Page 259 - Showsight April 2013

the native grey fox to hunt. The gray
fox circles and only covers about 4 to 5
miles. They are wonderful to hunt with
slow, mouthy hounds that worked a cold
trail for hours. It was not until the winter
of 1779-1780 when the Chesapeake Bay
froze that the red fox crossed over to the
Western shore of Maryland and then into
Virginia. This was the catalyst for the
ultimate development of the American
Foxhound as we know it today, including
pack, night hunter and field trial.
The Foxhound that both Lord Fairfax
and George Washington hunted was defi-
nitely “slow and mouthy”. They had great
ability for scenting. Washington person-
ally supervised his kennels and stables;
when possible, he visited them morning
and evening. His kennels were built to
have a fresh spring for his hounds. He
made the boast that his hounds were so
“critically drafted as to speed and bot-
tom that in running if a hound should
lose the scent another was immediately
at hand to recover.” Washington was a
breeder of top hounds. In reading Bad-
minton Magazine one learns that Martha
Washington occasionally joined her hus-
band in the chase.
After the Revolution, the Marquis de
Lafayette sent some French stag hounds
as a gift to Washington. In his diary,
an entry dated August 24, 1785, Wash-
ington wrote of receiving seven hounds
from the Marquis by way of New York:
3 dogs and 4 bitches. These hounds were
of great size and fierce. Washington did
use the French hounds in his breeding;
he mentions in a note of lending some of
the descendants of the French hounds to
George Calvert.
In 1814, Bolton Jackson arrived in
Maryland and with him were two Irish
Foxhounds: Mountain and Muse. From
Jackson these two hounds came to Col.
Sterett Ridgely, and from him to Gover-
nor Ogle’s pack and then back to Home-
wood, the estate of Charles Carroll, Jr.
As are their descendants, these
hounds are remarkable for great speed,
perseverance and extreme ardor for
casting ahead at a loss. This is the foun-
dation for the July hound as well as the
hounds of Dr. Thomas Henry of Vir-
ginia. Mr. G. L. Birdsong’s hounds go
back on the Irish hounds and July. Col.
Haiden Trigg also used these blood-
lines. These are the bloodlines of the
old Virginia hound which Joseph B.
Thomas hunted and was convinced was
the most efficient pack hound in the
world to hunt a fox.
If shape and conformation were
hound characteristics that our early
American hound cherished, then they
were more indebted to the French hound
than the English. Our native hound—
blue, black and tan, long-eared, long-
headed, high peaked, deep-mouthed,
headstrong and hard to control—must
contain this blood.
Bowler and Rachel-Virginia Foxhounds. Owned
by Joseph B. Thomas.
Old Line Maryland Foxhound—owned by Phillip
Hammond Dorsey of Howard County, Maryland.
Ch Hazira’s Peggy Sue—a multiple ground
winner and a Best in Show Hound on the bench
in the 1970s.
“If shape and conformation were hound
characteristics that our early American hound cherished,
THEN THEY wERE MORE INDEbTED TO THE
FRENCH HOUND THAN THE ENglISH.”
ShowSight Magazine, April 2013 • 259