(_Best Three Couple under 19 inches, Peterborough, 1896._)] [Illustration: _DULCIMA, PURE HARRIER._ (_Property of Lady Gifford._)] Lady Gifford began by having a small pack of beagles, but as she found it impossible to keep with these hounds on foot, she gradually changed to harriers. The ideal she then placed before herself was to get a level pack of 17 inch hounds of pure harrier blood. In colour, too, Lady Gifford is particular, her fancy being to get her hounds as dark as possible, with golden-red tan on their heads, but, as she truly says, though a smart appearance is much--and such hounds are very smart--"when you get a good-shaped hound it does not do to quarrel as to colour." In starting her pack Lady Gifford has gone a good deal to Mr. Allgood's kennels, and Dulcima, a very beautiful bitch by his Durable--Darkeye, has perfect colouring and good bone, and, moreover, an excellent nose, and will gallop all day without tiring. Her owner naturally regrets that owing to the fact of Mr. Allgood not being a member of the Association of Masters of Harriers, she is not able to show hounds bred by him, although Lady Gifford herself has joined the association. The country over which Lady Gifford hunts is the moorland near her home in Northumberland, and she finds the little hounds of 17-18 inches beautiful to ride to over the open grass land, and very quick to get over the stone walls and the heather. That they need to be speedy after a heather-fed hare there is no doubt, for such an one is stronger than most of her kind, and will usually go straight as a good fox, after a ring or two to start with. The open land, too, generally carries a fine scent, and even though you have harriers before you, you will find you need to be riding a horse with a good turn of speed to enable you to live with them.