passed down the Scheldt to Ostend, where we arrived about nine o'clock, P. M., having been just twelve hours on the passage.

I found myself this day in company with, what is rarely stumbled upon on the Continent—and especially so in this case, as he and myself were the only two who could speak English on board—namely, a sulky English traveller. Whether he was too much taken up with adjusting the curls of his wig in the glass, or with the idea of his own consequence, it is impossible for me to determine, but having given me very short answers to two questions I ventured to ask him, I left him to himself and took to a book. But I had an opportunity of paying him off in his own coin afterwards, when he put a question to me at Dunkirk, at which I confess I very much rejoiced. I hate a stiff-necked old dandy more than I used to dislike a stiff-necked old coach-horse, with a heavy load down hill; and always think that a touch of the double thong over the ear, would be as well bestowed upon the one as upon the other. "Away with ringlets and wrinkles," say I: I cannot, like Cæsar, hide bald head with laurel, but it shall never be cased in a wig.

my

Arrived at Ostend, the first thing I inquired for was a conveyance to Dunkirk on the morrow. It happened that the commissary, who was an Englishman, knew me, and said there was none-" at least," said he, 66 none in which you will travel. There is a thing in the shape of a cabriolet"-mind, reader, I am now speaking of the road between two of the greatest sea-port towns in this part of the Continent!" a thing," said he, "in the shape of a cabriolet, that carries five persons besides the driver; you would find four of the five with pipes in their mouths, and you would be smoke-dried before you reached Dunkirk." " Then," said I, "get me a cabriolet at nine o'clock in the morning," which he did, and in eight hours I was at Dunkirk, twenty-four miles distant-the road for nearly half the distance very much resembling a ploughed field! I have in vain demanded the cause of this extraordinary want of communication between two such large cities as these, as also the reason why there is no public conveyance direct between Bruges and Dunkirk, by land, the route viâ Ostend, being considerably round about.

I now conclude my French Tour, but not without expressing gratitude for the attention and kindness shown to me in the various places which I have visited. It is, however, only befitting in me to attribute them, not so much to my own individual self, as to the cause I represent-the cause of legitimate sporting, which I have ever done my utmost to uphold. As to steeple-chasing, hurdle-racing, pigeon-shooting, "shortrunning foxes in Bayswater hunting-ground," and all similar innovations, -I would willingly leave such pastimes to others more competent to chronicle them than I am; for the pen never runs glibly in my fingers, unless accompanied by my heart.

NIMROD.

ON THE NATIVE BREED OF IRISH FOX-HOUNDS.

SIR,

SINCE the arrival, at our side of the herring-pond, of your June number, in which you inserted my paper intitled "Fox-hunting in Ireland,” there has been a great deal of chaffing, on the question I started for discussion, amongst our fox-hunters, who in their piping days of rest have no better occupation. I have heard several debates on it, at sundry social gatherings of the scarlet clan, and until "the malt got aboon the meal," the remarks made upon it were not particularly cutting; but, how they did ply the lash when once fairly warmed-with wine or spirituous liquors! "What nonsense," said one "to print what that Spoleen (Paddy Sullivan) is always bothering people about." "Just the same tune," said another "that all old huntsmen are eternally droning into your ears, if you'll only listen to them.' "Such old cocks," cried a third, "can never tolerate any innovation, let it be ever so great an improvement, and they not only stand up for the 'ould' stock in every thing; but will retain the old lock and barrel too." "The writer of the article," now put in a dandified sprig from the garrison, "has been very flippant in treating us to the perfections of his pets, but not one word is he candid enough to say of their imperfections. Who ever saw such fingers and skirters, as Roche's and Cary's, which makes it so hard to ride to them." But Captain dear, you ought to be the last man to throw this in my teeth; recollect how the old soldier broke out in Paddy, when talking of the videttes and flankers. It is not very easy to ride well up to them I must confess, and I admit that you have hit off the greatest fault of the Irish hounds. Perhaps the sporting schoolmaster might say of the young ensign,

"Nescit equo rudis

Hærere ingenuus puer,
Venarique timet,"

but I shall not endeavour to get rid of a well-grounded objection by sporting my learning, or trying to be witty. The fault, I fear, is inherent, and not to be completely eradicated by any process I can suggest; but if our packs were as well manned as the English, I think it would be obviated in a great measure. In England no master of foxhounds will think of turning out without two well mounted whippers-in, while our huntsmen, who want such assistance much more, are scarcely ever allowed more than one, and that one is very often put on such an old screw as to be unable to stop his hounds, or even to ride in with them when they have settled to their fox.

A very keen sportsman, who really understood the thing, then took up the cudgels against my view of the subject. He had hunted a good deal, with, I believe I may safely say, the best English pack which was ever kept in the South of Ireland, Mr. Smith's of Headborough. They were purchased by Mr. S., from several English kennels, and he spared neither pains nor expence in the selection, buying twenty couple if he wanted but ten; but his lamented death-he and two sisters were drowned off the coast of Wexford, trying to land from the wreck of a steamerbroke up the establishment, before the experiment was fairly tried. Mr. P., who had assisted Mr. Smith in this selection, was a little hobbyhorsical in the praise of the English hounds, as perhaps I am in standing up for the Irish blood. He asserted that they were steadier, closer hunted, and carried, what he called, "a more collective head," than any Irish hounds he had rode to. He also gave them credit for being better drawers, and far better devourers of their game when killed. In the latter respect, I admit their superiority, generally speaking; and I like to see hounds, after a good finish, "tear him and eat him," eagerly and readily; but I now challenge any of the admirers of the English blood to meet me in the pages of your Magazine, if you will be so kind as to grant us a clear stage and no favour, and I pledge myself to prove that our own strain is better adapted to get over our very difficult country. The properties most to be desired in a fox-hound, are scent, speed, strength, and mettle. As to the first, I firmly believe that our native hounds, are much more tender nosed than their rivals. In stating this opinion so confidently, I feel I am borne out by experience. I have hunted with them for many years over a most difficult country, which I shall take this opportunity of saying is becoming more unfavourable every year, owing to the great improvements in our system of agriculture, and the greater extension of tillage, for more than half the arable land is now ploughed up before November. This is a circumstance which ought to make Irish sportsmen exert themselves to the very utmost in breeding from the most tender-nosed stock; for no other can carry on a scent, where every other field is fallow. I have also seen, from time to time, a great many packs of English hounds hunted in all seasons and weathers, and drafts from Leicestershire tried with Irish packs: and I invariably remarked the inferiority of the strangers, when it came to cold-hunting or following the drag of a fox from his earth to a distant I am certain that I saw foxes lost, and drags given up, by the Duhallows, the Unions, and the Groves, all pure English, as well as by several packs, kept from time to time by the garrisons of Fermoy and Cahir, which would have been satisfactorily accounted for by any of a dozen Irish packs which I could name." Per contra,' as those fellows who send people in their bills at Christmas say, I have hunted with

cover.

Messrs. Hedges Eyre, Roche, Pierce Power, Peter Cary, and several other stanch supporters of the strain after my own heart, any one of whom would consider his establishment disgraced if he lost a single fox in the season, except under very peculiar circumstances. But look to the performances of the subscription packs I have named ;-I am sure I am within the mark, when I say they lose one out of every four they find. I don't mean this to apply to the Grove Hunt, because I know less of them than either of the others; and, on the principle of "de mortuis nil nisi bonum," I ought not to say anything to the disadvantage of the Union. Though the Groves have a far more favourable country-for they hunt over much of the Tipperary grazing-grounds-than any of the Irish packs I have named, which are, or were, all in the county of Cork, I have seen them too (the Groves) lose foxes, when there was no earthly reason why they should not run them to earth, or carry home their pates.I confidently appeal to any sportsman in Munster, even the managers of the subscription packs I have named, to say whether I am not fully borne out by facts, in the statements I have made; and if I am, the inference is so very plain that I shall not insult the good sense of your readers by writing another word on this branch of my subject.

I will now say a little as to speed, a point which could be much more easily brought to the test of actual trial, and which has been done, I believe, more than once. As well as my memory serves me, a match came off on the Curragh, about twenty years since, between a draft from Mr. Hedges Eyre's and one from the Kildare, or Kilkenny kennels, which was won easily by the Irish hounds. But even supposing that the English hounds could beat them over a plain, such as the Curragh, and on a rank drag scent, I submit that the very superior style of jumping of the Irish hounds-and this is a point I never heard disputed, though often advanced, as well as what I argue they possess, as I have endeavoured to establish above, a far keener sense of smelling-must carry them a-head in a close country. Their great superiority in this respect, even if they had no other, would give them a very great advantage in going over a line, where they have a high and awkward jump to take at every 300 yards. In speaking of this comparative strength, I must say something of their shape. The generally received opionion is, I admit, against me in this particular, but even at the risk of being considered singular, or may hap stupid, I shall endeavour to convince my Irish friends, that our own little dogs are stronger, as they all know them to be more compact. That the English hounds are more bony, I freely grant, but that this bone has far greater weight to carry in proportion, must also be conceded by * The phrase in Ireland, for the skin of the head, which is carried home as a trophy.

NO. LXXVI.-VOL. XIII.

M

their admirers. In formation, the two strains are very different indeed. The English fox-hound, every man, who ever saw one, knows to be a beautiful specimen of the canine race: he is so well known, that my attempting to describe one would be a waste of paper, the more particularly as such description is not my forte. I shall therefore assume, that every one who reads the New Sporting Magazine, can call up before his mind's eye, the beau ideal of an English fox-hound. Having so far premised, I shall next request the indulgent reader-for indulgent must he be, if not Irish, who has followed me thus far-to fancy a dog, nearly two inches lower than his favourite, and fully three shorter, reckoning from snout to stern. I must next pray him to suppose my pet, the native Irish hound, to be deeper chested, shorter over the couples, with a back curving upwards nearly as much as a greyhound's, and almost as much drawn up about the loins, over which he is fully as broad and muscular. The limbs very sinewy and bony, the depth of the chest making the fore legs appear very short, while they are also short jointed and round footed. The hind legs are not so well formed, the thighs wanting fullness, and a great many of them are cat-hammed, if the phrase be applicable—at all events it is intelligible. A neck much smaller, carries a head lighter, sharper, and more wide awake, than his rival's. It may be prejudice-I acknowledge strong partialities-that makes me think the English fox-hound's head and ears, have the heavy, sleepy look of a beagle; and then the tongue is many notes too deep to please my ears, long accustomed as they are to music as shrill as the earpiercing fife. The dogs of "ould Ireland," like her boys, have a more rakish look; the head is something between the greyhound and terrier's, and they show a strong dash of the blood of both, much of the shape of the former, with much of his style of running; all the keenness of the latter, some of his sharpness of tongue, and the same hardy constitution.

If I must have another simile for the head, here it is: you will find it not unlike the lower part of reynard's, and the ears instead of being rounded, are usually foxed, which adds considerably to his naturally sharp look. To quote a quaint old book, I looked into the other day, the title of which I forget: "they are of a courageous mettle, much addicted to hunting, strong, lusty and nimble rangers; of active feet, wanton tails, and busy nostrils; and though thin of skin, yet never flinch they from thorn, bramble, bush, or brier." As to colour, Paddy Sullivan has left me nothing to say, for though he was very concise on the subject (in my last I really gave Paddy's own words) it would be mere surplusage to add a syllable to his pithy description.

And now "fourthly and to conclude," I have only one or two observations to make as to mettle. I am free to confess -my dear Father Tom, mind