The dog who, according to the well-known and authentic story, watched
the remains of his master for two years in the churchyard of St.
Olave's, in Southwark, was a cur.
following story is strictly authentic:
"Not long ago a young man, an acquaintance of the coachman, was walking, as he had often done, in Lord Fife's stables at Banff. Taking an opportunity, when the servants were not regarding him, he put a bridle into his pocket. A Highland cur that was generally about the stables saw him, and immediately began to bark at him, and when he got to the stable-door would not let him pass, but bit him by the leg in order to prevent him. As the servants had never seen the dog act thus before, and the same young man had been often with them, they could not imagine what could be the reason of the dog's conduct. However, when they saw the end of a valuable bridle peeping out of the young man's pocket, they were able to account for it, and, on his giving it up, the dog left the stable-door, where he had stood, and allowed him to pass."10
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The Lurcher.
This dog was originally a cross between the greyhound and the shepherd's
dog, retaining all the speed and fondness for the chase belonging to the
one, and the superior intelligence and readiness for any kind of work
which the latter possessed. This breed has been crossed again with the
spaniel, combining the disposition to quest for game which distinguishes
the spaniel with the muteness and swiftness of the greyhound. Sometimes
the greyhound is crossed with the hound. Whatever be the cross, the
greyhound must predominate; but his form, although still to be traced,
has lost all its beauty.
The lurcher is a dog seldom found in the possession of the honourable
sportsman. The farmer may breed him for his general usefulness, for
driving his cattle, and guarding his premises, and occasionally coursing
the hare; but other dogs will answer the former purposes much better,
while the latter qualification may render him suspected by his landlord,
and sometimes be productive of serious injury. In a rabbit-warren this
dog is peculiarly destructive. His scent enables him to follow them
silently and swiftly. He darts unexpectedly upon them, and, being
trained to bring his prey to his master, one of these dogs will often in
one night supply the poacher with rabbits and other game worth more
money than he could earn by two days' hard labour.
. H. Faull, of Helstone, in Cornwall, lost no fewer than fifteen fine
sheep, and some of them store sheep, killed by lurchers in January,
1824.
We now proceed to the different species of dog belonging to the second
division of Cuvier, which are classed under the name of Hound; and,
first we take
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It was often the work of two or three hours to accomplish this;
but is was seldom, in spite of her speed, her shifts, and her doublings,
that the hare did not fall a victim to her pursuers.
The slowness of their pace gradually caused them to be almost totally
discontinued, until very lately, and especially in the royal park at
Windsor, they have been again introduced. Generally speaking, they have
all the strength and endurance which is necessary to ensure their
killing their game, and are much fleeter than their diminutive size
would indicate. Formerly, considerable fancy and even judgment used to
be exercised in the breeding of these dogs. They were curiously
distinguished by the names of "deep-flewed," or "shallow-flewed," in
proportion as they had the depending upper lip of the southern, or the
sharper muzzle and more contracted lip of the northern dogs. The
shallow-flewed were the swiftest, and the deep-flewed the stoutest and
the surest, and their music the most pleasant. The wire-haired beagle
was considered as the stouter and better dog.
The form of the head in beagles has been much misunderstood. They have,
or should have, large heads, decidedly round, and thick rather than
long; there will then be room for the expansion of the nasal membrane,
that of smell, and for the reverberation of the sound, so peculiarly
pleasant in this dog.
The beagle runs very low to the ground, and therefore has a stronger
impression of the scent than taller dogs. This is especially the case
when the scent is more than usually low.
Among the advocates for beagles, several years ago, was Colonel Hardy.
He used to send his dogs in panniers, and they had a little barn for
their kennel. The door was one night broken open, and every hound,
panniers and all, stolen. The thief was never discovered, not even
suspected.
use of beagles was soon afterwards nearly abandoned by the
introduction of the harrier, and by his yielding in his turn to the
fox-hound; but the beagles of Colonel Thornton and Colonel Molyneux will
not be soon forgotten.
There is, however, a practice which fair sportsmen will never resort
to — the use of a beagle to start a hare in order to be run down by a
brace of greyhounds, or perhaps by a lurcher. The hare is not fairly
matched in this way of proceeding.
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He could
then follow the sport, almost without going off his own land, and the
farmer's boys, knowing the country and the usual doublings of the hare,
could see the greater part of the chase, and were almost able to keep up
with the hounds, so that they were rarely absent at the death: indeed,
they saw and enjoyed far more of it than the fox-hunter or the
stag-hunter now does, mounted on his fleetest horse.
The harrier was not more than 18 or 19 inches high. He was crossed with
the fox-hound if he was getting too diminutive, or with the beagle if he
was becoming too tall.
The principal objects the sportsman endeavoured to accomplish were to
preserve stoutness, scent, and musical voice, with speed to follow the
hare sufficiently close, yet not enough to run her down too quickly, or
without some of those perplexities, and faults, and uncertainties which
give the principal zest to the chase.
The character and speed of the hound much depend on the nature of the
country. The smaller harrier will best suit a deeply enclosed country;
but where there is little cover, and less doubling greater size and
fleetness are requisite. The harrier, nevertheless, let him be as tall
and as speedy as he may, should never he used for the fox; but every dog
should be strictly confined to his own game.
Mr. Beckford, in his
Thoughts upon Hunting
, gives an account,
unrivalled, of the chase of the hare and fox. Many sporting writers have
endeavoured to tread in his steps; but they have failed in giving that
graphic account of the pleasures of the field which Mr. Beckford's essay
contains.
He says that the sportsman should never have more than 20 couple in the
field, because it would he exceedingly difficult to get a greater number
to run together, and a pack of harriers cannot be complete if they do
not. A hound that runs too fast for the rest, or that lags behind them,
should be immediately discarded. His hounds were between the large
slow-hunting harrier and the fox-beagle. He endeavoured to get as much
bone and strength in as little compass as possible. He acknowledges that
this was a difficult undertaking; but he had, at last, the pleasure to
see them handsome, small, yet bony, running well together, and fast
enough, with all the alacrity that could be desired, and hunting the
coldest scent.
He anticipates the present improvement of the chase when he lays it down
as a rule never to be departed from, that hounds of every kind should be
kept to their own game. They should have one scent, and one style of
hunting. Harriers will run a fox in so different a style from the
pursuit of a hare, that they will not readily, and often will not at
all, return to their proper work. The difference in the scent, and the
eagerness of pursuit, and the noise that accompanies fox-hunting, all
contribute to spoil a harrier.
. Beckford pleasingly expresses a sportsman's consideration for the
poor animal which he is hunting to death.
"A hare," he says, "is a timorous little animal that we cannot help feeling some compassion for at the time that we are pursuing her destruction. We should give scope to all her little tricks, nor kill her foully nor overmatched. Instinct instructs her to make a good defence when not unfairly treated, and I will venture to say that, as far as her own safety is concerned, she has more cunning than the fox, and makes shifts to save her life far beyond all his artifice."13
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derives from the greyhound a head somewhat smaller and longer in
proportion to his size than either the stag-hound or the harrier. But
considerable caution is requisite here. The beauty of the head and face,
although usually accompanied by speed, must never be sacrificed to
stoutness and power of scent. The object of the sportsman is to
amalgamate them, or rather to possess them all in the greatest possible
degree. This will generally be brought to a great degree of perfection
if the sportsman regards the general excellence of the dog rather than
the perfection of any particular point. The ears should not,
comparatively speaking, be so large as those of the stag-hound or the
harrier; but the neck should be longer and lighter, the chest deep and
capacious, the fore legs straight as arrows, and the hind ones well bent
at the hock.
Some extraordinary accounts have been given of the speed of the
fox-hound. A match that was run over the Beacon Course at Newmarket is
the best illustration of his fleetness. The distance is 4 miles 1
furlong and 132 yards. The winning dog performed it in 8 minutes and a
few seconds; but of the sixty horses that started with the hounds, only
twelve were able to run in with them. Flying Childers had run the same
course in 7 minutes and 30 seconds.
"The size, or, as we should rather say, the height of a fox-hound, is a point on which there has been much difference of opinion. Mr. Chule's pack was three inches below the standard of Mr. Villebois', and four inches below that of Mr. Warde's. The advocates of the former assert, that they get better across a deep and strongly fenced country, while the admirers of the latter insist on their being better climbers of hills and more active in cover. As to uniformity in size, it is by no means essential to the well-doing of hounds in the field, and has been disregarded by some of our best sportsmen: Mr. Meynell never drafted a good hound on account of his being over or under sized. The proper standard of height in fox-hounds is from 21 to 22 inches for bitches, and from 23 to 24 for dog-hounds. Mr. Warde's bitches, the best of the kind that our country contained, were rather more than 23 inches. A few of his dogs were 25 inches high. The amount of hounds annually bred will depend upon the strength of the kennel. From sixty to eighty couples is the complement for a four days a-week pack, which will require the breeding of a hundred couples of puppies every year, allowing for accidents and distemper."14
very properly observes, that
"Mr. Beckford has omitted a point much thought of by the modern sportsmen, namely, the back-ribs, which should also be deep, as in a strong-bodied horse, of which we say, when so formed, that he has a good 'spur place;' a point highly esteemed in him. Nor is he sufficiently descriptive of the hinder legs of the hound; for there is a length of thigh discernible in first-rate hounds which, like the well-let-down hock of the horse, gives them much superiority of speed, and is also a great security against their laming themselves in leaping fences, which they are more apt to do when they become blown and consequently weak. The fore legs, 'straight as arrows,' is an admirable illustration of perfection in those parts by Beckford; for, as in a bow or bandy legged man, nothing is so disfiguring to a hound as having his elbows projecting, and which is likewise a great check to speed."15
. Daniel gives a curious account of the prejudices of sportsmen on the
subject of colour. The white dogs were curious hunters, and had a
capital scent; the black, with some white spots, were obedient, good
hunters, and with good constitutions; the gray-coloured had no very
acute scent, but were obstinate, and indefatigable in their quest; the
yellow dogs were impatient and obstinate, and taught with difficulty.
The dog exhibits no criteria of age after the first two years. That
period having elapsed, the whiteness and evenness of the teeth soon pass
away, and the
old
dog can scarcely be mistaken. Nimrod scarcely
speaks too positively when he says that an old hound cannot be mistaken,
if only looked in the face. At all events, few are found in a kennel
after the eighth year, and very few after the ninth.
Mr. Beckford advises the sportsman carefully to consider the size,
shape, colour, constitution, and natural disposition of the dog from
which he breeds, and also the fineness of the nose, the evident strength
of the limb, and the good temper and devotion to his master which he
displays. The faults or imperfections in one breed may be rectified in
another; and, if this is properly attended to, there is no reason why
improvements may not continually be made.
The separation of the sexes in the kennel and in the field is one of the
latest innovations in the hunting world, and generally considered to be
a good one. The eye is pleased to see a pack of hounds, nearly or quite
of a size. The character of the animal is more uniformly displayed when
confined to one sex. In consequence of the separation of the two, the
dogs are less inclined to quarrel; and the bitches are more at their
ease than when undergoing the importunate solicitations of the male. As
to their performances in the field, opinions vary, and each sex has its
advocates. The bitch, with a good fox before her, is decidedly more
off-hand at her work; but she is less patient, and sometimes overruns
the scent.
Bellingharn Graham has been frequently heard to say, that
if his kennels would have afforded it, he would never have taken a
dog-hound into the field. That in the canine race the female has more of
elegance and symmetry of form, consequently more of speed, than the
male, is evident to a common observer; but there is nothing to lead to
the conclusion that, in the natural endowments of the senses, any
superiority exists.
bitch should not be allowed to engage in any long and severe chase
after she has been lined. She should be kept as quiet as may be
practicable, and well but not too abundantly fed; each having a kennel
or place of retreat for herself. She should be carefully watched, and
especially when the ninth week approaches. The huntsman and the keeper
without any apparent or unnecessary intrusion, should be on the alert.
The time of pupping having arrived, as little noise or disturbance
should be made as possible; but a keeper should be always at hand in
case of abortion or difficult parturition. Should there be a probability
of either of these occurring, he should not be in a hurry; for, as much
should be left to nature as can, without evident danger, be done, and
the keeper should rarely intrude unless his assistance is indispensable.
The pupping being accomplished, the mother should be carefully attended
to. She should be liberally fed, and particularly should have her share
of animal food, and an increased quantity of milk.
The bitch should not have whelps until she has hunted two seasons; for,
before that time it will be scarcely possible to ascertain her
excellences or defects. If there are any considerable faults, she should
be immediately rejected.
When the time approaches for her to produce her puppies, she should be
allowed a certain degree of liberty, and should choose her couch and run
about a little more than usual; but, when the young ones are born, the
less they are handled the better. The constitution and appearance of the
mother will indicate how many should be kept. If two litters are born at
or about the same time, or within two or three days of each other, we
may interchange one or two of the whelps of each of them, and perhaps
increase the value of both.
the whelps are able to crawl to a certain distance, it will be time
to mark them, according to their respective litters, some on the ear and
others on the lip. The dew-claws should be removed, and, usually, a
small tip from the tail. Their names also should be recorded.
The whelps will begin to lap very soon after they can look about them,
and should remain with the mother until they are fully able to take care
of themselves. They may then be prepared to go to quarters.
Two or three doses of physic should be given to the mother, with
intervals of four or five days between each: this will prepare her to
return to the kennel.
There is often considerable difficulty in disposing of the whelps until
they get old and stout enough to be brought into the kennel. They are
mostly sent to some of the neighbouring cottages, in order to be taken
care of; but they are often neglected and half starved there. In
consequence of this, distemper soon appears, and many of them are lost.
Whelps
walked
, or taken care of at butchers' houses, soon grow to
a considerable size; but they are apt to be heavy-shouldered and
throaty, and perhaps otherwise deformed. There is some doubt whether it
might not be better for the sportsman to take the management of them
himself, and to have a kennel built purposely for them. It may, perhaps,
be feared that the distemper will get among them: they would, however,
be well fed, and far more comfortable than they now are; and, as to the
distemper, it is a disease that they must have some time or other.
From twenty to thirty couples are quite as many as can be easily
managed; and the principal consideration is, whether they are steady,
and as nearly as possible equal of speed. When the packs are very large,
the hounds are seldom sufficiently hunted to be good. Few persons choose
to hunt every day, or, if they did, it is not likely that the weather
would permit them. The sportsman would, therefore, be compelled to take
an inconvenient number into the field, and too many must be left behind.
In the first place, too many hounds in the field would frequently spoil
the sport; and, on the other hand, the hounds that remained would get
out of wind, or become riotous, or both. Hounds, to be useful and good,
should be constantly hunted; but a great fault in many packs is their
having too many old dogs among them.
Young hounds, when first taken to the kennel, should be kept separate
from the rest of the pack, otherwise there will be frequent and
dangerous quarrels. When these do occur, the feeder hears, and
sometimes, but not so frequently as he ought, endeavours to discover the
cause of the disturbance, and visits the culprits with deserved
punishment; too often, however, he does not give himself time for this,
but rushes among them, and flogs every hound that he can get at, guilty
or not guilty. This is a shameful method of procedure. It is the cause
of much undeserved punishment: it spoils the temper of the dog, and
makes him careless and indifferent as long as he lives.
Mr.
very properly remarks, that
"Young hounds are, and must be awkward at first, and should be taken out, a few at a time, with couples not too loose. They are thus accustomed to the usual occurrences of the road, and this is most easily accomplished when a young and an old dog are coupled together."
A sheep-field is the next object, and the young hound, properly watched,
soon becomes reconciled, and goes quietly along with the companion of
the preceding day. A few days afterwards the dogs are uncoupled in the
field, and perhaps, at first, are not a little disposed to attack the
sheep; but the cry of "Ware sheep!" in a stern tone of voice, arrests
them, and often, without the aid of the whip; it being taken as a
principle that this instrument should be used as seldom as possible. If,
indeed, the dog is self-willed, the whip must be had recourse to, and
perhaps with some severity; for, if he is once suffered to taste the
blood of the sheep, it may be difficult to restrain him afterwards. A
nobleman was told that it was possible to break his dogs of the habit of
attacking his sheep, by introducing a large and fearless ram among them;
one was accordingly procured and turned into the kennel. The men with
their whips and voices, and the ram with his horns, soon threw the whole
kennel into confusion. The hounds and the ram were left together.
Meeting a friend soon afterwards, "Come," said he, "to the kennel, and
see what rare sport the ram is making among the hounds." His friend
asked whether he was not afraid that some of them might be spoiled.
"No," said he; "they deserve it, and let them suffer." They proceeded to
the kennel; all was quiet. The kennel-door was thrown open, and the
remains of the ram were found scattered about: the hounds, having filled
their bellies, had retired to rest.
The time of entering young hounds must vary in different countries. In a
corn country, it should not be until the wheat is carried; in grass
countries, somewhat sooner; and, in woodlands, as soon as we please.
Frequent hallooing may be of use with young hounds; it makes them more
eager; but, generally speaking, there is a time when it may be of use, a
time when it does harm, and a time when it is perfectly indifferent.
The following remarks of Mr. Beckford are worthy of their author:
"Hounds at their first entering cannot be encouraged too much. When they begin to know what is right, it will be soon enough to chastise them for doing wrong, and, in such case, one rather severe beating will save a great deal of trouble. The voice should be used as well as the whip; and the smack of the whip will often be of as much avail as the lash to him who has felt it."
hounds in the kennel, the frequent practice of too many
huntsmen, should be held in utter abhorrence, and, if carried to a
considerable excess, is a disgrace to humanity. Generally speaking, none
but the sportsman can form an adequate conception of the perfect
obedience of the hound both in the kennel and the field. At
feeding-time, each dog, although hungry enough, will go through the gate
in the precise order in which he is called by the feeder; and, in a
well-broken pack, to chop at, or to follow a hare, or to give tongue on
a false scent, or even to break cover alone, although the fox is in
view, are faults that are rarely witnessed.
Let not this obedience, however, be purchased by the infliction of a
degree of cruelty that disgraces both the master and the menial. A young
fox-hound may, possibly, mistake the scent of a hare for that of a fox,
and give tongue. In too many hunts he will be unmercifully flogged for
this, and some have almost died under the lash. Mercy is a word totally
unknown to a great proportion of whippers-in, and even to many who call
themselves gentlemen. There can be no occasion or excuse for barbarity:
a little trouble, and moderate punishment, and the example of his
fellows, will gradually teach the wildest hound his duty.
That the huntsman, and not the hound, may occasionally be in fault, the
following anecdote will furnish sufficient proof. In drawing a strong
cover, a young bitch gave tongue very freely, while none of the other
hounds challenged. The whipper-in railed to no purpose; the huntsman
insisted that she was wrong, and the whip was applied with great
severity. In doing this, the lash accidentally struck one of her eyes
out of its socket.
Notwithstanding the dreadful pain that must have ensued, she again took
up the scent, and proved herself right; for the fox had stolen away, and
she had broken cover after him, unheeded and alone. After much delay and
cold hunting, the pack hit off the same scent.
At some distance a farmer informed the sportsmen, that they were a long
way behind the fox, for he had seen a single hound, very bloody about
the head, running breast-high, so that there was but little chance of
their getting up with her. The pack, from her coming to a check, did at
last overtake her.
The same bitch once more hit off the scent, and the fox was killed,
after a long and severe run. The eye of the poor animal, that had hung
pendent through the chase, was then taken off with a pair of scissors.
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The Commencement of the Season.
During the beginning of autumn, the hounds should be daily exercised
when the weather will permit. They should often be called over in the
kennel to habituate them to their names, and walked out among the sheep
and deer, in order that they may he accustomed perfectly to disregard
them.
A few stout hounds being added to the young ones, some young foxes may
occasionally be turned out. If they hunt improper game, they must be
sternly checked. Implicit obedience is required until they have been
sufficiently taught as to the game which they are to pursue. No
obstinate deviation from it must ever be pardoned. The hounds should be,
as much as possible, taken out into the country which they are
afterwards to hunt, and some young foxes are probably turned out for
them to pursue. At length they are suffered to hunt their game in
thorough earnest, and to taste of its blood.
this they are sent to more distant covers, and more old hounds are
added, and so they continue until they are taken into the pack, which
usually happens in September. The young hounds continue to be added, two
or three couple at a time, until all have hunted. They are then divided
into two packs, to be taken out alternate days. Properly speaking, the
sport cannot be said to begin until October, but the two preceding
months are important and busy ones.
"It would appear, then," says Nimrod, "that the breeding of a pack of fox-hounds, bordering on perfection, is a task of no ordinary difficulty. The best proof of it is to be found in the few sportsmen that have succeeded in it. Not only is every good quality obtained if possible, but every imperfection or fault is avoided. The highest virtue in a fox-hound is his being true to the line his game has gone, and a stout runner at the end of the chase. He must also be a patient hunter when there is a cold scent and the pack is at fault."
While there is no country in the world that can produce a breed of
horses to equal the English thorough-bred in his present improved state,
there are no dogs like the English fox-hound for speed, scent, and
continuance. It would seem as if there were something in the climate
favourable and necessary to the perfection of the hound. Packs of them
have been sent to other countries, neighbouring and remote; but they
have usually become more or less valueless.
regards the employment of the voice and the horn when out with
hounds, too much caution cannot be used. A hound should never be cheered
unless we are perfectly convinced that he is right, nor rated unless we
are sure that he is wrong. When we are not sure of what is going on we
should sit still and be silent. A few moments will possibly put us in
possession of all that we wish to know.
The horn should only be used on particular occasions, and a huntsman
should speak by his horn as much as by his voice. Particular notes
should mean certain things, and the hounds and the field should
understand the language. We have heard some persons blowing the horn all
the day long, and the hounds have become so careless as to render it of
no use. When a hound first speaks in cover to a fox, you may, if you
think it necessary, use
one single
and prolonged note to get the
pack together. The same note will do at any time to call up a lost or
loitering hound; but, when the fox breaks cover, then let your horn be
marked in its notes: let it sound as if you said through it, "Gone away!
gone away! gone away! away! away! away!" dwelling with full emphasis on
the last syllable. Every hound will fly from the cover the moment he
hears this, and the sportsmen and the field will know that the fox is
away.
It is the perfection of the horse, and the perfection of the hound, and
the disregard of trifling expense, that has given to Englishmen a
partiality for field-sports, unequalled in any other country. Mr. Ware's
pack of fox-hounds cost 2 000 guineas, and the late Lord Middleton gave
the same to Mr. Osbaldeston for ten couples of his hounds.
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