The Osceola times., 1876-03-18
FOX HOUNDS.
Notable Instances of Their Extraor
dinary speed.

dinary speed.
The Turf, Field and Farm of recent
date contains the following:
A friend in Virginia wrote us some
weeks ago inquiring if there was any
ell-authcnticated records of the time
made by bounds over given distance
of ground. We remember seeing in an
old volume Of the English Sporting Mag
azine an account of several races against
time by English hounds, but did not
know exactly in what volumes to look
for it, when luckily we applied to Mr.
Titus Eyers, who, like Mr.. Frederick
Ryer, is versed in the whole range of
sporting literature. He at once refer
red us to an exceedingly interesting ar
ticle over the signature of Cecil" in
Bells Life, January /, 1860, from which
we condense the following: Mr.. Meynell
matched two fox hounds, Richmond and
a bitch whose name is not given, against
Mr.. Barry's two hounds, Blue Cap and
Wanton, to run over the Beacon course,
at New Market, for 500 guineas Mr.
Barry's hounds were trained on Tiptree
Heath, Essex. The trainer was the IA
nous huntsman, viii Train. His meth
cd with the hounds was 10 run isx drag
of eight or ten miles three times week,
upon the turf, during two months, feed
ing them Upon oatmeal and milk and
sleeps trotters. The dogs before start
ing were in admirable condition. Mr..
Meynell's hounds were fed while in train
ing entirely upon legs of mutton, and
were also in high condition, and the odds
were scvcn>to four upon them at starting,
chiefly from the proprietor's high sport
ing character. The match was run on the
thirtieth of September by laying the ac-
customed drag from the rubbing-house
at Newmarket town end to the rubbing
house at the starting post Of the the Bea-
con course, the four hounds being mme-
diately laid on the scent. Mr.. Barry's
Blue Cap came in first, and his Wanton
a very near second, the four miles being
ruin by these hounds in few seconds
above eight minutes, much about the
time in which an ordinary country plate
horse would run the same distance, car
rying ll2 or ll9 pounds. Mr.. Meynell's
hound was beaten by about 120 yards,
and the bitch not placed, as she did not
run her course through. Three score
horscmen started with the hounds, and
only twelve lived through the run, Will
Crane, mounted on the winner of a
l2-stone or king's-plate horse called Rib,
being twelfth in the race.
From Daniels Rural Sports, Blaine
gives the following extract: A fox hound
bitch, bred by Col Thornton, proved her
self superior to either Blue Cap or Wan
ton. Merkin was challenged to run any
hound of her year, five miles, over New
market, giving 220 yards, for ten thousand
guineas or to give Madcap one hundred
yards, and run the same distance, for five
thousand guineas. Merkin had run trial
of four miles, and performed it in seven
minutes and half second!
| Cecil makes a remark in the communi.
cation, from which we have given the
above facts, which we commend to the
consideration of certain masters of hounds
we wot of in the south, who are too am
bilious to own the fastest hound, even at
the expense of other qualities. 1t is this
In all packs there are certain hound.
which evince more speed over the open
than the companions, and in this in
stance their speed is so conspicuous that
IL becomes necessary to draught them"
The late John 5. Skinner parted with
three magnificent English hounds, i'm
ported by the late Commodore Stockton
from the kennel of Sir Harry Goedreeke,
only for the reason that they were too
fast for the Baltimore pack, which was
one of the best of its day in the whole
south. These hounds were presented to
James Caldwell, at Greenbrier White
Sulphur, who used them for driving
deer, and they were too fast for that,
which is best done by the slowcst and
noisiest hounds.
Since writing the above we find in
Land and Water mention made of n race
between hounds which occurred some
where in Cumberland, England, a few
months since. Col. 5. ID. Bruce, who is
a first-rate judge of pace in race horses,
but who has never hunted in England,
is inclined to be skeptical, but we who
have hunted in England accept it at very
near the truth. The statement is that
the competing hounds completed seven
miles across a rough country on a drag
in seventeen minutes.
While on the subject of hounds and
hunting we will state that we had visit
early in the week irom Mr.. Mayo, OF
Wcstmoreland, one of the best hunting
counties in Virginia, where the passion
for the chase and the hounds as vel
have survived the calamites of the war
The hunting there this season has beer
exceptionally fine, but the huntsmer
have kept it all to themselves and have
not taken the trouble to report theil
runs for the benefit of the outside world
and so it is with the great body of 70,
hunters throughout the south; indeed
if it were not for such friends as "Eller
Alice" "Pious Jeems." "T. G. +" o
Roanoke, and Captain A." of Eau
quier, one might suppose that all the 70,
hunters and all the hounds of the soutl
| had taken THAR Jana rtura for tho happx