HOUND HUNTING was common in the United States long before the nation achieved its independence from Great Britain. In 1659, Robert Brooke, an English citizen, sailed to the Virginia colony and brought with him his pack of foxhounds. George Washington was also a great fan of foxhounds and owned a pack with members named Vulcan, Tipsy, and Drunkard. During the Revolutionary War, the Marquis de Lafayette sent seven French hounds as a gift to Washington, which the future president accepted graciously, although secretly he never cared for the slower tracking style of French hounds. As colonists pressed farther across this continent, their hounds accompanied them and soon the foxhounds that descended from original colonial stock were being trained to hunt American game including raccoons, bears, deer, and mountain lions.
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