Judging from the excellent sport enjoyed by the majority of hunts during this last season, one has no need to be sceptical as to the progress and continuance of this grand and manly form of sport. Looking back on the times when such great followers of the chase as Peter Beckford and Mr Apperley ("Nimrod"), one is apt to think that through lapse of time, agricultural depression, and inroads made into the country through commercial industry, fox-hunting might well-nigh have become a sport of the past, but, happily, this is not so. Given good weather and a favourable season, there is as good sport to be obtained with Horse and Hound as in the days of Beckford. The modern Foxhound, has, by selection, been derived from the old Southern Hound, a dog that had longer ears, was heavier built, and slower. This Hound was supposed to have been used by the Ancient Britons for hunting the larger game present at that time. The number of Hounds constituting a pack varies, and if the pack is a very large one, the dogs and bitches are hunted alternately. As to which is the best for hunting, opinions vary. From twelve to twenty-five couples may be taken as the average number working at one time. The following is a description of the Foxhound, taken from the _Foxhound Stud Book_:-- Head, of full size, but by no means heavy. Brow pronounced but not high or sharp. There must be good length and breadth, sufficient to give in the dog Hound a girth in front of the ears of fully 16 inches. The nose should be long (4½ inches) and wide, with dilated nostrils. Ears set on low and lying close to the cheek. The neck must be long and clean, without the slightest throatiness. It should taper nicely from the shoulders to the head, and the upper outline should be slightly convex. The shoulders ought to be long and well clothed with muscle without being heavy, especially at the points. They must be well sloped, and the arm must be long and muscular, but free from fat and lumbar. [Illustration: MR WALTER WINANS' PACK OF HOUNDS AND MASTER.] [Illustration: ENEMIES AT PEACE--FOXHOUND NAMELESS AND TAME DOG FOX (Property of Mr WALTER WINANS).] The chest should girth over 30 inches in a 24-inch Hound, and back ribs to be deep. The back and the loin both ought to be very muscular, running into each other without any contraction (waist) or nipping between them. The couples must be wide even to raggedness, and there should be the slightest arch in the loin, so as to be scarcely perceptible. The hind-quarters, or propellers, are required to be very strong, and as endurance is of even more consequence than speed, straight stifles are preferred to those much bent, as in the Greyhound. Elbows set quite straight, neither turned in nor out, are a _sine qua non_. They must be well let down by means of the long true arm previously mentioned.