The Chase Magazine
October, 1954
Page Twenty-two and Twenty-three
Early Walker Hound History
By H. E. C. “Red Buck” Bryant
Mathews, N.C.
No story of foxhounds in this country would be complete without reference to the influence of Ben
Robertson of Mount Sterling, Kentucky, who dealt in fine horses and traveled far and wide and like good
hounds. He is referred to by many writers of fifty odd years ago. He owned Maryland dogs and took
some of them to Kentucky and other Southern states. He owned a noted hound, Fury, who made fame,
and whose “very name bears with it speed, strength, durability, honor and greatness.” Fury, Whitey and
others were taken from Maryland to Kentucky.
Dr. A. C. Heffenger of the Brunswick Foxhound Club, of Massachusetts was a famous hound man in his
day. He owned Joe Forester, first winner of the American Field Cup, at the Brunswick Club field trials,
and took a keen interest in many strains of hounds. His New England friends purchased good dogs
where they found them, and many went from the South. In addition to being a judge of hounds, and a real
hunter he wrote of his observations and experiences. His account of the origin of the Walker hound is
interesting.
“Since the advent of high class foxhounds in New England,” said he, “foxhunters are continually asking
of what blood these progressive hounds are constituted, and how they came by their magnificent quality.
So that a few words of explanation anent this (the Walker strain) may be acceptable to hunters.”
“Mr. Walker, senior, father of the celebrated Walker brothers, Woods and Ed. And Gen. Wash Maupin
were brought up and lived very near each other in Kentucky. Mr. Walker and Gen. Maupin began hunting
together with the same hounds when quite young. They were genuine hunters, loved their hounds, took
great pains in breeding them, and had the best to be got. This was in the time of the gray fox, about
1813. They also hunted deer, not with a shot-gun, but in true sportsman like form, allowing their hounds
to do the killing. They hunted harder, or gave their hounds more continuous work, than any other
hunters of their time.”
When the red fox appeared in the Walker-Maupin territory better hounds had to be found to run them.
The two friendly hunters hunted the country over for the sort needed to cope with the new and abler fox.
“The first outcross that was made,” said Dr. Heffenger, “was to a small black and tan hound called
Tennessee Lead, upon the best bitches of the combined packs. This cross is said to have greatly
improved the striking, casting and speed of the strain.”
“The pedigree of Tennessee Lead is unknown.”
Recently a Walker hound hunter insisted to me that the black and tan color did not run in that strain. One
of the best foxhounds I ever owned was a solid black and tan spayed gyp. I was sorry she could not have
pups for I would have liked a pack like her. She was true, fast and tough.
Later Col. Sam Ross, a wealthy man of Washington, purchased seven hounds from Sam Wooldridge of
Kentucky—all spotted except one, Beck, and she was roan-ticked. Beck was very fast, and would steal
the track from a pack and run several hundred yards before she gave tongue. Col. Ross sent her back to
Kentucky and bred her to the famous Big Stride, and got a litter of very indifferent pups—two of which I
had. One of mine turned out to be the worst backtracker I ever owned. That mating just did not pan out
for some reason. Still later I had another black and tan Walker dog. He was smart, a hard driver, and had
stamina of the best sort. His one fault was too much mouth.
I have had many sorry Julys. There are sorry no-account hounds—my old friend Charles A. Clagett, a
Maryland breeder, called them counterfeits, and got rid of them as fast as he could. A friend gave him
one, and when he found out its true character, he gave one of his sons a shot gun and the dog on leash,
with these instructions: “Son, take that hound back to Mr. So and So—he lives fifteen miles from here—
and be back to me in ten minutes.”
The boy obeyed; I never saw that counterfeit again.
Dr. Heffenger added: “A short time after Tennessee Lead was used for an outcross—that was in 1853—
they imported a couple of English foxhounds. The bitch was in whelp, and gave birth to five pups (four
dogs and a bitch) after reaching Kentucky. The English blood was not only crossed upon other dogs, but
inbred upon itself, with wonderfully good results.”
In my reading I have found but one well-known English breeder who did not breed for the typical color—
white, and tan saddlebacks.
If one wishes to see the English hound color in all of its glory he can do so by stepping into almost any
dining room where foxhound pictures decorate the walls. I have seldom found the picture of an
American bred pack in any home, club or restaurant. Our people have never, until recent years, bred for
certain colors. Now, owners are going more and more to the English type in color, but not in formation
and quality. Some of the fashionable hunting clubs use English bred packs exclusively for the same
purpose the English do—for the show and the ride.
Dr. Heffenger continued about the Walker hounds. “After the deaths of the Senior Walker and Gen.
Maupin these hounds were bred by Mr. Walker’s sons—Messrs. W. S. Walker and E. H. Walker, and they
have striven to keep the stock up to the high mark, and with great success. While maintaining every
good quality essential to a high class red fox hound, they have bred especially to gameness, grit and
everlasting endurance. A quitter is almost unknown to them, but should one turn up, he never lives to
perpetuate his sin. These hounds are of all markings, black and tan, black, white and tan, red and the
various pies. This is the result of breeding to the best hounds without regard to markings.”
The Heffenger report was made about fifty years ago.
“About fourteen years ago,” said he, “the Walkers imported Striver and two bitches from the Duke of
Eglinton’s pack in Scotland (these were English dogs through coming from Scotland), and crossed them
upon the Walker hound, producing the noted Big Strive, Pearl Strive, and many other splendid hounds.
They are now breeding back to the old blood again, finding they had too much English blood for first
class nose and tongue. The famous winnings of E. H. Walker’s Ailsie at the Brunswick Foxhound Club’s
trials in 1903, proved the present breeding of the strain to be equal to anything ever produce by the
famous fox-hunting family.”
Today, people not versed in the history of the Walker hound, call any spotted hound a Walker. Not long
ago I asked a Negro where he got his pretty spotted dog, and promptly he said “he is a Walker.” In this
neighborhood, a leading foxhunter of forty odd years ago, bought some Walker hounds from a reputable
breeder in Kentucky. In that family of dogs there was one named Satan, and to this day, any real foxhound
man would be proud of some Satan blood, for he came down from the kennel of the Walkers who
developed the strain. I saw a pup by Satan, and he was a solid gray.
Years ago, I asked through The Sportsmen’s Review, published in Cincinnati, Ohio, if any hunter had ever
seen a red fox up a tree. One of the most interesting responses I had came from Mr. Woods Walker. He
told of an experience he had with a cunning fox. He said he ran him several times but would lose him at a
certain place, and could not learn how he disappeared so completely. After several such failures he
asked his brother Ed to join him in an effort to follow through with that fellow. They had a similar
experience. The fox, after giving the hounds a fine race, vanished. He seemed to fade out on the edge
of a soggy spot in a pasture, skirted by a steep, mountain-like fringe. That morning when he and his
brother left their horses and were trying to help the hounds locate the fox trail a farmer, passing on a
road high above where they were, stopped his teams to ask if they had lost their fox. When they told him
they had he said: “Look in the top of that tail stump near you! I see something red there.”
The fox was there, but he had not climbed but jumped from the high ridge where the pack last scented
him. That part of an old tree that had broken off was twelve or more feet high, and the fox had been
using the hollowed-out place in it to escape his pursuers.
Mr. Walker said that was the nearest to tree for a red he had ever known in all of his hunts. He, with
others, said they had known foxes to go up inside of hollow trees but not on the outside, where they
could be seen, like grays.
Here I might add that Brown Smith, of Viewtown, Virginia, ran a red fox into the shell of a big tree, and one
of his hounds, a small one, followed him. The fox kept going and so did the dog. About 70 feet above the
ground the fox came out of a hole, and jumped. The dog did too. The fox ran off, and so did the hound,
but when the hunt was over the dog did not return to the kennel. Searchers for her found her dead
several hundred yards from where she hit the ground.
I have run many grays up trees but no reds. Once, hunting with my friend Lawrence A. Williamson, at
Fayetteville, N.C., the hounds, about 20 of them, made a big gray take to a willow tree on the bank of the
Cape Fear River. The fox went out on a limb that hung over the water, and in twisting about for a good
position slipped and fell into the river with all of the dogs clamoring for his hide. He could not retreat so
he put out for the opposite bank, about a quarter of a mile away. Just one dog, a black and tan Walker,
followed. That was quite a swim for fox and hound. The following day, about night, the hound returned to
his kennel but we never knew what became of the fox.
Many hunters in North Carolina have good Walkers—many others who call their spotted hounds Walkers
could not run their pedigrees back to a single Walker ancestor.