Related article: increasing chorus of hounds, even in a thick covert, and the burst that proclaims their dash into the open ? Are we always to be with- out that ringing view-holloa of the first whip in its shrillest falsetto, telling us that we must sit down in our saddles and be off? Are we still to be satisfied with occa- sional whimpers in covert, which the talk of the cofFee-housers ren- ders inaudible, and be content with a whistle which may be used on non-hunting days for hunting I900.] HUNTING SOUNDS. 233 rabbits with terriers ? Are we, in fine, to choose our hounds en- tirely by their forms on the flags, without reference to their tongues and powers of music ? Say what you Hke, my dear hunting friends, but the tendency of the day is in this direction. The causes are many — a silent huntsman makes a silent pack, and the first desideratum of pace in hounds leads to semi-muteness, too often indeed to entire silence. This may be all very well in a flying country, where everyone is bent on riding on their backs, and it is the foremost bits of pink and black that guide the rest of the field in the wake of the chase. What heed is there then of the cry of hounds ? It is the thunder of the hoofs of the horses that dominates the chase, not the melody of true hound chase that we wantonly sing of in "John Peel " and other old hunting melodies; and in the Shires I suppose we must bow to the inevitable. Yet are there not thousands — aye, many a thousand — who cannot hunt^in these shires, in fact, who prefer not to do so, and to these is not hound music and a huntsman's ringing cheer as essential to their pleasure and as needful in the intricacies of a run as can possibly be ? In many of these countries, alas ! the new fashion has upset the old one. The highest-bred hounds, the most silent of systems, the almost entire want of hunting sounds, with their necessary accompani- ments of twisting foxes and scat- tered fields, mere follow -my- leaders most of them, and rank disappointment on the return home. There used to be a good story told of one of the old lords of Berkeley, who was a keen sports- man but suffered from deafness, and it was only by his thorough knowledge of country that he managed to enjoy the sport. He always had an attendant, nick- named his " hearer." The fol- lowing colloquy very often hap- pened, " Do ye hear *em, John ?" " No, my lord." ** Damn you, sir, do ye hear *em ?'* There is scarcely a hunting country in England, Scotland or Wales that has not its woodlands. Here all will admit that the silent system is an absurdity, as far as the pleasure of the majority of the field are concerned ; of course the Master and his servants can trot about the rides and whistle to their hearts* content, and the foxes will trot about almost as unconcernedly, while the sports- men of the district cool their heels outside — ever in expectancy of being left hopelessly in the rear should a fox chance to break on the wrong side. On these occa- sions the huntsman, of course, leaves his mute hounds in kennel and manages to have music of a kind, but the dash of the thing is missing — no cheering is allowed. How many of us nowadays are like the old lord of Berkeley, and, be our ears ever so 'cute, are not fain to exclaim now and again, " Do you hear them " ? To show the difference between the modern hound and that of old days I cannot refrain from relating the object lesson I have now before me. I am walking a couple of foxhound puppies, each from a different pack, and different in blood and characteristics, yet beauties of their type. The one is of high English blood, of Stud- book descent, and the other is a Welshman, tracing back in three generations to the Llanharran, our oldest Welsh blood. To hear the Welshman throw his tongue is a real treat ; he has that double note, which I fail to describe, that rings out like a bell, and is only 234 BAILY S MAGAZINE. [October heard in these hounds. The Englishman, on the contrary, will not speak at all. I have tried every means to make him do so, but in vain. He seems to Verapamil Hcl Cr watch and wonder at his friend and com- panion, Verapamil Hcl Sr and dashes to him, but as yet he is quite silent. Will he turn out one of the mute ones, I wonder ? On the flags he will be hard to beat, so straight and good is he all round. Yet Verapamil Hcl Er give me the Welshman for the hunting-field. His sense and dash are astonish- ing for his age, and no strange cur dare show his nose on the premises ere Rally wood, with bristles up, is turning him away. I guess that his note would right quickly shift a fox from Lilbourne Gorse. We cannot do without music in the hunting- field, although there is always such a thing as having too much of it, especially human music, and that in the wrong place. Surely the only way to make a fox, or any other wild animal, flee away straight before his pursuers is to have the best possible chorus in his wake. If you try to course him, as with greyhounds, he will naturally turn and twist. He does not require to be outpaced. The true science of sport is to hunt him down, and the hounds with the most tongue will have the most drive, and will do the job for you better and more surely than those of the grey- hound sort, that trust merely to their speed, and throw up their heads at the first check. I was unable to be at Peter- borough myself this year, but I had the opinion of an M.F.H. upon it, which I think was trust- worthy. His verdict was that hounds were being bred too light and flashy, and were really de- teriorating. How can it be other- wise, when we see that fashion has set its seal on some half-a- dozen kennels, and from thence most of the sires are chosen. The Hound Stud-book does the rest. Neither master nor huntsman dare go outside it for their blood ; consequently the invaluable quali- ties possessed by such as my young Rally wood are passed by