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.
The
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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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.
Mr
. 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.
11
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.
The
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.
12
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.
Mr
. 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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He
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.
"Thesize, 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
Nimrod
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
Mr
. 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.
16
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.
Sir
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.
17
The
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.
When
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.
Beckford
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."
Flogging
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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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.
After
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.
18
"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.
As
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.
19
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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