, laid the foundation-stone of the cel- ebrity to which it has arrived, and who, besides being celebrated for his greyhounds, established the first cours- ing club that we read of, at Swaffham in Norfolk, in the year 1776, the same writer says, "A few anecdotes of this noble patron of coursing may not be uninteresting. He was passionately fond of the sport; and as he was a man who never would do things by halves, but was zeo- lous beyond measure in succeeding in whatever he un- dertook, he may be said to have made as much progress as possible in perfecting the breed of the greyhound, and encouraging an emulative spirit in coursing amongst his opulent neighbours, from the time he took it up till his death. Indeed, his extensive property, and his influ- ence as lord-lieutenant of Norfolk, gave him the greatest means of accomplishing his favourite object. He could command such an immensity of private quarters, or walks as they are generally called, for greyhounds, that he bred largely, and few possessed the same advantages of selec- tion. He is recorded as having at one time fifty brace of greyhounds; and it was his fixed rule never to part with a single whelp till he had had a fair trial of his speed; consequently he had chances beyond almost any other individual, of having a collection of very superior dogs. Intent on obtaining as much perfection in the breed as possible, he introduced every experimental cross, from the English lurcher to the Italian greyhound. He it was that first thought of the cross with the English bull-dog, in which he persevered in opposition to every opinion, until, after breeding on for seven removes, he found himself in possession of the best greyhounds at the time ever known; and he considered that this cross pro- duced the small ear, the rat-tail, the fine, thin, silky coat, together with that quiet, innate courage which the high-bred greyhound should possess, preferring death to relinquishing the chase." There is something curiously analogous in the sense conveyed by the concluding words of this extract. His lordship fell dead from his horse immediately after witnessing the triumph of his famous bitch Czarina, in a match at Swaffham, having been in vain admonished on the impropriety of taking the field in his then indifferent state of health; and his memory is introduced as a toast at most coursing meetings, as father and patron of the sport.

The Terrier.

The terrier is no longer the accompaniment to a pack of fox-hounds, and for the best of all reasons,—foxes are not nearly so often digged for as formerly; and his only use was, by his bay, to inform the diggers whereabouts the fox lay; and we suppose he took his name from his being so eager to get under ground. There is also a second reason why he is better left at home. He was seldom steady from wing, if he was from foot, and thus often the cause of riot. It was, however, a matter of astonishment to behold those which were very highly bred, making their way, as they did, to the end of the longest chases, over strong and wet countries, as well as through the thickest covers, and so often making their appearance at the end of them. At all events, if left behind, they were sure to find their way home in the course of the night, whatever the distance might be. One peculiarity of form was essential to their being sure of getting up to their fox, viz. not too full in the shoulder; and those whose colour was pure white, and who were broken-haired, were generally most esteemed by huntsmen. It was often their lot to lose their life, by scratching up the earth behind them, and cutting off their means of retreat; and they were now and then killed by a fox, the latter a rare occurrence. They were commonly entered to a badger, whose bite is more dangerous than that of a fox.