The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-08-30 00:00:00

"CROSS V. BURTON."

At the Literpoel ASSILOS the above cause has been tried,
and is thus reported by Pte MACS :

The plaintiff is an Iri.h gentleman and owner of fox.
hounds, " whose name," to use hie own language "was
proverbial a. a maerter of foxhound.," living at Sh andy-
hall, in the county of Cork, and the defendant is the
master of the Shrewsbury Hounds, and the action wee
brought to recover httil, the price of nine couple ef fox-
hounds mold by the plamtiff to the defendant, and the
coot of sending them to England. The plaintiff inserted
advertisements in the Field towarde the end of the year
1870 to the following effects—
" A pack of foxhounds for side.—gyerage height twenty-
four Inches, thick and strong, with good tongue bred from
the best kennel. In England. These hounds have challenged
the world for speed, and are all fresh. For beauty, strength,
breeding. wed hunting unalitles, cannot be excelled."
. .

He had previonely lesned the challenge referred to in
the above advertisement ae follows :

"Spovting —4 challenge —I hate heard of late a good
dtal of chat among young fellows who think well of them-
selves (and I ant wit ng to confess Justly); Indeed, It ales,.
givatme pleasure to see the lads ride, and alter *arch. hear
them talk of thilr doings. t itever, they and I diff-r a
' leetle as to what they are able to do, and to bring matters
to an I-me, I give the following challenge to our Most
Gracious Queen's dominion. :—I will back for 200 soterelinas
hounds from my own kennel, running a drag-scent, to beat
any herse that can be found iarrying lOst four miles over a
fair sporting c inutry, and, mind you, by beating. I do not
mean, head, or a length, but that the hounds shall be M the
finish 240 yards before the horse or, In plain words, the
hounds shall distance the horses. My money is lodged In
the Provincial Bank, C it, where It shall Ile 14 days to be
covered—Philip Cron, Shandy-hall. Coachford, post in.
N.r Thu abeve has been put Into the Sundt and Irish
Inners
The advertisement wad thiewered on the part of his
master by Kennet, the defendallfre huntsman, and, in
the course of the comes; ondence whicb fo)lowed, the
plaintiff naid.he was somewhat uncertain as to the age
of the hounds, but the three couple of bitches were
young and of " perfect symmetry," and both dogs and
bitones lied a large strain of the blood of a tamona
hound. whosie pedigree he enclosed, and which wee un•
deninble. The plaintiff repeatedly, however, urged
the defendant to come over and me for himself, promis-
ing to take as good care of -him m he "would of the
Lord Lieutenant," and said that if the hounds did
not answer his description he would not let the
defendant pay anything for them. He stated in
his letters, also, that the hounds were accustomed
to hunt heres and deer as well an foxes. The
defendant answered that if the hounds were ae the
plaintiff represented them—sound and their ages right
—he would ,alip them ; and they were eventually
shipped for England under the care of a servant on the
of February, 1871. Tney were met at Liverpool
by Kennett, who at once appeared to have discerned
that half of them were lerne and unsound and unfit to
be taken out and-tried, and he pronounced the other nalf
utterly wotthiesson their first trial the following day.
The contrary comments made by Kennet and
the defendant's other witnesses and the plaintiff on the
same pack of dogs were most amusing t—" Ranter"
was dee :Abed by Kennett as "shoulder lame and unable
to move," and by the plaintiff as a "splendid hound,"
and he added he "would like to see the learned counsel
trying to ride after him." " Honesty " was described
by Kennett as rather good looking, but very old,
tongney, and slow," bat by the plaintiff as "Young
Honesty." Kennett said that `• Diomed" had • foreleg
broken long ago, and a turned-in.foot in consequence,
defects which the plaintiff entirely denied, though ad
mittiog that he was lame in the hind leg. Generally
Kennett and the whipper in said that the hounds were,
most of them, eight or ten years old, undersized,
shoulder-lame, and "stifled ;" some of them mangy
and some in whelp, and all of them utterly untrained
and unfit to hunt foxes, running all over the country ;
" baublers," hunting everything "from a mouse to a
helephant," and absolutely worthless, and they were
in • great degree corroborated by a Mr.
Wilton from Loudon, who buys draughts of
hounds from packs in this country very cheap,
and exports and sells them again "exclusively
to the "foreigner," who said that these hounds,
which found their way from the defendant into his
hands, were too bad even for that purpose. The plain-
tiff, on the other hand, and his witnesses Mated that
they were a young, strong, and feet pack, an the
advertisement represented, whose only fault arose from
their having been, m stated in the plaintiff', letters,
hunted after hares and deer as well as foxes—one which
could have been corrected in training in a month or six
weeks. It appeared that the hounds which formed
the body of the defendant's pack were worth 59 or 60
guineas a couple, and one of the defendant's complaints
being that thesnew hounds did not run up to the old
pack, the jury in the end found • verdict for the
plaintiff for the full amount.

A SzTrLes. SZTTLED.—" I have come," said
Scotch fw.iner to a neighbour 1 who wag jint
dying; "1 have come to mettle abolithat bit of laud."
" Settle'tl ' ~rod the old wrangler; " how will you
settle't? Your father conldna settlY't, and your
vranclfather confine yettle't, and the 'fifteen' conldna
mettle-t, and how will you settle't?" 'Oh," Raid the
rival claimant, ill let you have it altogether." "but
I'll no tak' it," cried the !tout old litigant., and turned
his face resolutely to the wall.