derives from the greyhound a head somewhat smaller and longer in proportion to his size than either the stag-hound or the harrier. But considerable caution is requisite here. The beauty of the head and face, although usually accompanied by speed, must never be sacrificed to stoutness and power of scent. The object of the sportsman is to amalgamate them, or rather to possess them all in the greatest possible degree. This will generally be brought to a great degree of perfection if the sportsman regards the general excellence of the dog rather than the perfection of any particular point. The ears should not, comparatively speaking, be so large as those of the stag-hound or the harrier; but the neck should be longer and lighter, the chest deep and capacious, the fore legs straight as arrows, and the hind ones well bent at the hock.
Some extraordinary accounts have been given of the speed of the fox-hound. A match that was run over the Beacon Course at Newmarket is the best illustration of his fleetness. The distance is 4 miles 1 furlong and 132 yards. The winning dog performed it in 8 minutes and a few seconds; but of the sixty horses that started with the hounds, only twelve were able to run in with them. Flying Childers had run the same course in 7 minutes and 30 seconds.
"[The] size, or, as we should rather say, the height of a fox-hound, is a point on which there has been much difference of opinion. Mr. Chule's pack was three inches below the standard of Mr. Villebois', and four inches below that of Mr. Warde's. The advocates of the former assert, that they get better across a deep and strongly fenced country, while the admirers of the latter insist on their being better climbers of hills and more active in cover. As to uniformity in size, it is by no means essential to the well-doing of hounds in the field, and has been disregarded by some of our best sportsmen: Mr. Meynell never drafted a good hound on account of his being over or under sized. The proper standard of height in fox-hounds is from 21 to 22 inches for bitches, and from 23 to 24 for dog-hounds. Mr. Warde's bitches, the best of the kind that our country contained, were rather more than 23 inches. A few of his dogs were 25 inches high. The amount of hounds annually bred will depend upon the strength of the kennel. From sixty to eighty couples is the complement for a four days a-week pack, which will require the breeding of a hundred couples of puppies every year, allowing for accidents and distemper."[14]
very properly observes, that
"Mr. Beckford has omitted a point much thought of by the modern sportsmen, 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 he sufficiently descriptive of the hinder legs of the hound; for 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 their laming 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 having his elbows projecting, and which is likewise a great check to speed."[15]
. Daniel gives a curious account of the prejudices of sportsmen on the subject of colour. The white dogs were curious hunters, and had a capital scent; the black, with some white spots, were obedient, good hunters, and with good constitutions; the gray-coloured had no very acute scent, but were obstinate, and indefatigable in their quest; the yellow dogs were impatient and obstinate, and taught with difficulty.