Dogs and All about Them

The first known kennel of all was at Wardour Castle, and was said to have been established in 1696; but more reliable is the date of the Brocklesby, commenced in 1713. The first record of a pack of hounds being sold was in 1730, when a Mr. Fownes sold his pack to a Mr. Bowles. The latter gentleman showed great sport with them in Yorkshire. At that time Lord Hertford began to hunt the Cotswold country, in Gloucestershire, and was the first to draw coverts for fox in the modern style. Very soon after this it became the fashion of the day to breed hounds. Many of the nobility and large landowners devoted much of their time and money to it, and would take long journeys to get fresh blood. It was the rule to breed hounds on the most scientific principles, and by 1750 there were fifty such breeders, including the fifth Duke of Beaufort, Lord Lincoln, Lord Stamford, Lord Percival, Lord Granby, Lord Ludlow, Lord Vernon, Lord Carlisle, Lord Mexbro, Sir Walter Vavasour, Sir Roland Winns, Mr. Noel, Mr. Stanhope, Mr. Meynell, Mr. Barry, and Mr. Charles Pelham. The last-named gentleman, afterward the first Lord Yarborough, was perhaps the most indefatigable of all, as he was the first to start the system of walking puppies amongst his tenantry, on the Brocklesby estates, and of keeping lists of hound pedigrees and ages. By 1760 all the above-named noblemen and gentlemen had been breeding from each other's kennels.