Hound Sales, Past and Present.
The more closely hounds are studied the stronger must grow the conviction that no animal can excel the well-bred foxhound as an example of perfect conformation. It is permissible to think also that the man whose eye is accustomed to the points of the foxhound is pretty certain to be a judge of horses, the “points” of either being in a sense nearly identical. To take the high-bred foxhound, the lay of his shoulders are perfect for movement, the blades meeting well into the back, the fore ribs very far down or deep in proportion to the frame, the brisket below the elbow, the back also level shaped, muscles united to a loin wide for the size of the hound, the quarter very full, and the hock straight. Then we have the make-up of the beautiful neck that must mean ease in stooping for a line, and the legs and feet, over which some people differ, the majority of good judges wanting a big bone down to the toes, and others being content with less bone, and less inclined to be critical about the straightness of the fore limb. The late Lord Macclesfield and Mr. G. Lane Fox, both excellent judges, thought more of necks and shoulders than legs and feet, and Mr. H. Chaplin, great on both horses and hounds, thinks more of the quality of bone than the quantity. But, allowing for these slight divergencies of opinion, it must be acknowledged that the judgment of many has brought the foxhound to an extraordinary standard of perfection. His pace is very wonderful, and, unlike that of the greyhound, it is lasting. In the Great Wood run of the Badminton Hunt of three hours and forty minutes’ duration, all but three hounds out of seventeen and a half couples were up at the finish when the horses were all settled, most of them an hour before, and yet the hounds were comparatively fresh. They all fed well the same night, so Charles Hamblin told the writer, and were right enough the next day. There have been many other examples in which longer runs have been quoted, but the Great Wood was perhaps the greatest in regard to pace.
Three hours and three quarters’ hard galloping in a twenty-seven mile point is like seven Grand Nationals thrown into one. The development of such powers in the foxhound must be regarded as the work of past masters in the selection always of the fittest, and the great sales of the last century have proved most conclusively the individuality of those masters. To take Mr. John Corbet, of Sundorne, in the very earliest days of the century. He had seen all the qualities above alluded to compressed, as it were, in Trojan, who could race to the front of the pack, stay the longest runs, hunt a colder scent than others, jump higher and cleaner than any hound ever seen, and was able to run in his eighth and ninth seasons. His fitness was so great for the hunting field that Mr. Corbet absolutely bred a pack of hounds from him, and when he sold that pack to the sixth Lord Middleton for £1,500 the latter wrote, when enclosing his cheque, that he thought them remarkably cheap. This they turned out to be, as they gave Lord Middleton a vast amount of pleasure in hunting and hound-breeding for many years. It enabled him to breed a second Trojan in Vanguard, and such Masters, as Mr. Foljambe, Lord Henry Bentinck and Mr. Arkwright, of the Oakley, in a measure continued the line to the days of present hound-lovers. There was, again, Osbaldeston with his Furrier. The Squire would believe in nothing else, and consider what tremendous sales he had from the progeny of the old hound, to count those he sold, which some say he lent, to the late Mr. Harvey Combe; and the ten couples of bitches he sold for £1,000 to the Master of the Pytchley.
Other sales by auction, though, have perhaps been more famous in illustrating the judgment of both buyers and sellers, as, for instance, the great sale at the Bicester kennels in 1851, through the retirement of Mr. Tom Drake. The latter had been a very noted master of hounds for twenty-one years, and possibly long before that, in a less ostensible way, than in governing the Bicester. At any rate, he had taken a lot of trouble in his search for hound blood, and every hound in the sale catalogue had been bred by himself. He had bred from the Brocklesby Herald, and a great deal from Mr. Foljambe’s Stormer, so full of the Osbaldeston Furrier blood. His Duster had been used at Belvoir, but the latter celebrity was not in evidence on the sale day, although he might have been as he was then only seven years old. Lord Henry Bentinck was the most notable buyer on that May afternoon; he bought lot 2 of four couples for 200 gs., lots 5 and 6 for respectively 91 and 135 gs., and lot 10 for 165 gs. In all he bought twenty couples, and that must have helped to make his Burton pack, as, although he had been building it up for eight years from hounds he got from Lord Ducie, the latter were not so good as Mr. Drake’s. The first Drake sale, though, led up to another of still greater importance, as Mr. Tom Tyrwhitt Drake, better known to a later generation of sportsmen, took on his father’s old country, the Bicester, in the year of the sale, 1851, and he bought a few lots of the old pack, eight couples of entered hounds in all, and three brood bitches in whelp.
Here was the nucleus of another pack, but Tom Drake, as he was familiarly called by his friends, must have been an extraordinary good judge, as he bred from such bitches as Melody one of the hereditary stock for whom he gave 18 gs. in whelp to Duster; and Skilful, by Mr. Foljambe’s Stormer. He bought a lot of drafts also from Belvoir, Lord Henry Bentinck’s and Badminton, and before the sixties his hounds were very much talked of. He had, in fact, formed a beautiful pack in eleven years, as it was in 1862 that he decided to sell it, and once more the Messrs. Tattersall journeyed to the Bicester kennels, by this time at Stratton Audley, to dispose of another Drake pack. Albeit a large proportion of the hounds were not home-bred, I have always put this sale down as the most important on record, as such famous results can be traced from it and the hunting public expressed such confidence in Mr. Drake, as shown by the capital prices made. Moreover, some of the best hound judges living were amongst the buyers and bidders, including Mr. Tailby, Mr. John Chaworth Musters, Lord Middleton, Mr. Villebois, the Hon. E. Duncombe, afterwards Lord Feversham, and Sir John Trollope. The largest buyer was the late Lord Eglinton, then just commencing his career as a master of hounds—his lordship, taking three lots, twelve couples in all, for 420 gs., and they furnished foundation stock for the splendid pack now at Eglinton Castle. Mr. Tailby got two high-priced lots for 230 and 185 gs., but there were four in them by grandsons of Duster, and a five-year-old dog by old Lucifer, bought at the first Drake sale and almost as famous as Duster himself. Mr. John Chaworth Musters, with much discrimination, took lot 13, as, although there were in it some that were ostensibly drafts from Belvoir, they were pretty good ones. Good they turned out to be, as the four couples included Sportly, almost the ancestress of the future South Notts pack, and some say, of the Warwickshire as well. This famous daughter of Mr. Foljambe’s Sportsman and the Duke of Rutland’s Rampish made the lot of four couples exceedingly cheap at 225 gs. It has been well said, too, that the Bedale pack was made by the purchases here of the Hon. E. Duncombe; and Lord Middleton’s two lots that cost 310 gs. must have done the Birdsall pack some good, as there was much Belvoir, Stormer, Singer and Comus blood included in them, all, in fact, Drake classic blood so to speak, as Singer, the sire of Senator, was by Comus out of Syren, by the Drake Duster. In all, and perhaps before the most distinguished audience ever brought together by a hound sale, Mr. T. T. Drake’s hounds realised 2,911 gs., whereas the senior Mr. Drake’s pack eleven years before had only made 1,728 gs.
The next greatest sale of public importance, according to my view, was that of the Rufford, held in 1860, two years before Mr. Drake’s. Captain Percy Williams, one of the finest foxhound judges ever known, had been exactly twenty years making the pack, beginning with drafts; but by careful breeding from quality—both for good looks and work, with the advantages also of capital walks—he had got together a beautiful pack of hounds that were the talk of the country. The late Lord Fitzwilliam, who was very thorough as a hound man, had a strong belief in these Rufford hounds, and nobody could outbid him for some of the lots, which were all in five couples, and so the prices do not seem so extraordinary. Lord Fitzwilliam gave 310 gs. for one lot, 300 gs. for another, 240 gs. for a third, and in all bought a little over 1,300 gs. worth of hounds during the afternoon. What they might have done was never quite tested, for two years afterwards hydrophobia broke out in the Wentworth kennels and most of these hounds were destroyed. The Hon. Mark Rolle gave the highest price of the day, viz., 370 gs., for five couples that included Telegram, who was a host in himself, and 270 gs. for another lot, the Devonshire M.F.H., altogether expending 775 gs. on three lots; and a beautiful pack of hounds he bred from such purchases, with several other West Country packs getting beholden to Telegram.
A sale that had much to do in adding lustre to the Foxhound Stud Book was that of Sir Richard Sutton’s, at the death of that popular sportsman, December 13th, 1855. Lord Stamford had taken on the Quorn and was naturally anxious to get as much of the pack as possible, but there were hounds in the pack for which the connoisseurs of blood sought very eagerly, and Mr. Richard Sutton, Sir Richard’s son, who had taken on the Billesdon side of Quorn Country, was determined that some of the lots should not slip through his hands for any money. He outbid everyone when coming to lot 13, that included three couples from which certainly a great pack could have been formed. There was the stallion hound Dryden, then only six years, and thought by a very able huntsman to have been the best hound ever seen in Leicestershire; he was by Lord Henry Bentinck’s Contest, which made him all the more valuable; and he had already been the sire of Destitute, the dam of the ever-celebrated Belvoir Senator. Then, amongst his companions in lot 13 were Vaulter, a son of the Drake Duster; Lounger, a second season son of Dryden; and Doubtful, an unentered daughter of the same, besides a dog called Roderick by the Brocklesby Roderick. The bidding was very keen, but Mr. Sutton silenced everyone at 260 gs., and reports at the time said he would have gone on. Mr. Sutton’s pack, however, came to the hammer again in less than six months after the above date, and once more Dryden was put up, but with a different result, as in a lot of four couples he was sold for 85 gs. to the Duke of Cleveland, then Master of the great Raby and Hurworth country, who paid in all 240 gs. for twelve couples. The sensation of the sale, though, was when Lord Stamford completely outbid everyone for lot 2, and never left them until his reckoning with the Messrs. Tattersall was 470 gs. for the four couples, or over 58 gs. a hound, the odd part of it being that two couples were first season hounds. Lord Henry Bentinck was a big buyer also, as he started the sale by giving 200 gs. for five couples.
Another sale much talked of in 1858 was that of Mr. James Morrell’s hounds, as the Old Berkshire pack at that time had a great reputation; and the Badminton is said to have been improved immensely by the purchase of eight couples of hounds for 400 gs., and two brood bitches for, respectively, 50 gs. and 25 gs., the acquisition of the five-season hunter, Fleecer, by Lord Fitzhardinge’s Furrier, in one of the 200 gs. lots being of the greatest value, as shown in after years.
The greatest sale of the century, in regard to prices, was Lord Poltimore’s in the spring of 1870, when twenty-two couples of dog hounds made 3,170 gs.; two of the lots, one of three couples, and the other of three couples and a half, made 600 gs. each, or, in one case, 100 gs. a hound. Another lot went for 500 gs. and others for 460 gs. and 400 gs. Whether they were worth it has been a matter of discussion amongst experts in hound-lore; but this much can be said, that Lord Poltimore was an exceptionally good judge, and he had a splendid adviser in Lord Portsmouth. I saw the bitch pack and had a day’s hunting with them shortly after the sale, and I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful out of Belvoir. Then for the good they have done! Whipster by Woldsman, purchased in a 600 gs. lot by Sir Algernon Peyton, proved a tower of strength to the Bicester pack, and several bought by Major Browne did an immense amount of good to Lord Eglinton, and other masters of the North had good reasons to recollect them. Woldsman, who was not amongst those sold, will ever do honour to the hound judgment of Lord Poltimore, as, besides being the sire of the above-named Whipster, he had Lord Zetland’s Wanderer to his credit as well, and the latter has been the corner-stone of the Aske kennel. I could mention five or six other descents from Woldsman and also from Lexicon, Latimer, Roman and Limner, all but the last-named of the 100 gs. order.
The above reference to hound sales in these days of the past may be lessons to those inclined to pursue the very enchanting pleasures of hound-breeding. If fewer packs have come into the market of late years than formerly, owing to so many counties now possessing their own packs, such as the two Warwickshires, Pytchley, Grafton, Southwold, Cotswold, Meynell, Rufford and others, prices have been kept up to former standards, as instanced by the valuation put on the Quorn at 3,000gs., the North Warwickshire at 2,500 gs., and the Atherstone at 3,500 gs. The Messrs. Tattersall made a capital move at quite the right time when they established their sales at Rugby, as it gave them opportunities of selling entire packs outright, but more especially for the drafts, which, however, may be of very different material from that suggested by such a conventional term. The great Knightsbridge firm have erected most convenient kennels just outside Rugby station, and the little saleyard, surrounded by comfortable stands, is admirably arranged to permit hounds to be seen at their best. There have been many good results already from the Rugby sales. In 1888 the late Lord Bathurst bought a lot from the Chiddingfold that included a bitch called Buttercup, and the present Lord Bathurst considers she was the corner-stone of his beautiful pack. Then Lord Zetland bought Rockwood at the break-up Puckeridge sale, and his Lordship acknowledges a great deal of good from him. Such recollections were bound to occur at the Messrs. Tattersall’s first sale of the season, on April 20th, when excellent opportunities were offered by Mr. J. R. Rawlence, who always occupies the Rugby rostrum, and is reckoned to be the greatest arbitrator in the kingdom on hound values. Two entire dog packs, sold for no fault whatever, were in the catalogue; those from the Woodland Pytchley, owing to Mr. Wroughton’s reduction of his days hunting, and the Northumberland and Berwickshire, through the lamented death of Sir James Miller. Most of Mr. Wroughton’s were veritable stallion hounds of the most telling blood, and Mr. Pollok, the new Master of the Kildare, made no mistake in getting the biggest portion of them. They must make his Irish pack, for it is the blood of all others to perpetuate long generations of workers, being the cream of Mr. Austin Mackenzie’s kennel, that was formed out of Mr. Longman’s and the Blankney, with the most judicious breeding from the Belvoir, Warwickshire, Fitzwilliam and Pytchley. Mr. Pollok will probably have the best pack of hounds in Ireland. He just missed one lot of useful ones in Nelson, Harold, Shiner, and Wicklow, which sold cheaply enough, I thought, for 85 gs.