The Billiard-Cue.

Arthur W. Coaten.

The Billiard-Cue.

The cue plays such an important part in the game of billiards that no excuse need be made for discussing briefly, but fully, its essential points. Every amateur who takes more than a passing interest in the game should possess a cue, or cues, of his own, since the habitual use of a well-made, well-balanced cue goes far to engender the confidence which is so desirable an attribute of the billiard player.

First of all, the player should select an English hand-made cue. In a long article which appeared in theWorld of Billiards, February 7th, 1906, to which readers may be referred, the details of cue manufacture were fully explained by the present writer. Here it will suffice to point out a simple, yet infallible, method of distinguishing at a glance an English hand-made cue from the foreign machine-made article. In the English cue the ebony “points,” where they dovetail into the ash shaft, areslightly rounded, whilst in the French machine-made cue they run to afine, sharppoint (fig. 1).

Fig. 1.

For the shaft of the cue no wood is better than good English ash, which must be naturally, not artificially, seasoned. This shaft, which should be stiff, yet full of vibration, should be as “true” and straight as possible, andstraight in the grain.

The length of the cue, including the tip, should not be less than 4 ft. 8 in., nor need it, even for very tall men, exceed 4 ft. 10 in. Nineteen men out of twenty will be best suited by a cue of from 4 ft. 8½ in. to 4 ft. 9½ in. in length, 4 ft. 9 in., as given by so many writers on billiards, being the best average length for the cue. When wear and tear has made the cue too short, it should be sent to a good firm of billiard-table makers to be “spliced,” particulars of the length and size of tip required being given.

The size of the cue-tip is another nice point. Cue-tips (fig. 2) are made in five sizes, measuring respectively 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 millimetres in diameter.[15]A very fine tip is altogether a mistake, and one of from 10 to 12 mm. is recommended, 11 mm. (about716in.) giving an ideal tip. To affix the cue-tip, a process fully described in the writer’s book, “Hints on Billiards,” and other works, cue cement, liquid glue, or wafers, which last are handy and easily used, may be employed. Glass-paper, it may be added, should never be used to clean the cue, or to “rough up” the surface of the cue-tip, whilst coarse sand-paper should never be seen in a billiard-room. The cue, when it needs cleaning, should be well rubbed, first with a damp cloth, and then, to polish it, with a dry one. The best way, again, of preparing a new tip for play, or of renovating an oldsmoothone, is to tap it well with afine, heavyfile; aroughfile would tear the upper leather all to pieces.

Fig. 2.

The ideal weight for a cue is 15½ oz., but a player may suit his own fancy in the matter within an ounce or so, either way, of this weight, whilst a cue of 14 oz. or 14½ oz. is heavy enough for a lady.

In connection with cues chalk may find appropriate mention, and no better chalk can be obtained than Spinks’ green chalk, sold by Messrs. Burroughes and Watts. This firm may, in particular, be mentioned as turning out a first-rate billiard cue, and they put plenty of wood into their cues in just the right place, viz., just above the butt.

Finally, mention may be made of travelling cues, made in two joints, which, packed in a handy leather case, are extremely convenient. They may, it is true, possess a slight tendency to warp out of perfect truth, whilst, too, the connecting screw must, however slightly, affect the balance, but these are almost infinitesimal drawbacks. With one of these cues a spare top joint, already tipped, will be found a friend in need on occasion.

J. P. Buchanan.

A Country Fair.

The picture by Jacques Laurent Agasse, from which the illustration has been taken, affords us a glimpse of an ancient English institution which is fast passing away. The work was painted in the year 1819, when the country fair or market held a very important place in the economy of rural England, and this picture has special interest for stock breeders, since its most conspicuous figure is a grand example of the old English breed of Black Shire horses.

In Sir Walter Gilbey’s work on “The Great Horse,” a letter is quoted from Oliver Cromwell offering “sixty pieces for that Black you won (in battle) at Horncastle, for my son has a mind to him.” In those days the “Black” was before all things a war horse, and there is ample evidence to prove that it was regarded as the best strain among the heavy breeds. Agasse’s picture refers to a more peaceful era; but the Black Shire horse was still the breed most prized in England. William Marshall, writing in 1790, tells us that the Black Carthorse in his day was extensively bred in the Midlands; and though he personally preferred a smaller and more compact horse, on short, clean legs, and was, moreover, a convinced advocate of the ox-team for the plough and draught work, he could not deny that the breeding of Black Shires was profitable. As showing how the best authorities differ, it is worth noticing that Arthur Young, at about the same period, mentions the “large Black old English horse” as one of the only two varieties of carthorse deserving of mention. The other was the sorrel-coloured Suffolk Punch.

A COUNTRY FAIR IN 1819.J. L. Agasse

The Black Shire, according to Wm. Marshall, had a somewhat chequered working career. The breeders brought their yearlings to certain markets or fairs—Ashby, Loughborough, Burton-on-Trent, Rugby, and Ashbourne—where they were sold to graziers, the prices ranging from £10 to £20. The graziers kept them until they were about two years and a half, and then brought them to the fairs to sell to the farmers and dealers; the markets at Rugby and Stafford being noted for this business. Their purchasers now were farmers. At two years old or two off heavy horses are capable of doing gentle work, and the object of the buyer being to prepare them for the London market, he took good care not to overtax the youngsters. They were not expected to do more than earn their keep, and it was very usual in the home counties to see a team of four drawing a plough which was easily within the strength of two much lighter animals; but the object of the farmer was thus accomplished. The young horses learned to pull steadily, and the light plough work was, in point of fact, their education for the career before them. At four, or four off, they were sent to London, fully developed, conditioned, and ready for the brewer’s dray or the heavy waggon. The brewers of those days took peculiar pride in their dray horses, and spared neither pains nor money to procure the largest and finest Shires for the purposes of their trade.

The Ashby Black Stallion Show, which enjoyed the distinction of being the only event of its kind in England, still flourished in George III.’s time. It took place at Eastertide, and wastheoccasion for selling and letting stallions of this breed. The word “show,” it should be added, is a complete misnomer; there was no show or anything remotely resembling one. The breeders brought in their stallions and stabled them at the inns, and when a possible purchaser or hirer appeared a horse was pulled out and shown off in some convenient back street or open space. Such an incident we need not doubt afforded Agasse the idea for his picture; the lad in the smock frock has been running the great stallion up and down to show off his paces and carriage before the well-to-do farmer who stands under the tree on the left, and the other critics who stand on the near side of the horse. Marshall was present at the Ashby Black Stallion Show of 1785, when some thirty horses—two, three, and four-year-olds, for the most part—were offered for sale or hire. The prices paid for Black Shire stallions at this so-called “show” ranged from fifty to two hundred guineas; the hire for a season ranged from forty to eighty guineas. Breeders sometimes held private shows of stallions where similar business was transacted.

These horses were largely bred in Lincolnshire: they were, indeed, so closely identified with the county that they were locally known as “Black Lincolnshires.” In the fens they grew to their greatest size; few of them at two and a half, says Youatt, were under seventeen hands. Neither the soil nor the pasture of these districts is better calculated to meet the horse-breeder’s needs than the soil and pasture of other regions of England; but the situation, climate, and conditions of life were in some way peculiarly favourable to the growth of horses, and the Blacks grew bigger there than they did anywhere else. Marshall refers to them disparagingly as the “elephants of Lincolnshire.” All the brood mares seen by Arthur Young on his tour in this county (“General View of the Agriculture of Lincolnshire, 1799”) were Blacks. They were regularly worked in the farm teams by the “arable yeoman,” who kept them for stud purposes.

It was popularly believed in the Midlands that the Black horse originated from half a dozen Zealand mares, which Lord Chesterfield, when ambassador at the Hague, sent over to England. These mares were stabled at Bretby, in Derbyshire, about 1755 or 1760, and no doubt were instrumental in improving the breed. It is stated that for some time after Lord Chesterfield imported these mares Derbyshire “took the lead” among the counties in which Blacks were bred. But while we need not doubt that these mares were the best of their kind, and as such did much in the way of improvement, it is impossible, by the light of the historical evidence, to which reference has been made, to regard them as the foundation stock.

Whatever Marshall’s opinion of the Black, it certainly found great favour all over England, even in Norfolk, a county famous for the small, active carthorses, with which the farmers, as the author points out in “The Harness Horse,” used to run their curious “team races.” The greater popularity which the Black enjoyed a century ago seems to have contributed to the disappearance of the brown-muzzled Norfolk horses. Farmers in those days were not more governed by sentiment in the management of their business than they are now, and we may rest assured that if they turned their attention to the breeding of Blacks, it was because they proved the more profitable stock. Their great weight would suffice to recommend them for heavy draught work on the deep and miry country roads of a past generation. A writer in theSporting Magazineof 1796, says that “there are instances of single horses that are able to draw a weight of three tons.”

Not the least interesting fact concerning the picture which furnishes occasion for these remarks is the fact that the painter of a scene so typically English in subject, so purely English in spirit and in mode of treatment, should have been a foreigner. Jacques Laurent Agasse was a Swiss by birth; he came to this country when about twenty years of age, and his works show how completely he became imbued with a love of the land of his adoption.

The Judging of Polo Ponies.

By Walter Buckmaster.

The above subject, in my opinion, is a very difficult one to write on, for the simple reason that there are so few men who are capable of occupying the position of a judge of polo ponies. A man must be blessed with a large number of capabilities to act in this position. He must be, firstly, a judge of the horse in the abstract, of its formation, building, &c., he must be a hunting man and a judge of hunters; he must be, in a minor degree, a judge of a racehorse; he must be a fine horseman in himself, and he must be a polo player, and an active one, at the time he is occupying the position of judge.

In these days when the game of polo is taking such a strong hold of the world at large, when county shows all over England and elsewhere reserve classes for polo ponies, polo pony mares, polo pony stallions, young stock, or ponies likely to make polo ponies, the office of judge of these classes is a very important one.

Often one sees that a judge who is officiating in that position in the hunter classes is deputed to judge polo ponies also, and I have even known the hackney or carthorse judge put into this position. Probably the official in question is a fine judge of a hunter and of a horse in all respects, and yet he may be quite the worst judge one can have of made polo ponies. He does not know what is expected of them, how he is to test them, or what they are expected to do. Of their make and shape he is probably quite capable of judging the class; he will know a good-shaped pony from a bad one. Naturally, as a judge of a horse, he will know a good “ride” from a bad one; he will know true action from cramped action, but I very much doubt whether he knows a good polo pony from a bad one. There may be a large number of ponies in the class, he will only be able to spare a minute or so to sit on each pony. During the short space of time he has to make up his mind very quickly as to whether the pony is a good ride to start with; whether it has a good and natural mouth; whether it is tractable or otherwise; whether it turns easily or otherwise; whether when turning it does so on its hind quarters or its forehand, and whether when turning it does so on the proper leg both behind and in front. The majority of ponies, however partially they may be schooled, usually change their legs in front, viz., when turning to the right have their right leg in front, andvice versâ, but how many men can tell in a second when the pony has changed its leg in front, whether it has, at the same time, changed its hind legs similarly? To do this a judge must have great and constant experience.

When writing on this all-important subject I propose stating my opinion and ideas on the made polo pony, or pony likely to make a polo pony, as the judging of young stock, mares likely to breed polo ponies, stallions, &c., comes rather under a different category than the actual judging of the article that is to be ridden and so judged by the official.

Allow me to give a few hints to judges who are setting out for the first few times in this important position. They must remember that the time for them to make up their minds is limited, therefore they must come to their decision quickly, and having made it must abide by it. They will probably have to judge two riding classes: (1) polo ponies; and (2) ponies likely to make polo ponies. Let us consider these two classes separately. When made polo ponies come into the ring let the judge carefully watch them walking round; he must then make up his mind as to what is a good made pony, a pony, pure and simple, and what is not; he will see how they walk and how they carry themselves, and here he will make his first impressions, and these first impressions are, in my opinion, the best. Then they will trot round the ring. This will show him little except that, as a rule, a good walker is usually a good trotter; however, many of the best polo ponies are poor trotters, and often will not trot at all. In my opinion, little is learnt from a polo pony trotting except the fact as to whether it is sound or not. Next the ponies will canter round. Then the judge will see a free goer from a short, stilty-actioned one. He should then proceed to draw the ponies into the centre of the ring, placing the good ones, or what he imagines are the good ones, on the one side and the rubbish on the other. He should then proceed to look the animals over quickly when standing still; whether they stand straight on their legs, whether their joints are true, and so forth.

He should then ride each pony himself, bending and twisting them himself as much as the show-ring will allow him, letting them go top pace as far as is possible. As soon as the judge is on the ponies’ backs he will quickly alter his ideas formed when watching the ponies on foot. He will find that what he fancied as being a good-looking pony rides all wrong when he is on its back; probably bad mouths, or badly trained, change their legs in front but not behind, a most common fault in polo ponies, and a very bad one, as no pony can turn with the safety and speed that he should do unless he changes his legs behind as quickly as in front. Again, as soon as a judge gets on a pony, I advise him to back the pony, just for three or four yards, quickly; all good polo ponies rein back almost as quickly as walking forwards, and if they do not do so they are not high-class polo ponies.

I also advise a judge to ride every pony in the class, whether his first impression of it be good or otherwise; many a pony is missed over that may not favourably impress the judge at first sight, but be a remarkably fine ride.

By this time the judge must have made up his mind; he may have to forgive a fault here and one there, in order to arrive at a proper order of placing the ponies in their class, as no pony is perfect in every respect.

When judging “ponies likely to make polo ponies,” the judge must not be quite so exacting. He must lay greater stress on the good made pony when standing still and the true-actioned and balanced one. He will probably have to judge ponies at very different states of their education, and will find it hard to bring a good young green pony with very little education into competition with a pony that has been well and carefully trained. In this class he must carry in his mind which pony is going to be the most valuable in a year’s time.

There are certain faculties a pony must have, whether he be a made polo pony or a young green pony; he must be built on true hunter lines, short legs, short back, compact, good sloping shoulders and a well set on neck (a pony with a bad neck seldom has a good mouth), his hind-legs and hocks must be well underneath him, and straight. Hind-legs standing away from a pony are a great fault, and generally denote a pony slow at jumping off the mark. He must have essentially a perfect temper, and also a good mouth by nature; this latter is to a large extent a matter of breaking, and a pony badly broken, in my opinion, never gets over it.

Above all, let a judge go for quality; a square underbred pony well trained may ride really well in a show-ring, but how will he manœuvre and ride after playing ten minutes in a fast game of polo; he becomes tired and beat; then his action, mouth, and training all go to the wall, and he is as a sailing ship amongst torpedo boats.

Sport and Animal Life at the Royal Academy.

Works of the character that appeal more directly to us are more remarkable for quality than for number this year; if shooting, yachting and angling pictures are conspicuous by their absence, hunting and hound works are, by comparison with previous exhibitions, numerous and generally excellent. As regards angling, Mr. Frederick Yates’ picture, “A Bite” (32), a boy stretched on the bank of a woodland beck, fishing with a wand cut from the hedge, can hardly be regarded as an angling work, though admirable in composition and drawing; the fox terrier who sits by his master is taking quite a human interest in the proceedings. In the same room hangs Mr. Peter Graham’s “Morning” (40), one of this Academician’s familiar studies of sea-girt rocks with gulls; the sky on the horizon is dark and forbidding, suggestive of a stormy night passed. Mr. C. E. Swan’s “The Day of Reckoning” (59) gives us pause. His tiger drinking in the foreground is excellently well drawn; but would a tiger stop to drink when the elephant in the background is so near at hand? And what are the two gesticulating coolies doing well in advance of the sportsman’s elephant, among the tall grass? They are, moreover almost in the line of fire from the howdah; we doubt much if the “day of reckoning” has come! “Elizabeth at Wemmergill” (78), by Miss Annie L. Swynnerton is a charming picture of a little girl in blue, astride a rough pony, both well painted. In this room we find Mr. John M. Swan’s diploma work (129) “Tigers Drinking,” boldly painted, with less finish than usual; we like it much.

The place of honour in the Academy is occupied by Mr. Abbey’s remarkable work, “Columbus in the New World” (143). Columbus, in armour, kneels on the seashore, priests in their robes kneeling a few paces in rear. The air is thick with scarlet flamingoes—the brilliant Florida species—in flight. The blaze of vermilion dazzles and bewilders the eye, and the indifference of the Discoverer, and his followers to the marvel of bird-life strikes one as unnatural. A very fine piece of work is Mr. James Beadle’s “Les Braves Gens” (150), a scene of the Franco-Prussian War; the horses of the cavalry are cleverly modelled, and the grouping, bound by military conditions, is very artistic. Mr. S. J. Solomon (R.A.-elect) has a pleasing picture (151) of a little girl in pink with a horn, astride a pony, with a couple of frisking terriers, which he entitles “The Field.” Mr. Arthur Wardle takes us to different scenes in “A Sylvan God” (157); the lithe suppleness of the leopard in the foreground is beautifully rendered. Mr. Briton Riviere’s portrait of Professor Frank Clowes (161) comes within our purview, inasmuch as the artist has represented the Professor with his golf clubs. “Winter’s Victim” (189) is the title of Mr. Edwin Alexander’s picture of a dead stag stretched on the snow, with a carrion crow about to begin its meal. The stag is in rather better condition than might be expected of one that has been starved to death, but this, perhaps, is a concession to artistic requirements. Mr. Max Bohm’s “Nearing the Bar” (226) is skied, but its merits are too striking to be overlooked; in the stern of a fishing boat rushing before the wind an old man sits, tiller in hand, his gaze fixed on the unseen “bar.” The intentness of the man’s visage compels admiration, and not less the mingling of excitement and apprehension on that of the boy by his side; a very clever picture. Mr. Edmund Brock in “The Spring-time of Life” (245) has a portrait group, a young man pulling two girls in a skiff, restful and pleasing. In the same room Mr. H. W. B. Davis, R.A., has one of his pictures of Highland Cattle in “Ben Eay, Ross-shire” (279). Mr. Charles E. Stewart’s “Fire!” (285) is a powerful piece of horse painting; the pair of greys harnessed to the engine, approaching the foreground at the gallop, are beautifully modelled; the action is at once vigorous and correct. Good, too, are the horses in Mr. W. B. Wollen’s “The Sun of Austerlitz” (321). Mr. Edgar Fischer has two tigers in “Dawn” (331), one drinking (why is the tiger drinking so popular with the brethren of the brush?), the other growling at some invisible foe across the pool. We might find some minor defects in the equine anatomy in Miss Eleanor Wigram’s “Water Jump at Sandown” (349), but regarded as a whole it is a very successful attempt to represent horses in attitudes difficult to catch, save by instantaneous photography; one horse has landed over the water, the rest are in air or rising to the fence. There is a freedom of handling in the composition which entirely satisfies.

In this gallery we find the most striking and successful horse picture of the year in Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch’s great canvas, “The Joy of Life” (356), a small mob of horses careering about the open fields in the utter abandonment of vitality. They are splendidly modelled, and the work is instinct with vigorous movement. Mr. Simon Vedder’s “King of the Desert” (369) is not very easy to see, being skied. The lion is roaring, with his head up, and the crouching lioness has apparently paused in drinking to cast an enquiring look at him from her baleful green eyes. Mr. Ernest Spence has a good portrait of “Sir John Wallington, K.C.B.” (385), in the uniform of the Badminton Hunt, and hard by is Mr. Alfred Munning’s “Ponies at a Horse Fair” (416), half a dozen cheap animals tied to a low hedge; the blemished piebald on the right is not the class of nag that satisfies the artistic eye, and the painter deserves much credit for the unflinching accuracy with which he has treated a rather sordid equine subject. “Newcastle Fair” (410), by Mr. John Atkinson, a group of gipsy vans with their worn-out horses, is treated in much the same spirit. Miss Mabel Hollams has chosen a rather depressing subject in “His Last Fence” (468); the horse has evidently broken his back over the rather insignificant hedge and lies prone, with his owner kneeling at his head. The coats of the hunting men are rather too bright, but otherwise the picture is a good one. Miss Maud Earl’s “End of the Trail” (477) is a study of wolf-like sledge dogs on a desert of snow; the texture of the coat of the principal figure is equal to anything Miss Earl has ever given us. Mr. William Wall’s “Death of the Roebuck” (504) satisfies as far as the greyhound is concerned; the dog, panting from his exertions, has evidently pulled down the roe single-handed; it is, perhaps, an open question whether a greyhound could do this in the woodlands affected by these deer. Mr. John Charlton has a large and admirably composed picture in (520) “Gone to Ground”; the earth is under a sandy bank among tree roots, and the hounds are grouped round it, their interest in the fox having, it would seem, evaporated. The grouping of the hounds is excellent and the whole work satisfies the eye. “Recuperation” (531) is a clever study of hounds in kennel by Mr. J. Walter Hadland; the grouping here is also good and the artist has been particularly successful with the heads of his hounds. Mr. Munning’s “Meet at the Bell” (540) has merit, but is too crowded; or perhaps it were more accurate to say the figures are too large for the canvas; a pity, as the horse ridden by the master is the true hunter stamp and is admirably painted, while the artist knows how to put a man in the saddle. Mr. Charlton’s other work in the same room, a lady reining in a good-looking chestnut in a woodland glade, “Hark! Back!” (557) shows the artist at his best as a painter of horse-flesh. Miss Margaret Collyer calls her clever and vigorous little picture (594) of two Irish terriers fighting, “Home Rule”; the prophecy political may be overlooked in appreciation of the merit of the drawing. Miss Florence Jay’s “Run to Earth” (637) shows once again that she has studied foxhounds closely and can paint them with fidelity. Mr. Harold Pearson, M.P., was formerly Master of the Oxford Drag, and it is hunting dress that Mr. Glazebrook has elected to portray him in No. 695. Mr. Sanderson Wells’ coaching picture “Rushing the Hill, Derby Day” (714), is a strong and vigorous piece of work; the whip is springing his cattle up the slope almost directly at the spectator; it was no means an easy point of view from which to paint a team, but the action of Mr. Sanderson Wells’ browns is most lifelike. Mr. Charles Ward’s “A Coombe in the Quantocks” (821) will appeal to followers of the staghounds on Exmoor.

There are in the Water-colour Room some pictures which should not be missed; notably Miss Lucy Kemp Welch’s “Horse Drovers” (925); the scene a country lane, with half a dozen carthorses in varying attitudes. The horses in Mr. Sheldon Williams’ “Labourers” (951) are well done. In the Black and White room we find Mr. John Emm’s clever hound study, “The Pride of Belvoir” (1284), and Mr. Victor Focillon’s very successful engraving of Mr. Napier Henry’s yachting picture of a year or two ago, “Youth.” Mr. A. D. Greenhill Gardyne’s “Captain S. C. Crawfurd and a Giraffe” (1356) shows the sportsman resting against the body of the great beast which has fallen to his rifle. “Coaches at Ascot leaving the Course,” by Mr. Arthur J. Gough, also deserves praiseworthy mention. There is little in the sculpture room that calls for notice from us. Miss Geraldine Blake’s statuette “The Stock Rider” (1706) is a good piece of modelling, and Miss Katherine Wallis has been successful with her bronze statuette of a dachshund (1753). So animated and clever is the figure of a little girl delightedly but fearfully holding out a frog by the hind-leg (La petite grenouillière), we cannot forbear to draw attention to it. Herr Paul Hüsgen must be congratulated on the success with which he has caught the likeness in his bronze medallion of Sir Walter Gilbey.

Notes and Sport of a Dry-fly Purist.

During the past season I enjoyed the privilege of fishing for grayling in the very best stocked portions of the Itchen at Twyford and Shawford.

On August 11th, 5 brace were killed; on the 12th, 3½ brace; on the 19th, 4 brace; on the 23rd, 4 brace; on the 26th, 1 brace—their weights varying from 14 oz. to 1¼ lb. On August 28th the evening was stormy, and until seven o’clock no signs of flies or of fish breaking the surface of the swollen, breeze-rippled, and strongly running stream could be noticed. I was standing near the swampy margin of the west bank above Shawford Bridge, and with little hope of the prospect for sport improving, when a single dark olive dun floated down, and just as its struggles to dry its wings seemed effectual it rose, but fell on the water again, and instantly a grayling flashed up and took it. Well hooked and played from the bended rod, it was felt to be a heavy one; nor could it be much restrained without risk until it had drifted to the ford, where I was in the act of trying to draw it over the shallow side to dry land, not intending to use the net, when a man watching from the bridge, a black retriever at his side, called out, “Shall I come and land him for you, sir?” At that instant his dog rushed round to the shallows, and wildly jumping about, repeatedly tried to seize the fish—in fact, to retrieve it as he would a moorhen. The chance of hooking the dog was so likely, and the consequent breakage of my tackle, perhaps losing the fish also, that I promptly used the net handle to beat him off, and as I landed and unhooked the grayling (afterwards found to weigh 1 lb. 7 oz.), the dog looked on, wagging his tail and barking excitedly—possibly he expected praise rather than a beating.

For the next half hour, at intervals, a few dark-wingedEphemeræwere seen to emerge on the surface. I knotted on to the fine-drawn gut point of my cast a red quill dressed on a cipher hook, and after many attempts, baffled by the wind, to present it just right, a grayling that could plainly be seen in a clear run close under my bank rose to it and was hooked and brought to net, weighing 15 oz. Another an ounce heavier soon followed. Afterwards, about 8 p.m., when the wind had lulled, some sedgeflies hovered over the surface in mid-channel, occasionally dipping on to it as they dropped their eggs. A larger red quill on a No. 2 hook was therefore tried, as it was similar in size to the natural sedges, and, presented by the horizontal back-handed casting method, it sailed lightly down over the ring of a feeding fish, and when he rose again and snatched at it he hooked himself, giving three minutes of exciting sport ere the landing-net secured him, a grayling of 14 oz., making up two brace weighing 4½lb.

On the 30th, after the total eclipse of the sun in the afternoon, the evening was dull, and low clouds threatened rain. I fished in the same place as last. The river was clear but brimful; indeed, here and away overflowing its banks, and running so wildly that a dry fly cast up stream in the usual manner immediately dragged, and if thrown across, the line sagged or bellied, and consequently, whenever a fish took my fly, it was most difficult, on the slack line, to strike and hook him. To let the fly drift was easier and the only alternative, and in this way 2½ brace of grayling, from 10 to 13 inches in length, were creeled by 8.10 p.m. At which time, having lost my fly in an overhanging branch, it was too dark to see to tie on another, and I reluctantly had to leave off. It was particularly provoking, for the fish were then rising in that reckless way they often do for a brief time at dusk.

Next evening my practice was between the bridge and the lower boundary of the Twyford fishery on the west side, and for once in a way all the conditions an angler wishes for were favourable: the smooth, clear, and sun-lighted stream reflected white cumuli clouds and the azure sky; flies were in the air, which theHirundinidæin graceful curves of flight and with unerring sight were intercepting, while olive duns, in straggling, intermittent groups, were floating down, and fish taking them eagerly. And to complete one’s satisfaction, a gentle breeze from the west made casting easy. The successful fly of yestereve, a red quill on a 000 hook, was again used, and from 6.30 to a little after 8 p.m. four brace of grayling, scaling from 12 oz. to 1 lb. 5 oz., were hooked, played, and brought to grass, besides several returned. And a larger grayling escaped by the small hook working out just as the net was nearly in position to thrust under him. There is no necessity to further describe this evening’s very good sport than to say that for the one and a half hours I was almost constantly at work, and that the fish rose and fastened to my artificial fly as readily as they did to the naturals; but with so good a rise of duns there were, of course, ten chances to one against the red quill. Bearing this in mind, the sport could scarcely have been better.

On September 2nd sport was greatly interfered with by horses drawing carts, vans, &c., passing through the ford, and as it was Saturday night, the drivers sometimes stopped midway to refresh their horses, wash wheels, &c. At another time a boy on the back of a tired horse that had done his week’s work was made to stand awhile in the ford for the benefit of his legs, and now and again the boy, evidently delighted to be riding, would take a turn from shore to shore, and once he began to splash up stream until I remonstrated. And twice a lumbering watering-cart was slowly filled from a bucket dipped into the river. With all these interruptions one’s patience was much tried, as I had no chance of fishing until about 7.30 p.m. I should have gone elsewhere had I not noticed that within a few minutes after each disturbance had temporarily ceased a shoal of about a dozen grayling came on to the churned-up gravelly bottom to feed, probably on crushed or crawling larvæ, snails, &c. I resolved, therefore, to bide my time, and when all was quiet again fish began to rise, freely takingTrichopteraas they touched or floated on the surface of the smooth stream, and at intervals my counterfeit fly, each time with fatal effect, for when I left off a leash of beautiful 11 to 13-inch grayling, as bright as silver, lay on the grass at my feet. And while they were being arranged in the creel for presentation to a friend, embellished with the wild flowers, mimulus and willow-herb, the clock of Twyford church slowly tolled out the hour of eight. Twilight was passing into darkness; Mars, the evening star, low down in the south-western sky, showed large and luminous; birds were mute—the silence was oppressive.

The evening of September 12th was bright, rather cool and windy, but at 6.40 black gnats were dancing in mazy groups under the boughs of trees and pale midges around my cap as I stood near the poplar-tree above Shawford Bridge. The river was very full and flowing swiftly, but smooth and favourable for dry-fly practice. Many small trout were unavoidably hooked and time was lost in putting them back, but one weighing 1½ lb. was kept, because an invalid friend wanted it, and I was not likely to fish in this part of the river again until the trout season would be over. Half an hour afterwards grayling were rising to dark-winged olive duns; I changed my fly for the Englefield quill pattern with silver tag, dressed on 0 hooks, and by a little after eight o’clock it had tempted to their fate three brace, measuring 10 to 11½ inches, when I had to hurry away to catch my train. It was very pretty sport, and a good wind-up of the foregoing ten evenings’ sport and pastime, on each occasion obtained within two hours, and aggregating 30½ brace.

On October 3rd, at noon, many large grayling had worked up to the shallows under the pretty little weir over which the water from the Shawford House garden reach was falling in a glassy cascade. The overhanging trees prevented overhand casting, but, by kneeling and crouching low, my fly could be sent forward over them. It was not noticed at first, but at the third essay it was snatched at, and the grayling hooked: fortunately he turned, and rushing zigzag down stream without disturbing the others, was followed and netted out. After prudently waiting a time, the weir was again quietly approached, and still the grayling were seen there, but now, more on the alert, rising to olive duns. My very poor imitation was nevertheless taken at the first throw as it lightly dropped in the white froth and among the air-bubbles under the waterfall, and a grayling well hooked and landed—his desperate struggling causing the other fish to scurry away out of the pool. It was satisfactory to know, while consuming anal frescoluncheon which followed, that a handsome brace was already in the creel—indeed, it gave a zest to appetite.

Lower down, where the broad water is divided by the first islet, the narrowed channel is a favoured feeding place for grayling. They were now darting up to the surface, taking floating flies—iron blues they looked like—but to pass along the bank would disturb them. I therefore several times let my dry fly drift down, and at last it was effective in bringing another fish to hand. About 4 p.m. the sparse rise ofEphemeræwas over, nor did they come on again until an hour after sunset, when dark-winged olives in considerable numbers were on the wind-rippled stream under the low-branching trees at the upper end of the mill race, where casting was almost impossible, but in an eddy one grayling could be tried over, and he came to grief, the two brace for the day scaling 4 lb. 2 oz.

The morning rise on November 3rd did not begin until about 11.30, and only lasted for two and a half hours. On the lower reach of the main stream in the park several small rings and splashes were seen on the glide above the second island, such as denote grayling busily taking surface food, but they were many times cast over before my 00 red quill was taken and a fish hooked, who instantly furrowed along the top of the water to the opposite side, and made vain attempts to rub the hook out in a shallow weed-bed; then when held firmly from the rod and played he repeatedly, as if in wrath, turned wildly over and over on the surface (grayling seldom or never springoutof water as trout do), and being thus exhausted and before he could take another turn, as they sometimes do when apparently dead beaten, was drawn near enough to be netted out. Almost under similar conditions another grayling was shortly after lured by the same fly and killed—the brace weighing 2¼ lb.

Higher up, twenty yards in the rear of the first islet, a large grayling was observed in a clear bay behind weeds, and, save for the gently waving movement of his tail to maintain his equipoise, showing no signs of life—“Glued to the bottom and very little use to cast over him,” an angler would say. Nevertheless, in a desultory sort of way I did send my red quill over him, and his head slightly moved up. Again my fly was floated over, and this time he came to inspect it, paused, and retired. I also retired some thirty or forty yards lower down, and under the dry sedge bordering my bank managed to hook and land an 11-inch grayling. Then I quietly worked up again to the beforementioned big one, and by a long throw deftly placed my fly a yard in front of him. Like a shadowy flash he boldly rose, touched the fly, and drowned it, no doubt seizing it submerged unknown to me, for in the act of recovering my fly it firmly hooked him, and after a well-fought battle he was safely landed, and, held on a steelyard, weighed 1 lb. 5 oz. Then at the extremity of the park where the two streams meet a grayling could be seen quiescent under the opposite branches, but, as before, an experimental cast tempted him to rise from his lethargy and snap at my fly, when, well hooked, and after giving exciting sport, he was brought to bank, under 1 lb. in weight.

On four other days in November my sport aggregated 15½ brace, and on seven days in December to finish the season, 19½ brace.

Red Quill.

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.

It was history repeating itself to see a son of the famous Mr. Tom Drake picking out the gems of the Southwold, a rare pack, to get good hounds from; it looks as if judgment in the kennel is hereditary, as did he not get one good enough to make a pack when he secured a lot that included the little bitch Guilty, by the Brocklesby Wrangler? The present Squire of Shardloes, Mr. W. Tyrwhitt-Drake, who is an old hand in all that pertains to foxhounds, will have another great pack to hunt the Old Berks country with, if he will only stay long enough. Another buyer of the Southwold was Mr. Isaac Bell, of the Galway Blazers, and he will have nothing to regret in the six couples he secured; and with Mr. Nigel Baring, of the Duhallows, snapping up the Brocklesby stallion hound, Sandow, for 45 gs., it may have been called almost an Irish day. Some English packs, though, will be the gainers, as it will be astonishing if Captain Kinglake, of the Taunton Vale, does not do some good with two couples he got from Sir James Miller’s pack; most certainly Dashwood, Catcher, Trampler and Wayward are grand workmanlike-looking foxhounds, and almost ridiculously cheap at 58 gs. The sale of the Dowager Lady Craven’s pack a fortnight later, for nearly 1,100 gs., has been a feature in the disposal of hound property, but I expect they were very cheap, as they were bred by Mr. C. B. Wright, who has no superior in Stud-book lore and as a judge of hounds.

Features of the hound sales throughout the spring have been the numerous purchases by Mr. Pollok and Mr. Isaac Bell for the Kildare and Galway Blazers, and, by the way these gentlemen bought, it is very evident that hound breeding in the Sister Isle will be very much improved. Besides his purchases on the first day’s sale, Mr. Pollok got a nice lot of entered bitches from the Atherstone that might breed anything, and two unentered lots from the Heythrop that might do a deal of good. Mr. Isaac Bell was buying several very racing-like bitches from the South Cheshire, including a couple one noticed by the Warwickshire Traveller, which give a denial to the idea that the beautiful son of Belvoir Handel and Tragedy was no use at the stud. Doubtless there are some more of his get at Kineton, or a couple of his unentered daughters would not have been missed. I shall be curious to know how these young Travellers, Credible and Captious, do in their new Galway home. Apart from the Irish efforts in the cause of improvement, it was seen that Lord Southampton was intent on keeping up the standard of the Grafton, as his lordship expended 210 gs. for five couples of choice bitches from Lady Craven’s pack, or 21 gs. a hound; no gs. going for the couple and a half, Fabulous, Grenadine and Roundelay. Lord Leconfield also gave 110 gs. for one lot as an addition to his Goodwood pack. At the third sale, on the 11th of the month, Lord Southampton was again buying some dog hounds from the Burton pack, but as they have been hunting in Suffolk, they may have become a little sticky for a country like the Grafton. For that reason, perhaps, they did not make much money. The Atherstone were voted the best of all at this final sale, and a great bargain was made by Mr. W. Drake, when he took Stormer for a fourth of 17 gs., and both Lord Huntingdon and the York and Ainsty are to be congratulated on the bargains they got amongst the young hounds, that made about twice as much as any unentered drafts have ever made before, and this says much for Atherstone breeding. In all, more than thirty countries will be benefited by the Messrs. Tattersall’s sales this season, besides help to the Dominion of Canada and far-off India, with a few examples also of what England can boast of to Russia. May the Rugby sales continue and prosper.

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