To such perfection, indeed, had the Foxhound attained,
that long before the close of the eighteenth century sportsmen were
clamouring as to what a Foxhound could do.

With so much prominence given to the Foxhound in the comparatively
short period of forty or fifty years, it is no wonder that individual
hounds became very celebrated in almost every part of the country.
Mr. Pelham's Rockwood Tickler and Bumper were names well known in
Yorkshire, and Lord Ludlow's Powerful and Growler were talked of both
in Lincolnshire and Warwickshire. From the first, indeed, it appeared
that certain hounds were very much better than others, and old
huntsmen have generally declared for one which was in the whole length
of their careers (sometimes extending to fifty years) immeasurably
superior to all others they had hunted. Harry Ayris, who was for just
half a century with Lord FitzHardinge, declared to the day of his
death that nothing had equalled Cromwell; Osbaldeston said the same
of Furrier, and Frank Gillard never falters from the opinion that
Weathergage was quite by himself as the best hound he ever hunted.
The Foxhound Kennel Stud Book abounds in the strongest proofs that
hereditary merit in their work has been transmitted from these
wonderful hounds, and they really make the history of the Foxhound.

There have been many great hounds; but there must be the greatest
of the great, and the following twelve hounds are probably the best
England has ever seen:--Mr. Corbet's Trojan (1780), Lord Middleton's
Vanguard (1815), Mr. Osbaldeston's Furrier (1820), Lord Henry
Bentinck's Contest (1848), Lord FitzHardinge's Cromwell (1855), Mr.
Drake's Duster (1844), Sir Richard Sutton's Dryden (1849), the Duke
of Rutland's Senator (1862), Duke of Rutland's Weathergage (1874),
the Earl of Coventry's Rambler (1874), Mr. E. P. Rawnsley's Freeman
(1884), and the Grafton Woodman (1892).

Breeding Foxhounds is one of the most fascinating of all the pleasures
of animal culture, as the above list, so full of extreme merit, can
be traced for nearly a hundred and thirty years.

It cannot be said that the prices paid for Foxhounds in very recent
times have greatly exceeded those of the past. In 1790 Colonel
Thornton sold Merkin for four hogsheads of claret, and the seller
to have two couples of the whelps. Then in 1808 Mr. John Warde sold
a pack of hounds to Lord Althorpe for 1,000 guineas, and the same
gentleman sold another pack for the same sum a f