Dogs/hounds_in_old_days_1913.md

HOUNDS IN OLD DAYS

BY SIR WALTER GILBEY, Bart.

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VINTON & CO., 8 BARR'S BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. VINTON & CO. LTD. 1913  HUNTING SCENE By Frederick Taylor  84473

LONDON LIBRARY CANCELL'D By the custodian JUL 8-1910 LIBRARY  PREFACE

In the following pages I have endeavoured to trace the process of development of our various breeds of hound, in connection with the changes, which, in the course of ages, have come over our methods of hunting in England.

As will be seen we possessed in former times numerous local breeds of hound, each of which was more or less distinct from others, having been evolved for the purpose of hunting different kinds of country. There were hounds for flat country, for hill country, for the open and the woodland; and these, for a long period, were maintained as distinct breeds.

These several varieties of hound have been gradually crossed and recrossed until the mass of hounds in the Kingdom are now of more uniform type; the only survivals of those old days when there were different breeds of hound in many different parts of the country are a few packs of Harriers which have been carefully preserved by owners, who take pride in their high antiquity, and seek to retain their ancient character in its purity.

Eltonham Hall November, 1912  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  CONTENTS

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PREFACE	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
EARLY HUNTING	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
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THE HARRIER																		...	...	...	...	...
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THE STAGHOUND																		...	...
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THE FOXHOUND																		...
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THE BRAGLE
103
THE WELSH HOUND
101
THE OTTER HOUND
111

APPENDIX A— The White Hound of France

APPENDIX B—
The Alsatian INDEX 126 125 121 126  .  ILLUSTRATIONS

HUNTING SCENE Frontispiece Southern Hound (Edmund Willis) Foot page 8 The Chase Foot page 16 Southern Hound (Philip Reingold, A.R.A.) 25 The Harekier 36 Neaden Harkiers 44 Fox Breasting Covert 52 North Devon Staghounds Governor and Famous 70 Sketch for Foxhunting Picture [Jas. Seymour] 86 The Death 92 Tapster (1733) and Waybreeley (1911) 100 Bragle and Rabbit 104 Kough Welsh Hounds 110 Hon. Mr. Leslie's Otter Hound 114 The Otter Stream 120  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  HOUNDS IN OLD DAYS

EARLY HUNTING

The fact that hounds, like horses and falcons, were frequently presented by one king to another, shows us the value that attached to them in ancient days, and indicates the importance of the place hunting occupied in the esteem of our ancestors.

The earliest particulars of hounds in our records occur in the Ancient Laws of Wales, which were codified by Howel Dda (the Good), a prince who reigned from A.D. 942 to 948. Among these laws, which contain a mine of information concerning the state and social order of those remote times, are statutes laying down the values set upon various animals.

From these we learn how highly hounds were prized. The most valuable of all domestic animals was the King's buckhound: when

3  2

trained it was valued at one pound : untrained, 120 pence ; at a year old, 60 pence : " when a young whelp in the kennel," 30 pence ; and from birth until its eyes opened, 15 pence. The backhound belonging to any person other than the King was valued at half these sums.

The value of the palfrey or the sumpter (pack) horse under these laws was only 120 pence ; so the King's backhoud was held twice as valuable. We might find parallel cases in the hunter and hound sales of the present day

The stag, during the hunting season, which extended from the first day of winter, i.e., 22nd December, to the feast of St. John, 24th June, was of higher value than any beast domestic or wild. The stag consisted of " twelve legal pieces"—haunches, antlers, tongue, breast, etc., each of which was valued at 60 pence, making a total value of three pounds.

These facts give us a very clear idea of the importance attached to hounds and hunting nearly a thousand years ago

The Old Forest Laws were framed in the interests of hunting by the kings of England  3

at this period. King Canute (1017-1035), ordained that every man should be entitled to hunt in wood and field in his own possession; but those who lived within ten miles of a royal forest could take little advantage of the liberty so conferred. They were restrained by the long series of enactments concerning dogs and their mutilation

Canute's law required that the greyhound owned by anyone dwelling within ten miles of a royal forest should have its knees cut to prevent the dog from chasing deer. Only dogs so small that they were harmless to game might remain unamputated

At a later period, during the time of Henry I (1100-1135), all dogs kept near the forests were disabled by the amputation of a claw. A subsequent law required that the ball of one foot be cut out; and another law, of Henry II (1154-1189), directed that three claws be cut at one stroke from the right forefoot. This barbarous method of securing game from pursuit by dogs is, no doubt correctly, attributed to the Danes; there is no similar enactment in the ancient French forest laws; but the Norman kings of England showed themselves very ready to adopt the system when they found it  4

on our statute books, and make the methods more drastic.*

The practice of "lawing" dogs, to use the old term, gave rise to the necessity for granting licences to privileged persons to keep hounds unmutilated; hence the numerous royal charters which confer the right to hunt and keep hounds.

One of the best known of these charters is that ascribed to Henry I (1100-1135) under which he confirmed to the citizens of London their right to hunt "in Chiltern, Middlesex and Surrey" as their predecessors had done. When the "Common Hunt of London" was first established, it is impossible to say; the institution was very ancient. The Mayor of London was the Master; the kennels in 1512 were in Moorfields, and the pack then consisted of "deep-mouthed," i.e., southern, hounds.

Some of the earliest charters to keep hounds "unlawed" were granted to the Abbots of the great Monasteries which then existed all over

*Many methods of disabling dogs were practised at different times; some of these involved the division of a sinew—e.g., hook-sinewing—for example. The object was always to render the dog incapable of pursuing his prey while leaving it sound enough to be serviceable as watch or herd. Lawing was still practised in Henry VIII's days, but it was used only to mutilate and "great dogs" used for herding swine. Hunting dogs were not allowed to enter the forests at all  5

England. In 1168, Henry II granted such a charter to the Abbot and Canons of St. Osyth's Priory to keep hounds for hunting in Chiche and several adjoining parishes of Essex.

A curious condition was attached to the charter granted the head of a religious house ; at his death the hounds became the property of the king

Another early Essex charter was that granted by Richard I (1189-1199) to Henry de Guy of Codnor, manor of Turrore, to hunt hare and fox on any Crown lands other than demesne parks

Turning for an example to Scotland, William of Brus (Bruce) confirmed to Adam of Carlisle and his heirs the right of hunting stag, hind, hog, and roe deer, about the period 1194-1214. The Penistone Hunt in Yorkshire traces its origin back as far as 1260, when Elias de Midhope was Master; the date indicates that a royal charter must have been granted for hunting

The records of this period show that different hounds were used for different game. When, in the year 1306, Edward I's huntsmen, John King and Thome de Wedone, were sent to hunt in the "Forest of Essex," they had with them buckhounds, harriers and "bertelettos,"  6

which last are thought to have been small beagles

We need not suppose that the backhounds and harriers were distinct breeds; on the contrary, later records and writings show that they were hounds of one and the same breed, but entered at and trained to hunt the game whose name distinguished them.

The Master of Game* describes at length the best sort of “running hounds,” which were used for the stag and buck; and proceeds to tell us that there are many kinds, some small and some large. The small were called kenets, which would run all kinds of game: those, which “serve for all game, men call barriers”

Any hound that had courage would make a harrier with little training; but the making of a hound that would stick to the line and avoid riot was a different thing; it was necessary that it be well bred, and entered young; and pains were taken with its education

Running hounds, therefore, were roughly divided into two classes: the most promising,

*This famous work is a translation made by Edward second Duke of York of Gaston de Foix’s Livre de Chasse, with five chapters, by the translator, on English hunting. The Livre de Chasse was written between 1385 and 1390; the translations and additional chapters between 1400 and 1413  7

which were entered to deer; and those which were entered to all kinds of game. The term "kenet" is seldom used for the latter; they are called harriers to distinguish them from the better class hounds which are called hart-, stag-, or buck-hounds. When we read of "foxhounds" in early records the term means simply hounds that were used to hunt the fox after the fashion of the time.

Some of these harriers were good hounds, and they had a reputation beyond our own shores: on 11th April, 1279, Edward I wrote to Charles of Salerno promising to send that prince the "harriers" for which he has asked.

Little information concerning hounds is given in William Twic's treatise The Art of Hunting, which was written in the reign of Edward II (1307-1327). Twic, who was the king's huntsman, says that the hart, hare, boar and wolf were "moved with a lymer" and run by braches, and that is all. Lymer and brache were not different breeds; the light thrown on the subject by later authorities indicates that the term "lymer" was simply derived from the work the hound so called was required to do.

"...Rache" and "brache" are terms very frequently used to describe the running hound; the names also occur as "racher" and "bracher." The rache was the dog-hound and the brache the bitch-hound.  8

The stag in old days was harboured by a man who "ring-walked" the coverts where the quarry might be expected to lie up, with a hound held in a yam or leash—whence the name applied to the hound. This work required a hound with a good nose, as he might often have to puzzle out a cold or foiled scent. At a later period the St. Hubert enjoyed preference as a lymer, his nose being particularly tender.

The stag, hare, wolf and boar, as already said, were harboured in this way by a hound held in leash during Twier's day. Other game, the buck, doe and fox, were "hunted up" by the pack.

The Norman conquerors of England brought their hounds with them when they took possession of this country, and there is evidence to show that the breed known as St. Huberts or Talbots were the foundation stock of the breed afterwards known as southern hounds. The Count de Couteleu de Canteleu says that the St. Huberts were celebrated as far back as the eighth century, when they were known as Flemish hounds—St. Hubert's Monastery, the home of the breed, being in the Ardennes. They were subdivided into two strains, the black and the white.

This breed was famous in France for a very long period. The abbots of St. Hubert's  A SOUTHERN HOUND by Edward Willis  :  9

Monastery used to present hounds to the kings of France in token of their allegiance. Their great excellence lay in their noses ; in appear- ance they were large and majestic : they had fine coats, the colour being usually black and tan ; their heads were broad, their ears large, long and pendulous, their sterns feathered. They were, in fact, very much like the modern bloodhound, which is descended from them. They were slow hunters

The Master of Game says that the best hue of running hounds and the commonest good colour is " brown tan "; but the merit of all hounds lies in true courage and the good breeding of their parents. The description of the running hound may be quoted—

" A running hound should be well born and well grown of body, and should have great nostrils and open, and a long muzzle but not small, and great lips well hanging down, and great eyes red or black, and a great forehead and great head and large ears very long and hanging well down, broad and close to the head"

So much for the head of the hound ; the word " great " figures as conspicuously in the description of the body and limbs :

a great neck, a great breast and great shoulders ; and great legs and strong, not  10

too long; and great feet; round and great toes and the foot a little low; small flanks and long sides—a good chine bone and great back, good thighs and great hind legs, the hocks straight and not bowed; the tail great and high and not cromping [bending] up on the back, but straight and a little cromping upward

" Nevertheless," says the Duke of York, with reference to this last point. "I have seen some running hounds with great hairy tails, which were very good."

After the appearance of the Master of Game more than a hundred and fifty years elapsed before other works relating to hunting and hounds were published in England. Then, in 1575, when Queen Elizabeth reigned, two noteworthy books appeared. These were George Turbervile's Art of Venecie and John Caius' English Dogges, the latter the first book ever written on our breeds of dogs.

Turbervile dealt largely with French hounds; butasmuch as our English hounds were partially, at least, the descendants of hounds imported at the time of the Norman Conquest, and frequent interchanges of blood took place for many generations afterwards, his work is of value, apart from the light he sheds upon foxhunting in his time.  11

This author describes four distinct breeds of French hounds : the White, the Fallow, the Dun and the Black or St. Huberts.

The White® was essentially the staghound ; the Fallow was used at all game, but principally for the stag ; the Dun was the commonest breed and would hunt any game. The Black or St. Huberts is the breed of which Turberville gives the most detailed account ; this is fortunate as it is the hound in which Englishmen were, and are, most interested.

He describes these hounds as "mighty of body, legs low and short, not swift, very good of scent, hunting chases which are far straggled† and do most cover the chase (quarries) that smell, as foxes, bears and such like." The St. Huberts "have not the speed for other chases." They occurred in all colours, which points to much crossing with other breeds.

By "other chases" we may understand Turberville to mean stag and buck. Hare hunting was not much followed in France in his time, if we may draw an inference from the

• See Appendix A

† "Far straggled." I think by this is meant that these hounds are well covered on one line. ‡ "Straggled" is still used in the sense of "trodden down," and "far straggled" might well be read as meaning "long foaled."

A black and white illustration of a stag being hunted by hounds.  12

silence of the old French writers concerning this sport: and in England—the south of England at all events—the chase of the hare was extraordinarily slow, as will be seen when dealing with that part of the subject

Turberville says of the Black, St. Hubert or Talbot, that “bloodhounds of this breed prove good, especially the black ones” (as said above these hounds were of all colours). It is clear that he uses the term “bloodhound” in the same sense as “lyner” is used by Tici, i.e., to describe the hound with the particularly good nose which was used to work out the line of the deer it was desired to harbour

That the black ones made the best hounds for this purpose is what might be expected: the colour proved their greater purity of blood, their more direct descent from the ancient breed of black St. Huberts which had been famous for their noses eight or nine hundred years earlier*

From these hounds are descended our modern bloodhounds. Individual animals selected to perform a certain service would have been mated among themselves with the aim of perpetuating their special quality; and in course

• The same author says that Fallow hounds make good “bloodhounds”

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of time a distinct breed would be established. The White Hound, famous when at its zenith as the "Great White Hound," is described in Appendix A. It seems highly probable that these remarkable animals were crossed upon our English breeds to make staghounds. The Count de Cantelu believes that the Kerry, or black and tan, Beagle is the descendant of the old Vendée hound, which had in its veins the blood of the Great White Hound.

The Scarteen harriers and the Seskinore harriers, in Ireland, consist, the former wholly, the latter partly, of these old Kerry Beagles. Mr. H. A. Bryden, writing in the Field of 21st January, 1905, records Mr. Ryan's state- ment that the original stock, whence the Scarteen pack are descended, came from the south of France. The Count believes the Welsh foxhound to be descended from the same French stock

Caius, whose Englishe Dogges appeared in the same year (1575) as Turberville's Art of Venery, says harriers were to be known by their long, large and bagging lip, by their hanging ears, which reached down both sides of their chaps and by "the indifferent and measur- able proportion of their making," in other words, by their various and distinct shapes. "They  14

cannot all be reduced and brought under one sort considering the sundry uses of them."

They were entered at all sorts of game: hare, wolf, fox, hart, buck, badger, otter, polecat, lobster (stoat), weasel, and sometimes at rabbit; but the rabbit was not often hunted: "we . . . . take it with nets and ferrets"

Caius did not write as a hunting man, and for that reason his remarks shed light where it is required. He gives a few facts which would be omitted by the writer on hunting as too elementary for notice:

He describes an animal called the "gaze-hound," of which he says, it ---

" hunts little or nothing by nose depending on sight: by the virtue wherein being singular and notable it hunteth the fox and the hare. These dogs are much and usually occupied [used] in the Northern part of England more than in the Southern parts, and in fealdy [open] lands rather than in bushy and woolly places; horsemen use these more than footmen to the intent that they might provoke their horses to a swift gallop (wherewith they are more delighted than with the prey itself) and that they may accustom their horses to leap over hedges and ditches."  15

This was not the greyhound—which is con- cisely summed up as a "spare and bare kind of dog"—and the statement that the "gazehound" hunted by sight, depending little or not at all upon its nose, forbids the assumption that Caius refers to the Northern Hound or Northern Beagle; which, as Gervaise Markham shows, had a very good nose.

In Queen Elizabeth's time the hound used for hunting the hare was sometimes entered also to fox. Caius says of the harrier:

"Among these sundry sorts there be some which are apt to hunt two different beasts, as the fox otherwhiles and otherwhiles the Hare; but they hunt not with such tendnshess [success] and good luck after them as they do that whereunto Nature has formed and framed them, for they swerve sometimes and do otherwise than they should."

We may read this to mean that some of the "sundry sorts of Harrier" were staunch on the scent of deer or hare but not on the scent of the fox. Caius regarded deer and hare as the beasts for which Nature had "formed and framed" the hound, and the fox as an artificial quarry: and thus explains why the hounds "swerve and do otherwise than they should"; ran riot, in a word  16

The time was not yet come when men bred hounds for any one particular quarry. The conditions under which hunting was carried on forbade exactness of method. Vast areas of the country still lay waste, and the hunting man might enjoy sport with deer, red, fallow and roe as well as hare, otter, fox and badger.

Roedeer, it is well to remember, were then plentiful in many parts of England whence they have long disappeared with the destruction of their woodland haunts.

Roedeer did not take a high place among game; they were hunted with harriers, but it was not desired that they should give a run ; the covert was surrounded, and if the quarry tried to break it was driven back to be pulled down by the hounds, after the manner of fox-hunting as it was followed at that time.

Sir Thomas Cockaine, in 1591, wrote a little work which is less well known than it deserves to be. This book, A Short Treatise of Hunting, contains much that bears upon the subject, as indeed might be expected of the author, who was James I's "Keeper of the Hares" at Royston, including a circuit of twelve miles round, and Keeper of the Game at Thetford.  THE CHASE Dr. Samuel Hooper  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  17

Sir Thomas Cockaine gives the following practical advice in the matter of breeding hounds. It will be noticed that the hounds were to hunt all game, as the term was then understood : fox, otter and badger ranking as vermin which afforded sport :

"It were very necessary before you breed your whelps that you should see your breeding hounds recover a chase [quarry] very far fled afore, and drive and stick at the mark and not fling about. And then you may be bold to breed fourteen or sixteen couple of whelps that will serve you to hunt several chases : that is the fine and cunning hare, the sweet scented roe, the hot scented stag and the doubling buck when he greweth weary".

These, to use the old term, were beasts of "sweet flight," and the pack might be entered to any one of them. Foxes and badgers were "beasts of stinking flight," and for them—grouped together with lesser animals, as the polecat and marten, as "ravenous vermin"—different hounds were prescribed. These latter will be noticed on a future page.

• The wiles and stratagems of the wearied fallow back are hardly less cunning than those of the fox, and are well calculated to puzzle hounds

C  18

Cockaine gives no description of the hounds used in his day. The probability is he knew little about the breeds used in the different parts of England; he was, he says, "a 'professed hunter and not a scholar'; and he confined himself to matters of which his office as royal game warden gave him intimate practical knowledge.

For information concerning the different breeds of hounds in England about this period, Gervaise Markham's work Country Contentments, first published in 1611, is most useful. This writer makes clear the interesting point that hounds were then crossed to combine the merits of different breeds for hare hunting; various races of hound, more or less distinct one from another, having been developed to hunt different kinds of country, mountainous, woodland, open and mixed. These breeds, more or less distinct, were to be found in different parts of England.

The local breeds described by Markham were some of the many varieties of harrier to which Caus referred. The stag, buck and hare were the animals principally hunted; the best hounds of the individual race being entered at the larger game, though they would be used for small game if the owner's convenience required  19

Of the local breeds of hound. Markham says:—

"There are divers kinds—as the slow hound which is a large great dog, heavy and tall, and are bred for the most part in the West counties of this land, as also in Cheshire and Lancashire, and most woodland and mountainous countries; then the middle sized dog which is more fit for the chase, being of a more nimble composure [frame] and are bred in Worcestershire, Bedfordshire and many other well mixed soils where the champaign [pasture or open country] and covert are of equal largeness."

From Markham is obtained the first definite information about the Northern Hound. He writes of:—

"the light, nimble, swift, slender dog, which is bred in the North parts of this land as Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland and many other plain Champion [open] countries. . . . If you will choose a swift light hound, then must his head be more slender and his nose more long, his ears and flews more shallow, his back broad, his belly gaunt, his tail small, his joints long, his foot round, and his general composure much more slender and greyhound-like; and  20

thus in general, for the most part are all your Yorkshire hounds, whose virtues I can praise no farther than for scent and swiftness ; for to speak of their mouths they have only a little sharp sweetness like Gig, but no depth or ground like more solemn music”

The hounds Markham mentions were, he says, of various colours : the white hound or the white with black spots were recommended as “the most principal,” for they would hunt any quarry exceedingly well, especially the hare, stag, buck, roe or otter ; the last because they would “well endure both woods and waters.”

The best and most beautiful of all colours for the general kennel were the white with black ears and a black spot at the setting on of the tail ; these always had good noses and were “of good condition”

The black hound, the “black tanned” (black and tan), the hound that was “all liver hued” or the milk white “which is the true Talbots” were the best “for the string or line,” i.e., to hunt in leash : thus we have Markham confirming the early writers as to the merits of the

The context shows that the voices of these hounds were light and high. G. R. Jesse, in his work The Dog, suggests that “like Gig” may mean “like Jig” i.e., a light or lively tune  21

Southern Hound, St. Hubert or Talbot, as regards nose. Of these last the largest were always the best

The "shag-haired" Talbot, preferably "grizzled" were the best verminers, and were therefore chosen to hunt the fox, badger and other hot scents. They were exceedingly good and cunning finders; and "therefore have Huntsmen thought it not amiss to have one, or a couple, in every kennel"

Mention of these "shag-haired" hounds recalls the Count de Cantelou's statement that the Bresse hound of the eastern provinces of France was brought to this country and formed the basis of the breed of Welsh hounds. The Bresse breed were shaggy of coat and yellowish or sandy red in colour.

From Markham's account it is safe to assume that when the "Northern Hound" or "Northern Beagle" is referred to by later writers, the Yorkshire breed is meant; it was the fastest and had the best nose; the only point made against it is its light voice.

Great importance attached to voice in former days; so great that The Spectator (1711) makes fun of the typical country gentleman, personified

• "Grizzled" may mean either grey, sandy, red or roan.

 22

in "Sir Roger de Coverley," for his preciseness in this respect. Sir Roger is represented as gratefully returning a fine hound that had been sent him as a gift, on the ground that the dog "was indeed a most excellent bass but that at present he only wanted a counter-tenor."

Markham's observations on the subject of hound music show that a gentleman who took pride in his pack might well have declined a hound with a voice that did not happen to suit his needs at the moment, however good it might be otherwise. Packs were often put together with special attention to their music

"If you would have your kennel for sweetness of cry then you must compound it of some large dogs that have deep solemn mouths and are swift in spending [throwing their tongues] which must be as it were the base in the consort [concert]; then a double number of roaring and load-ringing mouths, which must bear the counter-tenor : then some hollow plain sweet mouths which must bear the mean or middle part ; and so with these three parts of music you shall ever make your cry perfect"

It was held that hounds whose voices were thus attuned to produce a musical cry would  23

run well together—a pack that carried a good head was appreciated—as Markham says :- " You shall observe that these hounds thus mixed, do run just and even together and not hang loose off from one another, which is the vilest sight that may be " In reading the following passage it must be remembered that the " deep-mouthed " hound was very slow, and the " slender dog " very fast "You shall understand that this composition [of hounds to form a musical pack] is best to be made of the swiftest and largest deep-mouthed dog, the slowest and middle-sized dog, and the shortest legged slender dog" The fastest of the slow hounds and the slowest of the fast hounds might well run together and carry a good head ; but this admixture of three breeds was not enough to make a really perfect " cry " : " Amongst these you may cast in a couple or two small single beagles which as small trebles may warble amongst them : the cry will be a great deal more sweet " When the hounds to form a pack were thus chosen for their voices from different breeds there must have been a good deal of crossing, and some of the old varieties may have been " swamped " in this way  24

It would seem that at one period the fast Yorkshire hound had become scarce: Thomas, Viscount Wentworth, wrote on 30th November, 1632, to James, Earl of Carlisle, expressing the hope that he may be able to furnish some couples of "fleet hounds" as desired, but he says, such hounds have become "a very rare commodity in these parts all men, as they tell me, having given over breeding that kind of cattle." Nevertheless, he hopes to be able to send the hounds before Christmas.

The "sharp-nosed" or fleet hound was well known when Beckford wrote in 1781, and there is nothing in that author's work to suggest that it was at all difficult to obtain. The breed had evidently been revived in the interval: and the suggestion may be hazarded that recovery of favour was due to the introduction of fox-hunting as we understand it, a form of the chase for which this hound was particularly well suited.

Seventy-five years after Markham wrote, Richard Blome produced, under royal patronage, his Gentlemen's Recreation. From this work, which was published in 1686, it appears that men had then begun to cross two breeds of hound in order to arrive at an animal more suitable than any existing pure breed for hunt-  25

ing the fox in the open. This marks an epoch in the history of hound breeding : a new sport had come into vogue and a new hound was required for it. Further remarks on this head will be more in place when the foxhound comes under notice

English hounds, and sporting dogs of all kinds, were much in demand on the Continent during Stuart times. This is made clear by the fact that licences were granted to Masters of the Royal Buckhounds which conferred upon them the monopoly of the export trade in hounds and sporting dogs. They, and no others, might " transport and carry beyond the seas all manner of dogs, hounds, beagles and greyhounds of several kinds and names"

The reason assigned was that it had been the custom to send hounds and other sporting dogs out of the country " to the hindrance of our own store, the decay and prejudice of our game and hunting." and it was therefore desirable to check the practice: the true reason was the King's desire to make the office of Master of the Buckhounds more profitable to the holder.

No British sovereign was more devoted to the chase than King James I ; it was said that  26

during his reign a man might kill his fellow-man with less serious results than he might kill even a rascal deer : but this king took one step which indicates the feeling of his subjects towards royal sport

James I's predecessors had made a practice of issuing commissions to various officers empowering them to "take up" any hounds they might find in possession of private persons for royal use. James, in 1605, cancelled all these commissions, stating that he could depend upon the goodwill of his subjects to provide him with all the hounds he required.

Facing page 8 and this page (26) are portraits described as of Southern Hounds. Though that facing page 8, by Edmund Willis was published about 1631, some years later than that by Philip Reinagle, which was painted during the period 1787-1812, when he was an Associate of the Royal Academy, I am strongly inclined to think that the animal portrayed by Willis represents a much older type of hound than does Reinagle's model

Willis's hound corresponds more nearly to the descriptions of the Southern Hound ; it is low, steady and heavy ; we can well imagine that such a hound would be slow and would  A SOUTHERN HOUND by Philip Rouselle, A.R.A.  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  27

require a man's help to get over any but the smallest fence.

Reinagle's hound, on the other hand, shows far more "hound character," as we understand the term : higher on the leg, light yet muscular of build, this is undoubtedly the portrait of a hound which has been vastly improved, though no doubt upon a basis of Southern blood: it retains one conspicuous feature of the old Southern breed in the wide head and muzzle, which are well displayed by the attitude selected by the artist  28

THE HARRIER

It is impossible to dissociate the harrier from the stag- or buck-hound, for the sufficient reason that they were the same breed. For hundreds of years, down to the present time, the same hounds have hunted stag, buck and hare : the Anglesey harriers and the Scarteen black and tan beagles in Ireland, for example, hunt both hare and deer at the present day.

Harriers, or hounds to hunt hares, are mentioned in very early documents—licences to keep hounds with their feet mutilated. They are usually referred to as dogs with which hare and fox may be pursued, but sometimes the terms of the licence indicate different kinds of hound.

This we should expect, as fast hounds were needed for the chase of the hare, while hounds of another sort would answer for fox-hunting of the kind known until 1675-1700 or thercabout.

The earliest mention of harriers which convey anything approaching a description occurs in the letters written by the first Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward I, in 1304-5, during  29

his banishment from court. He wrote on 26th May, from Langley in Hertfordshire, to Louis of France

"We send you some of our bow-legged hare-hounds of Wales which can well discover a hare if they find it sleeping ; and some of our running hounds which can swiftly pursue it : because we know that you love much hunting with the best hounds."

The bow-legged hounds of Wales were evidently used to track the hare to her form ; and when she was put off it the running hounds took up the chase. This is borne out by the statement made by William Twic, who was grand huntsman to the Prince when he became Edward II. Twic says that at that period the hare was moved with a lymer—tracked to her form by a hound held in leash, and hunted with running hounds.

This method had been given up a hundred years later, as we learn from the Master of Game

The hare was now hunted up by the whole pack ; when the master came to the field he gave the order "Out of couples! Forward there, Forward!" The quarry started, the horsemen rode well to one side and some  30

distance to the front, their duty being to help the hounds and prevent any hound from following sheep or other beast

"The hare," says the Duke of York, "is the king of all venery, for all blowing [all the numerous signals with the horn] and the fair terms of hunting come from the seeking and the finding of the hare"

According to the Duke the hare was "a good little beast and gave very good sport." It was a fair thing to run her "with strength of hounds" for she runs far and cunningly ; and she might stand before the pack for four miles, more or less. That hare which remained in her form till she was put off it usually proved to be a stout one and a good runner : if she carried her ears erect it was a sign that she was not afraid and was strong.

The horsemen carried long rods with which when the hare squatted they checked the hounds until the hare was put off her form. Here may be the earliest form of hunting "under the pole," which was still practised three hundred years later

Greyhounds were sometimes used with the harriers, but only as a precaution, if an opinion may be based on the following passage  31

" If they be hart-hunters that seek a covert for the hare and their hounds find a fox, whose meeteth him should blow upon him to warn the fewterer [the man who held greyhounds in leash outside the wood] that there is a thief in the wood. And if they run at the hare and the hare happen to come out to the greyhounds in front of the raches [running hounds] and be killed, the fewterer that let run [his greyhounds] should blow the death and keep it [the hare] as whole as he may till the hunters be come and then reward them [the running hounds or raches]

The meaning seems to be that when drawing the woods for a hare the greyhounds were held in readiness outside in case a "thief" (fox) should be unknellied; but the greyhounds would be slipped when the fox broke covert, but the hare might steal away at the same time, when the greyhounds were far more likely to run her than the fox. If they did so the fewterer was to take away the dead hare from the greyhounds to "reward" the hounds

The old laws of venery prescribed the sides, shoulders, neck and head (together called "the halou") as the portions to be given the pack, the loin only being reserved for the kitchen

Sir Thomas Cockaine, as becomes the King's "Keeper of Hares," gave very precise  32

instructions for the entering of young hounds when he wrote, in 1591. The whelps were to be entered "when full twenty months old and a quarter" at Michaelmas, under the guidance of experienced harriers

"Borrow a couple of fine harriers, such as will hunt a hare cunningly to the seat [form] and when your hounds have found the out-gate of a hare from the pasture, and it be a perfect single gate then you must have four men with four whelps in lines [leashes] which have been a little entered at cones and chastised from sheep."

Tendency to run at sheep was clearly a prevalent fault of all young hounds in those days: the first lesson taught them was to ignore sheep. But to return to the education of the young harrier

As soon as the line of the hare had been made good by the old hounds, those who led the young ones brought up their charges and allowed them to feel the scent, as the old hounds followed it up; but they were not cast loose on the line of a hare until they had had a week of this training and threw their tongues freely on scenting a hare. As soon as they "spent their mouths fast" on the line they might be uncoupled when the hare went away  33

Though Cockaine, as mentioned on page 17, expected his pack of fourteen or sixteen couple to hunt "several chases," the following passage makes it clear that the hare was the principal quarry — "When you have hunted the hare all winter and made your hounds perfect, you may at the beginning of March give over the hunting thereof, and then begin to hunt the roe"

But the trained harehounds required teaching to stoop to the new quarry, and this was provided in the shape of a hound which had already been entered to roc. This hound found the game, and when he owned the scent nine or ten couple of the harriers were cast off. These bused him about the covert for three or four hours, and then four or five couples of the slower harriers were cast off to relieve them.

The roebuck, as already said, was hunted in the same fashion as the fox, namely, prevented from breaking and killed in covert if possible.

Our ancestors held what they called "cunning hunting" the true method of pursuing any game. In this speed was no object ; the hounds were required to scent out every step taken by the quarry, patiently and without haste. The principle was admirably sound ;

D  34

the sportsman should kill his game if he could, but by what were then regarded as the only fair means. The chase was the thing, not the kill.*

This refers more especially to the style of hunting in the south of England, where slow hounds which hunted "cunningly"—cleverly—were most used; sportsmen in the north of the country, as Cains shows (page 12), had already discovered the delights of fast hunting and raced after their hounds on the open downs and commons. Northern hunting men, possessing hounds active enough to jump walls and ditches, had their own method; the slow, heavy hounds of the south required the aid of men to help them over hedge or other obstacle. Gervaise Markham (1611) described the hounds required for "cunning hunting" in the following passage:—

"You shall breed your dogs from the slowest and largest of the Northern Hounds and the swiftest and slenderest of the West-country Hounds, being, both male and female, approved to be staunch, fair and even"

*This view still was upheld by some hare hunters in the time of Beckford; hence his frequent insistence on the necessity for blood in making foxhounds; he admitted that "the bloodless hound was a misfit upon it that the first object was—"the killing of the fox," as the cardinal distinction between fox and hare hunting  35

running, of perfect fine scent, and not given to lie off or look for advantages."

By this last expression he means hounds that can be relied upon to follow every double and wind of the hare without attempting to raise the head and quest for the scent ahead. The hound of the west country was slow, large and heavy; the northern hound "light, nimble, swift and slender." The cross between the two were hounds

"neither so slow that you will waste many days without fruit of your labour, nor so unimmeable that you shall need men to help them over every hedge, as I have many times seen to my much wonder"

Markham was a Nottinghamshire man, and was best acquainted with the Northern Hounds, which, unlike the large and heavy west country breed, could jump hedges. The fact that these large hounds required the help of men to get over fences would of itself explain why they were allowed to die out when the great tracts of open waste and common were taken into cultivation and enclosed. It must not be forgotten that Cockaine and Markham wrote at a time when there were comparatively few hedges and fences  36

These cross-bred hounds, then, being both strong and active:

"Will hold you in continual delight and exercise: for these middle sized dogs are neither so swift that they will far outrun the scent and let it grow cold by their own laziness, but being over and anon upon it, bring the chase to such a narrow exigent [press the quarry so closely] that the poor beast shall be forced to try all the skill, nature or strength hath lent it to preserve life; and the hounds, on the other hand, all their pains and the Huntsman's cunning to undo [unravel] intricate dodges, skips, squats and windings with which they shall be perplexed."

The great pleasure of the "cunning" sports-man was to see his hounds working out the line:

"In this mediocrity of hunting shall your eye, if the cover be not too extreme thick, take a perfect view of all the art and cunning in every passage: so that I conclude the middle-sized hound of good strength, sound mouth and reasonable speed, which will make a horse gallop fast and not run, is the best for the true art and use of hunting."

Faster hounds were more liable to overrun the scent: but at the same time they were  A landscape scene with a large dog running towards a stone archway. Trees and bushes are visible in the background. THE HAMMER by Philip Reinagle A.R.A.  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  37

quick to discover their mistakes, and would cast themselves and recover it before the huntsman could come to their aid.

In spite of this excellent quality, Markham urges everyone who has a pack of these hounds to have among them

"some staunch old dogs, which running more soberly, yet close up with them, may sit upon the scent, when they overshoot it, and so call them back, and give them their loss without more trouble."

The expression "sit upon the scent" is to be read literally; a pack of Southern Hounds would sit down on the line and throw their tongues in harmony as if in sheer enjoyment of the music.

Markham then describes the pack most suitable for the man who wished to follow on foot—

"I would wish you to compose your kennel of the biggest and slowest Dogs you can get, respecting only cunning hunting and depth of mouth; and this kennel that you make so staunch and obedient to your command that when they are upon the hottest scent or in the earnestness of the chase, you step before and cast your hunting  38

pole but before their eyes, they shall suddenly stop, and hunt after you in full cry, with no more speed than it shall please you to lead them ; and that when you please, to let them go before you again, to pass away with the scent roundly; and without stay.

The pleasure of hunting in this fashion was derived from the music of the hounds, from watching their work, and the perfect control the huntsman exercised over his pack.

An excellent account of hunting “ under the pole,” as the old term had it, is that in The Spectator of 1711, the typical country gentleman - "Sir Roger de Coverley" being the central figure. The writer describes how, the hare having been started, he took up his position on rising ground whence he could watch the chase:

“ Instead of running straight forwards, or in hunter's language 'flying the country,' as I was afraid she might have done, she wheeled about and described a sort of circle round the hill wherein I had taken my station in such a manner as gave me a very distinct view of the sport. I could see her first pass by, and the dogs some time afterwards, unravelling the whole track she had made, and following her through all her doubles."  39

After describing the doublings and squattings of the quarry, the writer says:—

" If I was under any concern, it was on account of the poor hare that was now quite spent and almost within the reach of her enemies; when the huntsman getting forward, threw down his pole before the dogs. They were now within eight yards of that game which they had been pursuing for almost as many hours ; yet on the signal before mentioned they all made a sudden stand, and though they continued opening [throwing their tongues] as much as before, durst not attempt to pass beyond the pole."

This perfect discipline could be exacted of the southern hounds—-“ these grave sort of dogs,” as another writer calls them. So slow were they that it seems to have been the exception rather than the rule for them to kill their hare.

The death of the hare was not considered essential, by all harrier men of this period; some thought it desirable to kill in order to " complete the sport"; but the main thing was that the hounds should work out faithfully every double and wind, throwing their tongues in harmony the while  40

Several kinds of hound were used for hare hunting, but the older school of sportsmen strongly condemned the employment of fast packs for the purpose. Somervile was one of the old school, hence the familiar lines in The Chase:

"A different hound for every different chase Select with judgment; nor the timid hare O'ermatched destroy; but leave that vile offence To the mean, murderous, courting crew intent On blood and sport."

In spite of Somervile's protest the fast pack was steadily coming into use among the younger school of hunting men. In 1781 was published a small volume of Essays on Hunting. The contents, as the introduction states, had been written many years before they were printed; and the editor, William Blane, says that at the time of publication all other kinds of hound for hare hunting had been " entirely laid aside by those who affect to hunt in style" in favour of the Northern Beagle, which

"does his business as furiously as Jehu himself. He pursues Puss with the most impetuous eagerness, gives her no time to breathe, and if the scent lies high, will easily demolish a leash or two brace before dinner"

A page from a book, possibly Essays on Hunting, with text discussing hare hunting and hounds.  41

Such methods were considered by the older school " too short and violent."* When scent lay well the hare was killed too quickly, and when scent was poor the fast hounds could do nothing with it ; but this was of little importance to our younger gentry who take outrunning and outriding their neighbours to be the best part of the sport"

In a word, it was the slow hound for the old sportsman and the fast hound for the young one. The following passage clearly conveys the shortcomings of the Northern Beagle as a harrier :

" Their high mettle makes them impatient to drive the nail as it will go rather than stay to creep or stoop ; they push forward at every fume they catch, they cross it, over-run it, hunt backward [run heel] or hunt anything to force a trade ; in short . . . it is impossible to make a good pack of them without the constant discipline of the whip, without perpetually hunting them . . . to tame their fury and quench their fire"

*A certain indulgence was shown the hare by all classes of sportsmen in former days. When firearms came into use for shooting it was for a long period considered unsportmanlike to shoot a hare, because she provided sport for both hounds and greyhounds  42

Several different kinds of hound were used for hare-hunting at this period : slow, medium-paced, and fast : the Southern Hound, used by those who followed on foot ; the " fleet, sharp-nosed Dog with ears narrow and pointed, deep-chested with thin shoulders, portending a quarter of the fox strain "; the middle-sized dog, cross between the Southern Hound and the Northern Beagle ; the " rough wired haired hound, thick quartered, well hung, not too fleshy shoulder"; and besides these the rough and smooth beagles. These last were the small hounds we call beagles.

The rough wire-haired hound was a northern breed : it may have been that elsewhere described as the " Lancashire otter hound," as the description of it given in the Essays on Hunting reads as follows :

"I never saw an entire kennel of these, being in some parts not much encouraged. They are of northern breed and in great esteem being old dogs and by many huntsmen preferred for the otter and marten. In some places they are encouraged for fox-bounds, but are bad to breed from being too subject to degenerate and produce thick, low, heavy-shouldered dogs unfit for the chase."

A page from an essay on hunting.  43

Although so many different breeds of hound were used for hare, hunting men at this period—broadly, Queen Anne's time—were beginning to specialise their hounds; accordingly with Somerville's advice quoted on page 40, "a different hound for every chase." Masters were growing more exact in their methods, both educative and hunting.

It was recognised by the more advanced sportsman that the best and staunchest barrier was the one which had been entered to the hare and knew no other game: and that it was advisable to discourage change from the hunted hare to a fresh one as long as hounds could possibly acknowledge the old line.

The unwisdom of allowing harriers to hunt foxes was also recognised by some in the early days of fox-hunting.® The Earl of March, in the Records of the Old Charlton Hunt, quotes a letter from Mr. Peachey to the Duke of Richmond, written in 1737, in which he says that when he kept (walked?) hounds he never suffered them to hunt a fox, well knowing that it spoiled harriers to do so

But not by all: Beckford, in 1779, sets forth at length the arguments against allowing harriers to run fox, in terms which indicate that it was still done (see page 45)  44

This was the teaching of the pioneers of exact methods. A writer in Essays on Hunting says:—

"A dog generally prefers the game he was first entered at and blooded with. This, few sportsmen attend to, but on the contrary, if they can bring their hounds to swoop and challenge a cat, coney or red herring, think themselves well off."

This kind of "general education" was passing out of use with the old idea that one pack of hounds might be used to hunt several different kinds of game. The new school of masters entered their hounds at the particular quarry they were intended to hunt, and strove to make them staunch to its despite difficulties:—

"The Buck- or Bloodhound has little to do with the hare: the otter and foxhound (the staunch finder excepted) will often join in the hunt it being very difficult to have a complete kennel of either sort so firmly staunch but many will freely hunt each other's quarry, notwithstanding Gentlemen breed ever so true."

The fact that hounds of various kinds would thus hunt each other's game was attributed to the accidents of education, when harriers might break away on the line of a fox, or foxhounds  A painting of two dogs standing on their hind legs, with a child in a dress looking at them. The painting is signed "NEANDEN HARRIERS" by William Barnard. BY WILLIAM BARNARD  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  45

on the line of a hare ; and also to the frequency with which a young hound " at keeping " (at walk) might enter himself.

The process of specialising had been carried far when Beckford wrote his Thoughts on Hunting in 1779 :

" Harriers to be good, like all other hounds, must be kept to their own game ; if you run fox with them you spoil them. Hounds cannot be perfect unless used to one scent and one style of hunting. Harriers run fox in so different a style from hare, that it is of great disservice to them when they return to hare again ; it makes them wild and teaches them to skirt. The high scent which a fox leaves, the straightness of his running, the eagerness of the pursuit, and the noise that generally accompanies it, all contribute to spoil a harrier."

Beckford's views on hare hunting were those of the old school ; he held that when a hare doubled, the hounds should hunt through those doubles, " nor is a hare hunted fairly when hunted otherwise." His own harriers, before he renounced hare for fox hunting, were a cross between the large, slow-hunting harrier and the little fox beagle—the fox beagle was " little " by comparison with the heavy and slow Southern  46

Hound ; but he bred for many years and pro- duced " an infinity of hounds" before he arrived at the kind of animal he wanted, namely, a hound with bone and strength in the smallest possible compass :- " I at last had the pleasure to see them very handsome : small yet bovy ; they ran remarkably well together ; run fast enough ; had all the alacrity you could desire ; and would hunt the coldest scent "

The old plan, advocated by Cockaine in 1591, of breeding a pack that should hunt any and every quarry, had so completely gone out of use in Beckford's time that the practice of a friend of that authority who possessed a pack of large fleet hounds, which at times had hunted all game—red and fallow deer, fox and hare—was regarded as " very extraordinary "

For many years the harriers remained distinct from the foxhound. The local breeds were numerous, and their admirers kept them jealously apart from the foxhound. " Gelert," who produced in 1849 his Guide to the Hounds of England, mentions the breed- ing of the hounds in some of the kennels of the country. This writer's remarks are the more interesting, as the foxhound, in his day,

"  47

had already supplanted the harrier in the esteem of many hare hunters

Mr. Fuller, in Anglesea, had "old-fashioned harriers with pendulous ears and deep musical tongues like tenor bells"; these approached the Southern Hound. The Slapton, in South Devon, were "thoroughbred harriers, chiefly blue mottled"; they could carry a cold scent well, and "go the pace when it is good."

Mr. Lewis, whose country was in the neigh- bourhood of Cardiff, possessed a pack of black and tan hounds which had been in his family for generations

"Gelert's" remark in connection with the hounds of Mr. J. Fane, which hunted in the south part of Oxfordshire, indicates that the Southern Hound had ceased to be regarded as a harrier. These hounds are described as "true bred harriers, with no admixture of fox or Southern blood"

Some packs are described as consisting of "small, sharp" hounds; but a more recent writer throws further light on the principal breeds of harrier of fifty and sixty years ago

Mr. K. W. H. Horlock ("Scrutator"), who wrote his Recollections of Fox Hunting in 1861, had seen many of the kennels of the kingdom, and, endowed with a keen eye for the make  48

and shape of a hound, shows that the descent of some harriers could then be clearly detected.

After pointing out that foxhound and harrier were quite distinct breeds until within a few years of the time (1861) when he wrote, he says ——

"In some parts of England but particularly in Wales original packs of harriers are to be found without any mixture of foxhound blood ; and these in my opinion are the best hounds for the purpose."

Mr. Horock describes two kinds of harrier ——

"The distinguishing colours of the primitive race are blue mottled, fawn, or black and tan. These are of the larger kind—large in the head, with heavy ears, long backs and short legs, and, though not very speedy, sticking like leeches to the line"

It is easy to recognise in this description a harrier in which the blood of the old Southern Hound predominated

"There is another variety of lighter colours and lighter action, merry musical little fellows, more active in their habits and paces, and quite equal to push a hare off her tail ; far superior to the slower sort."

It is equally easy to recognise in this hound—the "small sharp" harrier mentioned by  49

" Gelert " —a breed in which the blood of the Northern Beagle predominated

The tendency for many years past has been to replace the old breeds of harrier with fox-hound packs, and now it is the exception to find the former in hare-hunting kennels. There remain, however, a few packs of true harriers in different parts of the country ; and it is an interesting fact that such packs are found in the extreme southern parts, Devon, Somerset and Cornwall ; Sussex and Kent ; in the north, Yorkshire and Lancashire ; or in Wales ; each of which localities possessed in former days their own breed or breeds of hound.

Reinagle's picture " The Harrier," opposite page 36, is referable to the period 1737-1812 : it was painted during the years when he was an Associate of the Royal Academy. William Barraud's portrait group of the hounds belonging to the Neasdon, or Neasdon, pack of Harriers, page 44, appeared in the Sporting Magazine of 1819, and was no doubt painted about that date.

It will be observed that Reinagle's work shows the ears rounded, or perhaps "peaked" better expresses their shape. The Neasdon Harriers have their long ear lappets untouched.

Remarks upon the Welsh hound will come more appropriately under the heading of Foxhounds.

E  50

THE STAGHOUND

The stag has been hunted in England from the earliest times. Now and again we obtain a glimpse of our sovereigns in the hunting field, enjoying the sport to which, as the old Forest Laws show, they attached the highest importance. Occasionally historians mention a wonderful run, such as that of King Richard I in the year 1194, when he hunted a stag from the then Royal Forest of Sherwood to Barnsdale in Yorkshire, and there lost him.

All red deer were jealously protected as "King's great Game," but the stag which had given royalty such sport as this was peculiarly sacred; he was called a "Hart Royal Proclaimed," and none dare interfere with him as he made his way back to the forest whence he had been hunted.

It appears that distinct packs were kept by Henry III (1216-1272) to hunt stag and buck respectively. In the eleventh year of his reign, 1226, he sent three men with staghounds and deerhounds to take thirty stags and thirty bucks in the New Forest. In the previous year,  51

"Guy and John the Fool," his huntsmen, were sent with the staghounds to take ten boars in the Forest of Dean

The wording of these royal orders indicates different packs, but it does not follow that they consisted of different breeds of hound. The fact that the staghounds were used for boar hunting will be remarked

Hounds at this time were carefully " trained to blood "; in other words, entered at the stag and educated

The Master of Game sheds sidelight on the different kinds of hound used for hunting the deer. Some running hounds followed the quarry fast at the beginning of the run, "for they go lightly and fast"; but after a while they grew tired and breathless when "they stop still and leave the hart when they should chase him"

Such hounds were not esteemed for hunting the deer. They were considered very suitable for hunting the wild boar, which ran fast for a short distance, like themselves, and then turned to bay; but, as appears from Turberville, hounds which were accustomed to run the boar were spoiled for game of scent less strong; they would not readily stop to the scent of deer or hare; moreover, chase of the boar was thought  52

to make them " lyther"—lazy or indolent—and disinclined to run a swift quarry

Slower but more enduring hounds were preferred for the chase of the deer :

" Other manner of hounds there are which hunt a good deal more slowly and heavily, but as they begin so they hold on all the day : these hounds force not so soon a hart as the others, but they bring him best by mastery and strength to his end, for they retrieve and scent the line better and farther because they are somewhat slow."

Greyhounds and other very fast hounds were not liked because the sport was too soon over ; the good greyhound or " abattant " either killed his quarry or lost it, thus making an end of the chase ; running hounds, on the other hand, " must hunt all day questing and making melody."

The Master of Game makes mention of the hounds which we are able to identify as the White Hounds of France, otherwise known as baux or griffiers, " which hunt no other beast but the hart." This breed, subsequently, became famous in France, and examples, no doubt, were sent to England as gifts from French to English kings; there is reason to think

• See Appendix B

 A black and white illustration depicting a scene from a story. A man in traditional Indian attire is standing on a rocky outcrop, holding a bow and arrow. He appears to be aiming at something off-screen. Below him, another man is lying on the ground, seemingly injured or dead. There are also two dogs near the fallen man. The background shows a rocky landscape with some trees. BREAKING COVERT By Flude, Scrope, A.R.A.  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  53

that they played a part in building up our English breed of staghounds.

The system of hunting the stag is described with exactness in the Master of Game. The meet, then called the "gathering", was some "fair mead, well green, where fair trees grow about," near a well or brook ; stag hunting, being a summer sport, shade and water were desirable. Here, what would now be called a hunt breakfast was provided : and while the field refreshed themselves the lymers with their hounds were expected to make their reports.

Several lymers would have been at work since early morning harbouring stags, and to enable the Master to judge of the size of the beasts marked down, each lymcer brought with him, in leaves, some "fewnents" or droppings. These were examined by the Master and more experienced members of the field, who decided which stag should be hunted.

The meal over, business began. A yeoman berner, or huntsman on foot, was selected to take a number of the best hounds with the lymcer. These hounds were the "finders" and answered in some measure to the tutors of the present day : their duty was to give chase as soon as the stag had been moved by the lymcer's hound (the lymer).  54

The "finders" told off, the next thing was to place the "relays". This was a very important feature of the sport, and one that demanded expert knowledge both of the country and the probable line of the deer's flight.

Two or three couples of hounds formed each relay: these were sent off to various points on the lines the stag might be expected to take, to the end that they might be in readiness to replace the "finders" (otherwise called the "vanchasers") at a distance of four miles or thenceabout from the covert. Where there was danger of losing the stag, by his crossing stream or marsh, or passing through riot, hounds with good noses formed the relay.

Time having been allowed for the men with relays to reach their appointed stations, the lyncer, holding his lyner in leash, led the Master to the spot where he had marked the stag into covert, and removed the boughs he had placed over the line when he found it a few hours before. He put his bound on the line, the yeoman berner, holding his hounds in leash, following.

If the stag were alone, the yeoman berner uncoupled all his hounds : if the stag were not alone, two hounds were let go to separate him from the rest. Once fairly "moved" all the  55

finders or vanchasers were uncoupled; and the lymerer took up his lymer, "and follows after and foots it in the best wise he can."

The lymerer followed the hunt for two reasons: he wanted the "reward" for the lymer if the running hounds killed; and apart from this consideration, if the running hounds were at fault the lymer with his exceptional nose was wanted to recover the line.

The stag being got away, then "the bernes also and every horseman go, that can go," taking care not to get in front of hounds or cross the line; injunctions which recall the remark that slow hounds were preferred for their "questing and melody."

The man in charge of a relay had two important points to bear in mind when he heard or saw the hunt approaching; he had to let the "vanchasers' pass before he put his relay on the line, and he had to be sure that his hounds owned the scent before he uncoupled them lest they ran heel.

If there were danger of losing the stag, the lymerer who had been "footing it" after the hunt with his hound was called by a "mote" on the horn; and the lymer put down his nose and quested for the line till he found it. If the lymer's work was in vain, the running  56

hounds were got together and cast off where they were " last in the rights," i.e., where they had last been able to own the scent.

The breaking up or " undoing" of the deer was attended with much ceremony; the head was cut off and the master bayed the pack with it to rouse them to the utmost while their "reward" was being prepared. Certain portions of the stag were cut up small, mixed with blood, and folded in the freshly flayed hide, to be uncovered when the master gave the word for the pack to be rewarded. The lymer had his own reward, which was given him before the running hounds received theirs.

Another method of hunting the stag was employed when it was desired to show sport to ladies, or to those who were not sufficiently active to follow hounds.

In this, " lodges" or stands were erected, and the game was surrounded by a wide ring of men with hounds, whose duty it was to head back deer which might attempt to break. The people in the "lodges," which were covered over with boughs to protect them from the sun, were armed with long bows or crossbows, and greyhounds were held in leash to give chase to the deer that might be driven past them  57

Only warrantable stags were driven past the lodges, and it required some management to ensure that no "rascal," i.e., small deer and hinds with calves, did not offer themselves as marks to the occupants of the lodges.

If there were much "rascal" within the "set" or area surrounded, the sergeant of the mute of harthounds, otherwise the huntsman of the pack of staghounds, tied all his couples of hounds together, and called upon the "harrier" 8 to drive it out

We are not told what kind of hounds were used for this purpose, but it is evident that they were smaller than the harthounds, as they could drive out the unwarable deer, but not the bigger stags, which are more difficult to move out of covert

The "set" cleared of undesired game, the staghounds were uncoupled to manoeuvre the stags past the lodges to be shot, or pulled down by the greyhounds held ready for the purpose. The speed of the greyhound would enable it to catch the game within sight of the lodge, which the slower harthounds could not

8 "Harrier." The word used in this connexion applies to the man whose duty it was to "harry" or worry away the undesired game: no doubt he used harriers for the purpose  58

do. Thus three kinds of hound were wanted : staghounds, harriers, and greyhounds

This form of sport must have been attended with peril to the keepers and hounds when the members of the shooting party were not care- ful in using their weapons.

The historic accident of this kind is that which occurred in Theodald's Park, north of London, in 1613, when James I and his queen, Anne of Denmark, were hunting there. The queen fired at a deer, but missed her mark and killed the king's "most principal and special hound," Jewel by name

The king "stormed exceedingly a while, but after he knew who did it he was some pacified and with much kindness wished her not to be troubled with it for he should love her none the worse." Next day he sent Anne a diamond worth £2,000, "a legacy from his dead dogge," in token of forgiveness

Some time after this the Archbishop of Canterbury had the misfortune to kill Lord Zouch's keeper in the same way. When James heard of the matter he sent word to the archi- bishop that he must "not discomfort himself," as such a mishap might beldth any man. He added that the queen "in like sort killed the best brache I ever had"  59

It is clear that both these forms of deer hunting were offered by Sir Henry Savill, of Thornhill, Tankersley, in Yorkshire, to his "cousin Plumpton," of Plumpton, in the same county. These letters from the curious collection known as the "Plumpton Correspondence" give an idea of the sport enjoyed by country gentlemen during the last years of Henry VIII's reign. The following letter is dated 8th November, 1544:

"Ye say that ye will come over and hunt with me: and if it please you to do so, ye shall be as heartily welcome as any man that came here of a good space. Ye shall see your arrow fly and your greyhound run and all those that come with you winter or summer when it please you to come."

Sir Henry proceeds to warn his cousin that, unless he gives notice of his visit, he may happen to find neither himself nor his son at home; in which case:

"My wife ye shall be sure to find, and she shall send some [one] with you that shall let you see both red and fallow, if ye will take the pains. I have killed a hind or two of late, and they are very fat this year, both in the woods at Tankersley and in my garden at Thornhill."  60

The promise that Plumpton shall see his arrow fly and his greyhound run points to driving deer past a "hedge"; but another letter, written two years later, shows that Sir Henry Savill ran his game with hounds in the hunting season. He writes on 5th May, 1540, asking Plumpton to visit him when--- "Ye shall see a pollard [stag "in velvet"] or two, both red and fallow . . . and whensoever ye come . . . take time to hunt with me for one week; bring bows and greyhound and, at the time of the year, hounds. A pollard is sweet now and I love it best at this season: by Whitsunday I shall have fat bucks. And or [before] any red deer be fat it will be July as my experience serves. Come when ye will and such as I have ye shall see; and bring good stuff for I warn you they are wild about Tankersley and ill to catch; and if all fail I have [dear] that are tame enough . . . you shall come no time wrong, fence time than other. I have plenty tame lyeth out [which are lying outside the park]. I will make you game [show you sport] at red and fallow and stir no rascal."

The last sentences of this letter require a little explanation. If Plumpton fails to obtain  61

sport with the deer in Tankersley woods he shall have it with the park deer: he cannot come at a wrong time, because if his visit is paid in the close season ("fence time") he could then hint the "tame" or park deer, which did not come under the law.* The promise to "stir no rascal" means that there will be no trouble with unwarrantable deer.

A point that impresses the reader of old works on venery is the care that was taken in training hounds for the chase, more especially for the chase of the stag or buck. Authorities differed in their views as to the best method of training, but this is only what might be expected when the same breed of hound was used for all game.

Turberville, in his Art of Venery (1575), recommends hare hunting as the best preliminary when a pack of staghounds is in the making, and gives sound reason for the advice. The hare hunter always has the chase in sight, and thus he can see what each member of the pack is doing, and can measure the merits of each hound.

• Park deer in those days were part of the household food supply; the animals were killed from the middle of May till the end of September. Mons. Casar de Sausure, who wrote an account of a visit he paid to this country in 1785-1730, says the meat was excellent and delicate

 62

He says that a hound which is "a perfect good harrier" may be entered safely at any quarry, "for the hare is the very proper beast to enter hounds well and make them tender nosed." Once entered to deer they would not again run hare, because they much prefer venison to the meat of the hare, and "because the Hart is also of greater scent." Turberville would have done better to put the latter reason first.

Sir Thomas Cockaine, in his Short Treatise of Hunting (1591), gives very practical directions for selecting the stock from which to breed hounds for the stag and other game; these were quoted on page 17, and need not be repeated.

In Cockaine's time young hounds which it was intended to enter at the buck were fed for a week beforehand on "chippings of bread" placed upon the head of an old buck; to the end that they should learn to associate the scent of the deer with food. They were given plenty of exercise in couples, and "breathed" morning and evening at hare.

Bread and milk is recommended as the "best feeding" for backhounds.

Until Bartholomew-tide (24th August) they were kept not too high in flesh: after that  63

date, when at work, they were to be kept in the highest possible condition.

The actual process of entering is described very fully:—

“To enter, come into the park with 10 or 12 couples loose at the stirrup having with you half a dozen well hosed friends with long rods. Shew the hounds to the herd, and if any offer to run theret, rate and beat them in to stirrup. Then go beat the brakes to find some greater deer and if any hound hunt from his fellows or run at rascal [unwarriantable deer, e.g., a hind with calf] take him up in a line [ leash] and beating him, rate call in to stirrup among his fellows, cherish and feed. This done, you may begin to tuff for a buck.”

The use of the word “tuff” is to be remarked : Cockaine is the first writer to employ the term.

Cockaine was an advocate for entering hounds at back in small parks, with the object of ensuring a kill to encourage them. The pack was to hunt morning and evening, and by the time they had killed half a score, some of the hounds at least would begin to “ understand a weary deer.” The wises of a fallow buck when beaten are, as already said, almost as cunning  64

as those of a fox, and might well puzzle the young entry.

When they had learned their lesson in a small park they might be hunted in larger parks; and towards the latter end of the year the master might venture to hunt in the open. "Keep this pack of hounds and the next year they will prove singularly cunning [clever]."

Riotous hounds were to be drafted and replaced by others selected from the hare pack; "the best harriers prove always the best buck hounds if they be fleet enough."

Richard Blome, in his Gentlemen's Recreation (1686), disapproved the practice of entering young hounds at deer in parks or enclosures. When this is done the hounds have the quarry always in view, which is likely, he maintains, to teach them to run by sight, rather than by scent; also the buck in a small park could never "run on end." He recommended as an alternative plan entry in the open when the stag or buck was "in pride of grease"—at its fattest—when he could not run far or fast, and the hounds had a good chance of catching him. Or a stag might be taken in nets and released with one foot cut off.

*The "time of grease" was from Midsummer's Day to Holy Rosy Day, 4 September  65

This latter recommendation need cause no surprise to the more humane modern generation. As I have endeavoured to show elsewhere* ideas of humanity were practically non-existent in these times. Men who, as a matter of course, blooded young hounds with a living fox whose lower jaw had been sawn off, or a badger whose teeth had been broken, could not be expected to show any tenderness towards other animals when a purpose was to be served by mutilation.

It is certain that about Blome's time English staghounds had a great reputation on the Continent. Interesting proof of this appears in the fact that when Louis XIV of France wished to improve the royal pack about the beginning of his reign (1715) under the circumstances described in Appendix A, he sought fresh blood in England, and was presented by the Count of Toulouse with some English hounds, which were " fleeter and more vigorous and better hunters" than the pack in the royal kennels of France.

It has already been shown that English sporting dogs and hounds were in demand on the Continent (page 25). Sport in England

• Sport in the Older Time. (A short history of Cock-fighting in England.) By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. Vinton & Co. 1912

F  66

never required the countenance of royalty to make it popular; but it is worth noticing that many of our sovereigns during the last three hundred years have been devoted to hunting. James I, Charles II, James III, William III and Queen Anne were all exceedingly fond of the chase, and it is only reasonable to suppose that they took an interest in the breeding of the royal hounds, though there are no accessible records to shed light on this particular point.

There can be no doubt but that our breeds were crossed and intermingled with the French breeds. The Southern Hound was developed upon a foundation of St. Hubert or Talbot blood, and this formed the staghound and harrier used for many hundreds of years by those who loved the “questing and melody” of the pack, as distinguished from those in the north of England who, as Caius practically says, “hunted to ride.”

The hounds of Normandy, Artois and Picardy—the northern provinces of France—had much in common with our Southern Hound; and the frequency with which the kings and nobles of England and France exchanged presents of hounds makes it certain that the breeds of the two countries were much intermixed.  67

I am, however, inclined to think that our old breed of staghounds owed something to the famous " Great White Hounds" of France, of which some account will be found in Appendix A. The superior size of the old staghound, its longer head, its exceptional scenting power, and, not least, its colour—yellow, lemon and badger pied—all suggest a cross at some period with the principal breed of French hound.

When we remember that gifts of hounds from the French kings to our own sovereigns could only have consisted of the finest animals they possessed, there is every reason to believe that White Hounds were received by our monarchs, and used in their kennels during the period when stag hunting was the sport of royalty.

Mr. K. W. H. Horlock (" Scrutator "), when writing of the Belvoir pack as he saw it in 1830 or thereafter, refers to the statement made by " some old writers that there has been a cross some 200 years ago between greyhound and foxhound," as receiving support from the peculiarly fine coats and clean necks and shoulders of the Belvoir pack.

The White Hound closely resembled a large greyhound or Scottish deerhound : the Belvoir were turned from stag to fox only in 1762 :  68

and the tradition referred to by Mr. Horlock may have its origin in a cross made between the old Belvoir hounds and the greyhound-like "White Hound" of France.

Stag hunting gradually went out of fashion from Queen Anne's time onward: symptoms of decay appear in the introduction of carted deer hunting which came into use early in the reign of George II (1727-1760). The earliest definite mention of this kind of hunting discovered by Mr. J. P. Hore (History of the Royal Buckhounds) refers to the year 1728, when an "clk," presumably a wapiti, was enlarged before the royal pack.

It was inevitable that the chase of the stag should decline as the old forests were destroyed, as cultivation increased and the haunts of deer were brought under the plough. Harp hunting held its own, to be gradually supplanted by fox hunting, as men lost interest in "cunning hunting," and realised that it was possible to combine with hound work the joys of fast riding over country.

The last of our old breed of staghounds were the pack owned by the North Devon Hunt, predecessor of the Devon and Somerset, which hunted the red deer in the royal forest of Exmoor. These hounds were described by  69

“ Nimrod ” (Mr. C. J. Apperley) as being from 24 to 26 inches high, strong in the shoulders, short in the neck, slack in the loins, and rather deep flopped ; their heads were long, their ears fine and pendulous, noses somewhat flat and wide, very good legs and feet, tongues deep and sonorous ; they were yellow badger and hare pied.

Daniel, in his Rural Sports, says that the staghound is large “and gallops with none of the neatness of a foxhound”; but they had courage, strength and speed, and extraordinary sagacity in hunting water when the quarry soiled. “ Every pebble, every overhanging bush or twig which the deer might have touched was quested . . . . . and the crash with which the scent, if detected, was acknowledged and announced made the whole country echo again

In an article contributed by me to Baily's Magazine (July, 1912), reference was made to the fact that the old North Devon staghounds went to Germany, a statement that requires some amplification. The pack in the first place was sold (1825) to Mr. Charles Shard, of Somborne House, in Hampshire and by him hunted for a season  70

It was, however, found that these large hounds could not do themselves justice on the flinty soil of that country; their feet would not stand the wear and tear; and at the end of 1826 Mr. Shard sold the pack, some going to Germany and some, says "Aesop" in his Sporting Reminiscences of Hampshire, to sportsmen near Epping. Nothing can be discovered concerning the ultimate fate of these latter

The blood of some of these old staghounds remained for some years in Devonshire ; when "Gelert" compiled his Guide to the Hounds of England in 1849, he wrote thus of Mr. Froude's harriers which then hunted the Knowstone country in North Devon—

"A fine pack, derived chiefly from the old fashioned staghound of the country—all yellow pied, large, high couraged and very persevering."

The portrait group of "Governor and Famous," two of the North Devon staghounds, facing this page, was published in the Sporting Magazine of 1826, about the time when the sale of the pack was attracting notice among  NORTH DEVON STAGHOUNDS Governo and Pansos  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  71

sportsmen. The standing dog-hound shows well the difference between these old stag- hounds and the foxhound: it is much heavier in the forchand, and conveys the impression of great strength, rather than speed, though the animal has both length and bone. The bitch, as far as can be judged, is of somewhat lighter build  72

THE FOXHOUND

There can be little doubt but that the fox was originally hunted rather than vermin than as game, in spite of the fact that the animal had place among those protected under the old Forest Laws.

Royal charters were granted to privileged persons to hunt the fox—often the hare and wild cat also—by the Plantagenet kings of England, but these charters were less licences to enjoy sport than to commit trespass in the royal forests with mutilated hounds; they seldom omit to provide that the receiver of the licence shall not disturb the king's "Great Game," i.e., deer.

The licence granted in 1168 by Henry II to the Abbot and canons of St. Osyth's Priory in Essex, already mentioned, allowed the clergy of the priory to hunt in the parish of "Chich" and others adjoining, with four "foxhounds" and two harriers.

Edward I (1272-1307), as we learn from his wardrobe account, kept a pack of so-called  73

foxhounds. His huntsman, William de Foxhunte, received £9 3s. per year for the keep of twelve foxhounds at a halfpenny each per day. William de Foxhunte also drew wages for two boys, the kennel hands, and money for the keep of a horse during the hunting season, 1st September to 30th April.

The use of the horse thus provided during the hunting season gives us the key to the system of hunting : the animal was required to carry to the cover-side the nets with which the wood was surrounded before the hounds were thrown in. The nets being spread, the pack was put in, and basted the fox about until they killed him.

Nets were not commonly used for this purpose: for the sound reason that when hounds disturbed the covert they would put up the deer, which might well break their legs or kill themselves therein.

It is the exception to find a charter or licence which confers leave to use nets: in 1314, Edward II granted to Robert, son of Payn, a life charter to hunt fox and hare in the Royal forests of Dorset, Somerset and Wilts, "and to stretch nets for the capture of foxes without hindrance."

The fact that Edward I maintained hounds to kill foxes does not necessarily imply that the  74

operation ranked as sport; no doubt those engaged in it enjoyed the excitement, but the main object, in those early times, was to destroy the fox as mischievous vermin.

There is no means of discovering when the practice of netting the covert round to prevent the fox from breaking was given up. Nets are not mentioned in The Master of Game, written about 1405-1413; the chase is described in terms which show that it was then a regular form of sport:

"The hunting for fox is fair for the good cry of the hounds that follow him so nigh and with so good a will. Always they scent of him as he flies through the thick wood and also he stinketh evermore. And he will scarcely leave a covert . . . he taketh not to the plain country for he trusteth not in his running, neither in his [powers of] defence, for he is feeble and if he does it is because he is forced to it by the strength of men and hounds."

At this time, as for long afterwards, the method was to place outside the covert a man with one or two greyhounds in slips to give chase should the fox break away. Not every  75

greyhound could be depended on to tackle the fox. We read (The Master of Game) ——

"A little greyhound is very hardy when [if] he takes a fox by himself, for men have seen great greyhounds which might well take a hart and a wild bear and a wolf and would let the fox go"

The remark that the chase of the fox owes its attraction to the music of hounds, "that follow him so nigh and with so good a will," seems to indicate that the hounds used for this kind of foxhunting were specially entered to the fox; but there is nothing to show that they were of any special breed.

Turbervile, when he wrote his Art of Veneric in 1575, took his description "out of another author"; it is the description in The Master of Game with a little verbal alteration : but certain additional remarks by Turbervile call for notice. Having given directions for the posting of the greyhounds outside the covert (they were to be placed down wind, and stand close), he proceeds to tell how the hounds were to be used :

"Cast off first but one third part of the pack to find, and have the rest led up and down in the paths of the covert"  76

This one third of the pack was to consist of "old and staunch and sure hounds" because the covert would be full of other game, and the more recently entered hounds could not be trusted to run the line of a fox until the "old, staunch and sure" hounds owned the scent and gave tongue.

Clearly fox hunting of this kind had then reached a stage of popularity that led men to enter hounds at fox

There is evidence in this sense from another reliable source. Holinshed, the Elizabethan chronicler, says of foxes:

"We have some, but no great store. Certes, if I may freely say what I think, I suppose that foxes and badgers are rather preserved by gentlemen to hunt and have pastime withal at their own pleasure, than otherwise suffered to live as not able to be destroyed because of their great plenty. For such is the scarcity of them here in England in comparison of the plenty that is seen in other countries, and so earnestly are the inhabitants bent to root them out, that except it had been to bear thus with the recreations of their superiors in their behalf it could not otherwise have been chosen but that they  77

should have been utterly destroyed by many years ago."

Eagerly though these old foxhounds hunted the fox, their avidity fell short of eating their quarry when they killed. Turberville advises the huntsman to carry bread with which to reward the pack after a kill ; fox flesh, he says, is no reward for hounds because they will not eat it.

During Queen Elizabeth's time, the method of fox hunting in the south of England differed widely from that of the north. Caius, quoted on page 14, tells us that the "gazehound" was used in the northern part of England to hunt fox and hare in the open country, and that the chase was held most enjoyable because the speed of these hounds enabled their followers to gallop across country "wherewith they are more delighted than with the prey itself".

Sir Thomas Cockaine gives directions for making a pack to hunt "Foxes and other ravenous vermin"—

"You must breed fourteen or fifteen couples of small ribble hounds, low and swift, and two couples of terriers. Out of the fourteen couples choose two couples to be trailers of an old fox and finders of him;  78

the rest must be kept in couples and un- coupled when the fox is found, all save two couple of the slowest, which must be kept at heel with one couple of terriers. The other couple of terriers to go with the pack. The old fox being well breathed is so for- cible a chase [so swift a quarry] that every huntsman's part is to hew him or back him into covert again when he offered to break the same.

"Ribble hounds" were no doubt of the Lancashire breed,® this name being derived from the district of Lancashire watered by its principal river

Sir Thomas Cockaine knew the delights of a gallop across country : he mentions by way of illustrating "the flying of this quarry" that he had killed a fox above ground with hounds fourteen miles from the covert whence he had been pushed by the pack in spite of endeavours to "hew and back" him in again.

I have italicised the words "with hounds," because much significance attaches thereto.

*The Duke of Newcastle, in his work A New Method To Dress Horser, published 1667, makes reference to "The Lancashire Hound" in terms which indicate that it was a well known breed in his time.  79

Cockaine, clearly, wishes the reader to under- stand that the fox was killed by the hounds which drew the covert—the “foxhounds”— not the greyhounds which waited outside to be slipped. Had these latter done the killing, they would certainly have run into the fox before he could travel half a mile, therefore when Cockaine says “with hounds” it is clear that he refers to his “small ribble hounds”

A fox-hunting strain of hounds had now beca fairly established. Cockaine says—:

“ You must borrow one couple of old Fox- hounds of some gentleman who useth to hunt the fox, and when your hounds be full twelve months old and chastised surely from sheep visit a covert where there is a litter, stop the earths and cast off the old hounds to find ; and, being found, cast off the young hounds. By that time you have killed half a score cubs in this sort [manner] in several woods and coverts and have two or three alive to make [train] your terriers you will find your hounds well and perfect”

Here then we have in a few sentences the system of fox-hunting as then practised in the south of England, and the system of entering hounds to the quarry. The live cubs were  80

taken in purse-nets set at the earths. We can form our own ideas as to the way the cubs were used to "make" the terriers from the fact that young hounds were bledded at a fox whose lower jaw had been sawn off.

This brings us to the point in hunting history when hounds were bred for, and systematically entered on, fox-hunting. And though the covert hunting described by Cockayne was not the sport known to the fox hunters of the north of England, this stage of its development is important: because the hounds, Northern Beagles, Fleet, Lancashire, Ribble, or, as they came to be called later, Sharp-nosed hounds, are here identified with fox-hunting. This is a fact to be borne in mind.

There is evidence to show that the northern method of fox-hunting, getting the fox away and following bounds across country, had gained some vogue in the south of England during the time of Charles II (1660–1685). The exact date of the letter * quoted below is not given, but it was written during the reign of that king by Sir William Thomas, of Folkingham, Member of Parliament for Sussex, to his

• Victoria County History : Same.

 81

friend, Sir William Wilson, of Bourne Place (now Compton Place, Eastbourne) :

"Sir,

"I design to hunt the fox at Bourne tomorrow, but if there be not people to watch the cliffs, and to be there about three o'clock in the morning to prevent their going down, I can do no good with them. I desire therefore that you would be pleased to order some persons to watch the cliffs and to stop the earths that are near you. I will be there, God willing, by six o'clock in the morning when I should be glad to have the happiness of your good company. This comes, Sir, from your faithful friend and humble servant, WILLIAM THOMAS

In 1686, Richard Blane produced his Gentleman's Recreation. This handsome work seems to have been a long time in preparation, as some of the plates bear date 1682. The description of fox-hunting given in this book shows the northern system fairly established. The method of finding the fox still remained as it had been in Cockaine's day, ninety years before: a few sure finders were thrown into covert to trail the fox to his kennel, and when he was found the body of the pack, which till then had been held in couples outside, were

6  82

thrown in. But there was no "hewing and backing" to keep the quarry in covert; on the contrary, the object now was to get him away :—

"When forced away the fox will lead from wood to wood, a ring of four, six, or ten miles; and sometimes endways about twenty miles trying all the earths he knows"

Blome approves Northern Hounds for fox-hunting, on the ground that "the fox will exercise them better and longer" than the hare, but it will be well to give his remarks on hounds :

"For hunting the fox the Hounds or Beagles generally made use of are such that have good mettle, are stout and well quartered. But they should differ according to the country where they are hunted (as indeed in all other chases) for those proper to the open countries are the Northern Hounds which are fleet of foot and being thin skinned are not so proper for thick coverts and bushy enclosures as the Southern Hounds, which are thick skinned and slow footed, and are not fitted for the long chases that open countries afford"  83

Blome concludes his remarks with a state- ment that marks a further stage in the development of the foxhound :

"The Northern Beagle and Southern hound make a good strain for this sport"

This is the first indication we have of endeavour to produce a hound for fox-hunting by crossing two breeds *

This author gives some description of the two breeds. The Northern Beagle was "framed after the mould of a greyhound." The Southern, also called the "deep-mouthed," Hound, was tall and big, heavy and slow, higher behind than in the forehand

Count de Couteulx de Canteleu's description of the "Normandy hound" suggests that our Southern Hound owed something to this French breed

The Normandy hound is not noticed by Turberville ; it does not seem to have been held of much account by the old French hound

*It is not quite germane to the subject, but the fact that tenebry, or influence of a previous sire, was recognised in Blome's day is worth noticing; this author says of a dog that "if she has one son, and has all her litters she shall afterwards have, she is said to have one of her whelps to resemble the dog that first lined her"  84

authorities, and is first mentioned as the breed which was crossed with Louis XIV's white hounds to make them slower, towards the end of that king's reign (1643-1715), as stated in Appendix A.

The cross between the Northern Beagle and Southern Hound, says Blome, produced

" a middle sort of dog which partakes of both their qualities as to strength and swiftness in a reasonable proportion; they are excellent in mixed country; they will [go] through thick and thin, neither [do they] need your help over Hedges as you are forced to do by others."

Though the author does not definitely say so, we may fairly assume that he had the cross-breed in mind when he wrote, with regard to digging a fox, that "it should be thrown to the pack to blood and encourage them." This marks a step forward. Hounds, in Blome's day, had learned to break up and eat their foxes.

There can be little doubt but that this "middle sort of dog" was common at this period. The Earl of March, in his interesting work Records of the Old Chiltern Hunt (1910), gives the pedigree of a hound named Luther which was sent in the year 1733 by Mr. John Bright, master of the Badsworth, in Yorkshire,  85

to the Duke of Richmond, who hunted the Charlton country in Sussex.

The pedigree, which shows Luther's descent on both sides for some generations, is very suggestive: on one side or the other occur names of hounds belonging to the following masters—Lord Byron, Lord Cardigan, Sir William Wyndham, Mr. Vernon "of Staffordshire," Sir John Tyrwhitt and Mr. Chaworth.

Now it is hardly necessary to observe that at the period of which I write, masters hunted their own hounds over their own estates and those of their neighbours. It is reasonable to suppose that a north country master would use northern hounds and the south country master southern hounds.

Lord Byron and Mr. Chaworth were Nottinghamshire masters; Lord Cardigan's property was in Wiltshire, as also was Sir William Wyndham's. Sir John Tyrwhitt was joint master with Mr. Charles Pelham and Mr. Vyner in Lincolnshire.*

Here, then, is sufficient proof that Luther was of mixed breeding; and the pedigree has this

• The existing kennel lists of the Brocklesby date back to 1746

 86

additional interest : it shows that masters were at work endeavouring to produce a true fox-hound.

If the famous Charlton run of 26th January, 1739, may be taken as evidence of the speed of the Duke of Richmond's pack, it is surely justifiable to assume that it consisted of Southern Hounds. They found their fox at quarter to eight in the morning and killed at ten minutes to six in the evening after a run estimated at about 24 miles 6 furlongs ; therefore the pace averaged about 24 miles an hour.

This is quite characteristic of the Southern Hound, as was shown when the breed was considered in connection with hare-hunting.

Luther, with the greater speed that distinguished the Northern Beagle, or a hound with northern blood in his veins, was perhaps wanted in the Charlton kennels to give more pace.

The sketch opposite was made by James Seymour for a Foxhunting work. I reproduce it here as the artist shows so clearly not only the small size of the hound then used for Foxhunting, but also the character of the animal : small sized, light bodied, slender limbed and sharp of muzzle, we may take it as tolerably certain that the hound from which this sketch was drawn was a specimen of the  A sketch of two men on horseback, one holding a dog. The man on the left is wearing a tricorn hat and a long coat, while the man on the right is wearing a cowboy hat and a short coat. The horse on the left has a rider with a tricorn hat and a long coat, while the horse on the right has a rider with a cowboy hat and a short coat. The text "Seymour" is written on the horse on the left, and "Light Grey" is written on the horse on the right. The text "Seymour" is also written below the horse on the left.

SKETCH FOR FOXHUNTING PICTURE By James Seymour  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  87

Northern Beagle, uncrossed with any other breed. Seymour was born in the year 1702 and died in 1752: the sketch may therefore be referred to the later years of George I's reign or the earlier years of George II. The shape of the whip, like a short carriage whip, carried by the horsman will be remarked.

We have now arrived at a point when packs of foxhounds, or of hounds bred for the purpose of hunting the fox, were in existence. "Nimrod" (Mr. C. J. Apperley) was informed that Lord Arundel kept "foxhounds" between 1690 and 1700, hunting in Wilts and Hampshire. The descendants of these hounds passed about the year 1745 into the hands of Mr. Hugo Meynell, of Quorndon Hall.

Another pack was that belonging to Mr. Thomas Boothby, who hunted, 1698 to 1733: part of what is now the Quorn country. The inscription on Mr. Boothby's horn claims that this was the "first pack of foxhounds in England"; perhaps "first" is used in the sense of "principal." If first in the sense of date, the person who designed the inscription was unaware of the pack owned by Lord Arundel, which was in existence eight years earlier.  88

The Rev. William Chaffin, in his Anecdotes of Crowthorne Chase, published 1818, says he believes "the first real steady pack of foxhounds established in the western part of England was by Thomas Fownes Esq., of Stepleton, about the year 1730. They were as handsome and fully as complete [level] as any of the most celebrated packs of the present day. They were sold to Mr. Bowes in Yorkshire at an immense price for those days."

Mr. Fownes' pack was the one to which Beckford refers as "a most famous pack of fox-hounds belonging to the gentleman to whom my house formerly belonged." It has not been possible to trace their subsequent history.

The masters named in the foregoing pages were among the pioneer breeders of hounds specially intended to hunt the fox ; but it must be remembered that the foxhounds they bred differed widely from the modern foxhound in several important respects. Their deficiencies, as present-day hunting men would regard them, were such that the style of hunting was ordered to suit their moderate capacities.

From the early days of fox-hunting until the Regency, the foxhound had not the speed to catch a fox in fair running condition. It was the "middle sort of dog" described by Blome,  89

combining some of the speed and activity of the Northern Hound with some of the scenting power of the Southern ; but having the full merits of neither.

Hence the plan adopted by our forefathers of being at the covert-side by dawn to push out the fox before he had had time to digest his night's meal and to sleep after his night's foray ; to hunt him, in fact, while he was in no state to travel as he could have done, given time to recover fair running trim.

There is good reason to think that the fox of those days was a stouter and stronger animal than his modern descendant. Had the foxes not been stout they could have shown little sport under the conditions of hunting in vogue. There are also grounds for thinking that foxes were then less numerous than they have become under generations of jealous preservation.

The process of building up the foxhound, as we understand the term, was necessarily slow. The majority of masters were conservative ; he who obtained sport with his Northern Hounds held to that breed ; and he who obtained sport with his Southern Hounds was content with them ; those who sought progress set themselves to improve either of the two breeds by crossing.  90

This was the situation in Beckford's day; a remark in his Thoughts on Hunting (1779) on the conservative spirit just referred to is illuminating ---

" Men are too apt to be prejudiced by the sort of hound they have been accustomed to. Those who have been used to the sharp-nosed [northern] foxhound will hardly allow a large headed [southern] hound to be a foxhound ; yet they both equally are."

Beckford was one of the open-minded masters, like the Duke of Richmond, Mr. John Bright and others of a previous generation, who recognised that there were merits in both breeds. He was a convert from hare-hunting, and he was trying to improve his foxhounds, by " the judicious cross "

From what has been said it will be recognised that Beckford's saying " it is the judicious cross that makes the pack complete [level]" possessed a meaning to his contemporaries which it does not convey to ourselves. We should understand by " judicious cross " the introduction of, let us say, Milton blood by way of change from some other famous strain. In Beckford's time the saying meant a far more radical change.

The master seeking to improve his pack had a wide field of choice among our breeds of  91

hounds: there was the old staghound, the Northern and Southern Hounds, numerous breeds of harrier and what is described as a "small sort of beagle." most probably the hound called by the Duke of Newcastle the "Little Beagle"*

Some masters made strange experiments in their endeavour to arrive at the true foxhound. Beckford says he had seen "foxhounds" got from a Newfoundland dam by a foxhound sire! They were "monstrously ugly, are said to give their tongues sparingly, and to tire soon." That Beckford should have thought it worth while to mention the defects of a mating which to us appears ridiculous shows that the experiment was made in a serious spirit.

Much progress had been made towards arriving at the true foxhound in Beckford's time, but it was still in the making

The leading masters of the kingdom were pushing on with the work of improvement. We do not know what blood, whether Northern or Southern, predominated in the Belvoir kennels when, in 1785, Mr. Thomas Thoroton wrote to

*The Little Beagle is incidentally mentioned by the Duke in his famous work A New Method to Dress Horses published in 1667.  92

the Duke of Rutland that a "prodigious crowd" of visitors from neighbouring countries came to hunt in the Belvoir country, "had very fine sport" and were "in raptures with the hounds" (Hist. MSS. Comm.)

We may safely assume that cross-breeding had been going on since the year 1762 when the Belvoir became a fox-hound pack ; but old pictures show a stamp of hound which, as Mr. T. F. Dale observes in his History of Belvoir, indicated rather speed than strength : the blood of the Northern Beagle seems to have predominated.

Beckford saw that the merits of the several breeds might be combined :

"the faults and imperfections in one breed may be rectified from another ; and if this be properly attended to I see no reason why the breeding of hounds may not improve till improvement can go no further"

One imperfection of the foxhound of that day was its nose. The well-bred staghound could discriminate between the scent of the hunted deer and the scent of a fresh one ; the foxhound Beckford knew could not discriminate between the scent of a hunted fox and a fresh one. If it could do so, he says, "fox-hunting would then be perfect."  THE DEATH By John Boulse  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  93

Beckford does not tell us what breeds went to the making of his own pack : it no doubt consisted of the cross-bred between the Northern and Southern Hounds, then bred so far in that direction that they were " foxhounds." When he says that a " handsome, bony, tender-nosed beagle would occasionally be no improper cross for a highbred pack of foxhounds," he had the Northern Hound or Beagle in mind ; it may be that Southern blood predominated in his kennel. The fact that he was a hare hunter, and took much trouble to breed a good pack of harriers (see page 46), before he discovered the superiority of fox-hunting, makes this exceedingly probable.

It is certain that the young entry in Beckford's day received an education more careful than modern foxhounds receive. Recently derived, as they were, from a long line of hare- or deer-hunting ancestors, such preparation would be essential. The methods adopted seem to have been based on the principle that the young hound might be taught to run anything except hare.

Some masters taught their young hounds on a trail or drag. Beckford mentions one old sportsman who first entered his young hounds at " a cat which he drags along the ground for  94

a mile or two, at the end of which he turns out a badger" with broken teeth. About two couples of old hounds were run with the entry to "hold them on"

Scarcity of foxes, in some cases at least, furnished reason for such devices. Beckford preferred to enter his young hounds at cubs, "if there were plenty of litters and some foxes could be spared." Were the young ones entered thus in a covert where there was a little riot, and a few old hounds were there to steady them, small difficulty was to be expected afterwards

Beckford's teaching that foxhounds should carry a good head, conveyed in the picturesque phrase, they should run "like the horses of the sun, all abreast," would have been new to many fox-hunters of his time. In one of the Essays on Hunting, edited by William Blane, in 1781, the necessity for barriers to carry a good head is urged: they cannot cover the doubling and windings of a hare "if they run yelping in a long string like deer- or fox-hounds"

The foxhound of Beckford's time was still slow; the system of meeting at such time that hounds could be thrown into covert when it "was light enough to tell a stile from a gate"  95

remained in vogue; and it was as much as the hounds of that day could do to kill their fox when they got him away, full fed and unrested after his night's foray.

Slow the hounds were, to our ideas, but they suited well the leisurely methods of the time.® Men took their fencers slowly, and if a

The forehand of George HI's time was fast enough to be considered capable of improving the speed of other dogs. It was about the time Backford wrote that excrementing foxes were to be treated with foxhound blood to increase the speed and courage of pointers. The celebrated Colonel Thomas Thornton is said to have had a dog called Dash, who, by the excellence of his dog Dash got by a foxhound from a well bred but rather small pointer bitch appears to have acted as a pointer. The writer says "Dash was remarkable for his style of ranging on the moors as well as for his superior method of finding game" (The Sporting World). Colonel Thornton sold the dog, Sir Richard Symonds for £100 each of champagne and brandy, a hoghead of claret, a gun and a pointer, with the stipulation that if the dog were ever disabled he should be returned to the owner for 50 guineas. Dash met with an accident, breaking his leg, and was accordingly returned to Colonel Thornton who used him again until he died of old age. His total failure, begueting not a single whelp worth keeping. The idea that the pointer could be improved by a cross of foxhound blood has been entertained by the writer in The Sporting already quoted says "the stock of these cross-bred dogs is uniformly poor for nothing"; and the same writer in his "The English Shooter's Handbook (1840)" on the ground that the dog so bred has a tendency to run harems if not to give tongue to them. This is a very strong thing should have been thought capable of improving the pointer of the time is proof of the progress that has been made.

^®  96

place looked big they dismounted and led their horses over, as Beckford advises, rather than lose time looking for an easier place. But the time was coming when these deliberate methods of crossing a country were to undergo change.

It was soon after Thoughts on Hunting appeared (1781) that Mr. Child, of Kinlet, set the fashion of racing at fences. "Flying leapers," as those were called who took their fences at the gallop, were the exception until about 1800; hence the field could not have lived with faster hounds than those they possessed.

The evidence of pictures of fox-hunting painted at different times from the reign of Queen Anne to the Regency proves that the foxhound of that period was much smaller than the foxhound of our own day. The merit and methods of artists varied ; but the old sporting painters usually portray hounds smaller, lighter and sharper of muzzle than the modern foxhound. Their pictures make clear the fact that the blood of the Northern Hound predominated in the early foxhound.

Samuel Howitt's work "The Chase," reproduced on page 16, gives a good idea of the foxhound in Beckford's time. Howitt was born in 1760 and died in 1824.  97

Philip Reinagle's "Fox Breaking Covert," facing page 52, refers to about the same period; it will be noticed that the hounds in this work are of somewhat stouter build than the hounds in Howitt's picture. It may be that they had more Southern blood in their veins.

John Boultbee's work "The Death" facing page 92, is one of a series of four pictures painted in the year 1802. Here again we see how much smaller was the foxhound of that day than its descendant of the present time. This picture, it will be observed, shows the ears of the hounds in their natural state, proving that the practice of "rounding" was not then universal. The hounds' "sterns" are more shortened than was the usage at a later date.*

The great circular horn adopted from the French and used by English huntsmen until Beckford's time will be noticed in Boultbee's picture. Straight horns were used at an

*Particulars of the lives and works of these painters, Samuel Howitt, Philip Reinagle, R.A., and John Boultbee, with general notices of the English sporting artists, volumes 1 and 2 of Animal Painters of England, published by me in 1800. The life and works of Frederick Taylor, whose Hunting scenes are so well known, and which are dealt with, among those of many other artists in the 2nd Series of Animal Painters of England, published by me in 1911. (Vinton & Co., & Bremer's Buildings, E.C.)

H  98

earlier date, but they were much larger than the modern instrument. The horn with which Mr. Thomas Boothby hunted the "first pack of Foxhounds then in England" until 1752 was straight and 18 inches long.

Much progress must have been made with the foxhound during the forty years 1731 and 1850: and at the same period other changes were taking place to usher in the modern system of fox hunting. The meet before sunrise had been generally abandoned in 1829, when Colonel Cook, Master of the Essex from 1808 to 1813, wrote his Observations on Fox-hunting. The majority of foxes then were found and killed after twelve o'clock

A factor that contributed to faster hunting was the improvement in agricultural methods. Drainage had become more general and was more efficiently carried out: and scent lying better on drained than on water-logged fields, the fast hound with a good nose had the chance of showing what he could do.

The characters of an ancient breed are extremely persistent, asserting themselves many generations after the original race has been lost. The difference between the old Northern Beagle and the Southern Hound, the two races from which our foxhounds are in  99

the main descended, was very marked; and it is not, therefore, surprising that so keen an observer as "Scrutator" (W. K. H. Horlock) should have marked the difference between the hounds of long-established kennels when he made a tour round some of the principal hunting countries in the year 1830.

He says he was much struck by the difference between the Belvoir and the Cottesmore hounds

The former, under Goosey, were, respecting framework, as nearly perfection as possible. looking as neat and bright in their coats as a new pin, averaging in height about 23 inches. A very striking contrast was presented in the latter, particularly in the dog hounds. Some of these stood 26 inches in height, with rather wide, long heads and a good share of neck-cloth; they were also put loosely together, though possessing straight legs and good feet, with plenty of bone and muscle.

The character of the two packs also differed when seen at work. The Belvoir were "quick, active, and mettlesome, forcing the fight, and running into their fox in the open." The Cottesmore were just the reverse, "hunting  100

the fox being their forte," and this they cer- tainly accomplished to perfection. Their style of going was like that of a large thorough- bred horse, striding over the ground at a long lurching pace: but their noses were always in the right place, and they could get forward with a bad scent, hold to the line, and round up their fox at last with uncaring pertinacity.

Mr. Horlock's description of the Belvoir again indicates the character of the Northern Beagle, rather than that of the Southern Hound. His account of the Cotesmore suggests, on the other hand, that Southern Hound blood predominated in that famous pack.

Having visited various great kennels again about the year 1860, he still recognised differ- ences between the hounds of certain hunts. He placed the Badminton and Earl Fitzwilliam's in the class of "larger hounds," and those of the Belvoir and Brocklesby in the class of "smaller hounds," and he adds:--

"This distinctive difference has however been gradually wearing away; but even at this date [1860] it is not unusual to find specimens in several kennels which clearly show their original descent by width of head, coarseness of neck, and bulkiness of form."

A black and white illustration of a dog running with a fox.  101

In other words, their descent from the old Southern Hound

The difference between the foxhound in the very early days of its development, and its modern descendant may best be realised by comparing pictures. "Tapster" was in the Duke of Richmond's kennel in 1733. The Meynell Waverley, by the Belvoir Warlock, dam Promise, was the first prize stallion hound at the Peterborough Show of 1912. These two portraits are given on the same page, for convenience of comparison.

Tapster shows rather the character of the Northern Beagle than the Southern Hound, particularly in his head

It would be impossible to say when the practice of using foxhounds for the chase of the hare came into vogue; it was, no doubt, a result of the preference for fast work which was growing two hundred years ago; but it had become well established sixty years back.

Of sixty-three packs of harriers enumerated or described by "Geleri" in 1849, no fewer than ten are noticed as consisting of foxhounds, either "small"—dwarf," or "thoroughbred"; but, says the compiler of this work, "we hold that the foxhound for the fox and the harrier  102

for the hare is the right thing all the world over."

There are many sportsmen of the same way of thinking at the present day

I have searched in vain for particulars of the prices paid for hounds and packs of hounds during the earlier days of Fox-hunting. There is no doubt that packs of established reputation fetched large sums when offered for sale; Beckford makes a remark which suggests that hounds cost high prices when sold at Tattersall's, but neither during his time nor for many years later are figures given

One of the earliest sales of which particulars have been recorded was that of Mr. Lambton's pack, 66 couples, in 1836; the hounds were sold for three thousand guineas. I myself purchased the pack in the hands of the Packridge Hunt, formerly the property of Mr. Nicholas Parry, for two thousand pounds in the year 1850, in order to solve a difficulty which had arisen in connection with the hunting of the country; but packs of hounds have changed hands both before and since for very much larger sums  103

THE BEAGLE

It is necessary to be careful in dealing with early references to the beagle, since hounds were known as “beagles” which bear no resemblance to the small hound used for hunting hare and rabbit. When mentioned by old writers, they are sometimes distinguished as “little beagles.”

These little hounds were not much used in old days in England. They appear to be of foreign origin. Mr. Rawdon Lee mentions a sixteenth century print by Johannes Stradanus, of Bruges, which shows small hounds killing rabbits, and this is one of the earliest evidences of the use of these hounds for sport.

Queen Elizabeth is said to have had beagles so small that one could be put into a lady’s glove; and Gervaise Markham says—

“and lastly [there is] the little Beagle which may be carried in a man’s glove, and are bred in many countries for delight only, being of curious scent and passing cunning in their hunting; for the most part tiring, but seldom killing the prey, except at some strange advantage.”

A black-and-white illustration of a small dog, likely a beagle, running through a field.  104

William III (1689-1702) kept beagles; it is said that on one occasion, in 1695, when he hunted them at Welbeck there was a field of four hundred horsesmen out.

Blancis dismisses the breed very lightly as:--- "a very small sort of dog not exceeding the bigness of a lady's lapdog, which make pretty diversion for the coney, and also for the hare, if the weather be dry: but the smallness of them makes them not serviceable."

In wet weather the small beagles would find it difficult to get through heavy ground.

Small beagles are clearly referred to in the following passages in Essays on Hunting (1781):--- "There is yet another sort in great favour with small gentry, because they eat but little. These, as their noses are very tender and not far from the ground, I have often seen to make tolerable sport, but without great care they are flaring and maggoty [capricious] and very apt to chaunt and chatter on any or no occasion. A rabbit, mouse or weasel will please them instead of lawful game: and in truth it is seldom they understand their  A black and white illustration of a dog standing on its hind legs with its front paws raised, looking upwards. The background shows a rocky landscape with some trees and bushes. BEAGLE AND RABBIT by William Smith  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  105

business or perform their office with judgment or discretion."

There were beagles both rough and smooth, and each kind had their admirers. The rough were held the better of the two, as the smooth, though usually "deep hung, thick lipped and large nostrilled," were often so "soft, solid and bad quartered as to be shoulder-shook and crippled" after the first season of work. Also the smooth beagle had the unpardonable fault of "crooked legs like the former or right [true] Bath turnips"

This last remark seems to point to the basset hound, but there is no evidence to show that this continental breed was known in England at this period

George IV was very fond of hunting with beagles, and his pack were frequently to be seen on Brighton Downs. Colonel Thornton, who hunted with them, found that their pace tried the speed of a horse, from which it is to be concluded they were large hounds of their kind.

Daniel, in his Rural Sports (1801), mentions the pack kept by a Colonel Hardy : "the Cry, consisting of ten or eleven couple, were always carried to and from the field in a large pair of  106

panniers, slung across a horse: small, as they were, they would keep a hare at all her shifts to escape them, and often worry her to death." Their hunting could not, however, be regarded very seriously: it might, says Daniel, be endured as a novelty, but no one would ever wish to behold it a second time. Colonel Hardy's pack came to a curious end: they were kennelled in a small barn, and one night the door was broken open and every hound, together with the panniers, was stolen; nor could the most diligent search discover any trace of either the thieves or their booty.

William Taplin, in his Sporting Dictionary (1803), says a brace or two of small pied or tan hounds, called beagles, were in former days used by coursers to "pick and chop" the trail of a hare to her form, whence they moved her for the greyhounds.

Packs of such hounds were, he says, kept by country gentlemen, who were at pains to have them perfectly even. They were generally well matched, not over 11 inches high, and ran so well together that they might be covered by a sheet. They were "slow but sure": like the large Southern Hound, which would hunt a hare for six hours or more, they wore down their quarry by steady persistence.  107

A famous pack of small beagles was that owned by Mr. Crane in the 1850s. These hounds were all about 9 inches high, and, it is said, showed excellent sport over, it is to be supposed, open, unclosed country.

The modern taste is for much larger hounds. No pack of under 14 inches will show good sport and account for their hares. In strongly fenced or in fen country the hounds should be 15 or 16 inches high: the latter being the maximum height recognised by the Harrier and Beagle Stud Book.

From the sweetness of their voices the very small examples of the breed were called "singing beagles" — Markham's suggestion, page 23; to run with the pack one or two small single beagles as "trebles" to make the cry more sweet, will be remembered

William Smith's picture of "Beagle and Rabbit," which faces page 104, appeared in Vol. 59 of the Sporting Magazine; it is no doubt a representative example of the beagles used at that period, the eighteen twenties  103

THE WELSH HOUND

This breed stands alone among our existing hounds as being the one which has longest preserved its original character. The earliest mention by which the rough Welsh hound can be identified occurs in the letter written by Edward, Prince of Wales, in the year 1304-5, page 29, in which he refers to “our bow-legged hare hounds of Wales.”

The old rough Welsh hound of the present day is somewhat heavy in build, and has the long narrow head and peak of the old Southern Hound, with ears long set low down ; the neck is short the loin slack, and the side rather flat : the legs are more or less crooked, a peculiarity which enables us to identify the animal referred to in the letter written six hundred years ago.

The coat is hard and wiry, and the colour varies. Mr. Cambridge Phillips believes the commonest hues, black and tan or grizzle and tan, to be the colour of the original breed.

This is the hound of which the Count de Canteau believes the Bresse hound to be the  109

ancestor, and the points of resemblance between the two are numerous. Each is rough coated : the colours of the Bresse hound is yellowish or sandy red, with grey or black patches ; the build of the two is very similar ; each has a grand bell like voice and an excellent nose. The savagery of the Bresse hound is sometimes found in the Welsh, but this is not a point on which any stress should be laid, since savage hounds of all breeds are known. Speed is not the strong point of either.

The Count de Canteleu states that the Bresse hound was much used in England and especially in Wales for hare-hunting. The Welsh hound was originally used as a harrier, but is equally good as an otter-hound or fox-hound

My friend, the late Sir Richard Green Price, a warm admirer of the rough Welsh hound, held that for music, nose and determination this breed stands unrivalled ; and he was fond of saying that the time would come when Welsh blood would become the fashion for crossing with the English hound, so marked were these most desirable qualities.

The great difficulty he foresaw was in the rarity of pure-bred Welsh hounds; like other breeds of high antiquity, it has been so crossed  110

and recrossed with others in the endeavour to improve the original that few specimens of the truly pure-bred Welsh hound are now to be found.

Sir Richard bore a prominent part in re-establishing the foxhound pack of his native district, the Radnorshire and West Herefordshire; and in doing so he made much use of Welsh blood, putting the pure Welsh dog to bitches selected from the Badminton, Rufford, and the late Lord Poltimore's kennels.

The Welsh hound has played a conspicuous part in building up the modern otter-hound  A black and white photograph shows two women standing in a room with a table and chairs. The woman on the left has long, dark hair and is wearing a dark dress. The woman on the right has short, curly brown hair and is wearing a light-colored dress. There is a sign on the wall behind them that reads "TOURS AND TRIPLES" in large letters.

ROUGH WILSH HOUNDS 1901  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  111

THE OTTER-HOUND

The otter has been hunted from early times, as is proved by the references to the maintenance of hounds for the purpose in ancient records. King John (1199-1216) kept otter-hounds. In July, 1212, when his court was at Bristol, he sent orders to the Sheriff of Somersetshire to provide necessaries for

“Ralph the huntsman and Godfrey his fellow, with two men and two horses and twelve otter hounds as long as they find employment in capturing otters in your shire. And as soon as they cannot capture any [more], you are forthwith to send them back to us, and any cost you may incur through them shall be accounted to you at the Exchequer”

The wording of this order makes it sufficiently clear that the otters were regarded as noxious beasts, to be destroyed as vermin.

Edward II had a pack of “twelve otter dogs and a couple of greyhounds” under the charge of two feeders; and Henry IV retained one William Melbourne as “valet” of the otter-  112

hounds. Melbourne appears to have written on the subject of otter-hunting, as the Duke of York, in The Master of Game, says: "of the rest of his [the otters' nature] I refer to Mel- bourne, the King's otter hunter"; but the treatise, if such existed, has been lost.

There can be little doubt but that the royal otter-hounds in those days were kept rather to keep down the increase of an animal so harmful to fish than for sport. Fish in pre-Reformation times formed a far more important part of the people's diet than it has done since, and the fisheries of our rivers were very valuable as a source of food supply. Hence it would be in keeping with the duty a king owed his people to maintain hounds to kill down otters, as an example to others who were in a position to keep hounds.

There are occasional references to the otter which suggest that it was regarded as game. In 1290, one John de Clarend and others were fined the then enormous sum of £100 for killing one stag and two otters in Peak Forest, Derbyshire. The offenders petitioned the king for remission of the fine, but were denied. It may be conjectured that if John de Clarend and his friends had not killed the deer they would have heard little about the two otters  113

In Edward 111's reign (1327-1377) the Prince of Wales' " water dogs, " which hunted the rivers of North Wales, were maintained at the public expense. The tenantry found food and drink for the huntsman, some holding their lands by the service of training otter-hounds.

In The Master of Game, the otter is bracketed with the fox, wild cat, marten and polecat as an animal which " no good hunter goeth to the wood intending to hunt "; a statement which confirms the view that this animal was killed as a fish-destroyer rather than for the sake of the sport. The otter, as The Master of Game says, was " common enough "; and the more common the greater the necessity for keeping down its numbers.

The spear was in use for otter-hunting in those days.* A quaint illustration shows men pursuing the animal with spears: one man with a trident has speared the quarry through the neck ; but we gain no idea as to the character of the hounds employed in the chase.

In one of his letters to his cousin Plumpton, written in 1544 (The Plumpton Correspondence), Sir Henry Savill says :- The spear remained in use until the early years of Queen Victoria's reign.

I  114

"The cause of my sending of my servant at this time is this : he informs me that in your country there is a man that can kill otters very well ; whereof I have sent to get him to me for a week. I assure you they do me exceeding much harm at divers places . . . My folks see them daily and I cannot kill them, my hounds be not used to them."

We may infer from the wording of this letter that there lived near Plumpton a man who made it his business to travel the country with trained otter-hounds, much as the mole-catcher travels his district at the present day. The man referred to by Sir Henry Savill would have been no use without hounds.

A curious old licence or charter granted about this period by Henry VIII (1509-1547) to Thomas Hordern, Master of the royal otter-hounds, bears out the view that they were maintained for the public benefit. This document lays commands on all persons to give Hordern assistance as he may require ; suggesting that his mission was to travel the country with his pack, killing otters wherever his services might be required.

It is from Caius' English Dogges (1575) we first obtain information concerning the kind of  An illustration of an otterhound standing on its hind legs, barking or howling. The dog has a collar around its neck and is depicted in a natural setting with trees and rocks. OTTER-HOUND The property of the Hon. Mr. Leslie  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  115

hound used for hunting the otter. Writing of the bloodhound, he says :- " Of this kind there is none that taketh to the water naturally, except it please you so to suppose of them which follow the otter which sometimes haunt the land and sometimes useth the water. And yet, nevertheless all the kind of them [every bloodhound] boiling and boiling with greedy desire of the prey which by swimming passeth through river and flood, plunge amid the stream and pass the stream with their paws."

Turberville describes the method of hunting the otter. First, four servants were to take each bloodhound that would " draw in the lyam"—work out the line in leash—and draw the banks for the trail, two going upstream one on either bank, and two down. The line being found the hounds were laid on ; and

"If the hounds be good otter hounds and perfectly entered they will come chanting and trailing along by the riverside and will beat every tree-root, every holm, every osier bed and tuft of rushes ; yea, sometimes also, they will take the river and beat it like a water spaniel!"

"Bloodhounds," as has been shown on an earlier page, were not at this time a distinct  116

breed: they were St. Huberts, or "Fallow hounds," with particularly good noses

Turbervile adds that an old otter-hound may prove "an excellent good buckhound"; but this only if he be not too old before he was entered at buck. Which confirms the conjecture that Southern Hounds were used for otter-hunting

Cockaine, moreover, says of the otter that it is :- "chiefly to be hunted with slow hounds, great mouthed, which to a young man is very earnest sport, he [the otter] will vent so often . . . and the hounds will spend their mouths very lustily. Thus you may have good sport at an otter, two or three hours, if you list."

The slow hounds referred to were the Southern Hounds which there is every reason to believe, were descended from the St. Huberts and other northern French breeds--those of Normandy, Artois and Picardy, to which reference has been made in connection with staghounds

James I seems to have been fond of otter-hunting. In 1604, the last year in which "commissions" for taking up hounds (see page 26) were in force, John Parry, Master of the royal otter-hounds, was directed to take up dogs for the king's diversion; and the document  117

which empowered Parry to thus appropriate otter-hounds required all millers to "stay their water-courses at the time of hunting," in other words, to let the water out of their dams, or hold it up, as might be required for the convenience of the chase.

Otter-hunting was not a sport of sufficient importance to make it worth while breeding hounds especially for the purpose, though it seems to have been popular in many parts of the country. The frequency of allusion to otter-hunting in Isaac Walton's Compleat Angler, published in 1653, will be remembered. As an angler Walton naturally came in frequent contact with the otter-hounds

It will be safe to assume that in those days the man who hunted the otter used whatever hounds he happened to possess. Markham (1611) mentions as a merit of the white hound, or the white with black spots, that it would hunt any quarry exceedingly well, the otter being included, with the remark that this hound was equally at home in covert or water

The royal otter-hounds were still in existence in the time of Charles I (1660-1683). Simon Smith being the "serjeant" or Master

It is impossible to suggest how the otter-hound shown opposite page 114 was bred.  118

The plate is reproduced from the Sporting Magazine, Vol. 39, of 1814/2, and the accompanying letterpress states that the animal "is said to be the only one of this description living. This hound was the property of the Hon. Mr. Leslie; it has not been feasible to discover anything relating to this gentleman's pack.

Otterhounds of this breed could never have been common

Mr. T. B. Johnson, in his Hunting Directory, written in 1826, says "the dog for the purpose chiefly used has been produced by a cross between the Southern Hound and the water spaniel"; but he does not say at what period this cross was made.

Inasmuch as otter-hunting had gone much out of favour at the time Johnson wrote, the hound for the purpose must have been produced many years before his time.

Spalding's picture "The Otter Stream" (page 120) appeared in Vol. 117 of the Sporting Magazine; it refers to the eighteen forties, when the spear was going out of use but had not yet been universally discarded. Mr. Bullock's hunt had laid the otter spear aside in the year 1839. The hounds portrayed are  119

not unlike the modern otterhound, though the head of that in the foreground is lacking in hound character.

Mr. Rawdon Lee, in his Modern Dogs, refers to the assertion that the otter-hound is a cross between the Welsh harrier, Southern Hound and terrier. Mr. Lee's own belief was that the breed had a cross of the bloodhound ; but with regard to this we must bear in mind the intimate connection between the Southern Hound and the St. Hubert, whence the bloodhound is descended.

What particular breed of terrier is supposed to have gone towards the making of the otter-hound does not appear.

Mr. Lee's view as to the use of Welsh blood in producing the otter-hound is borne out by the Count de Canteleu, whose researches take the enquiry a stage further back

The Count's statement that the Bresse hound of the eastern provinces of France was much employed in England and especially in Wales for hare-hunting has been cited in connection with the Welsh hound

In the year 1870, when the Franco-German war threatened, the Count disposed of some Bresse hounds to Mr. Walthron Hill, then Master of otter-hounds in East Lothian. Save  120

in respect of colour, these hounds proved to be identical with Mr. Waldron Hill's own otter-hounds.

Various strains of blood have been used in breeding otter-hounds within modern times. In 1869, two rough-coated French hounds of the red Brittany breed, not very unlike the Bresse hound, were purchased at the National Dog Show at Islington by a Master of otter-hounds.

The most singular cross used for this sport is, of course, the French hound (griffon)---wolf hybrid which was bred by the Comte de Canteleu. The Count put a she-wolf to the hound; and put a daughter of this mating to a hound; result progeny, one-fourth wolf. A daughter of this mating was put to a hound; result progeny, one-eighth wolf. These animals, seven-eighths hound and one-eighth wolf, were sold to Mr. Waldron Hill, who entered them with remarkable success. They and their progeny were considered the finest hounds ever seen on the line of an otter. The great objection to them was their ferocity, though while actually hunting they were peculiarly amenable to discipline.  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]  A woodcut illustration of a man with a staff standing on a rocky outcrop, looking down at a woman sitting on the ground below. The scene appears to be set in a forest or mountainous area. THE OTTER STREAM BY C. B. Smedley  121

APPENDIX A

THE WHITE HOUND OF FRANCE

This is described by the old writers as the hound most fit for princes. It was large, powerful and very fast, and its courage was a great recommendation, as it was not easily disturbed by the crowd of horsemen who would accompany a royal personage to the hunting field. Its colour varied much ; some were white, some white spotted with red (tan), some were marked or spotted with black or dun (yellow, or as we should say lemon), some were all black, and others were "like unto frysie" (frizze, or badger colour). Its principal fault was a tendency to run at tame beasts.

Ancient drawings show the White Hound to have been shaped much like a greyhound or Scottish deerhound ; and the accounts given of its great speed bear out the accuracy of the pictures.

Some curious letters written by Jacques de Brévié, huntsman to Francis I (1533-1547) show what the white hound could do. The following was addressed to the Marshal de Montmorency in January, 1534—

" . . . Tuesday last the King went out to hunt the great stag of Fryon which was missed when the English were here, the day that we slept at Monfroult. After two days search the King un- harboured it himself, and gave it [i.e., the line] to the pack at the same place where it had been  122

unharoured before. From there it led us to Bauxmales, where it gave us a deal of trouble to avoid a change and secreted itself so well that we quite lost it, and before we had come upon its track again the dog was gone. We followed it until it was retracting its steps, and we followed it to the river which it swam near Bryon. The King determined to have his revenge the next day, and taking up the track on foot we followed our animal so well that at last we were able to show it to the dogs in the underwood at the other end of the forest; in this harbour it did not run more than half an hour from the time we laid the dogs on the scent; but we were very much pleased with the result of this journey home went well pleased with the day's sport as he had ever been in his life. The stag had no more than fourteen points on each horn, but it was one of the most beautiful heads ever seen in France.*

Count de Canteleu, quoting Brantome, says that Henri II (1537-1550) had arrived at a breed of hounds "even more swift than the old one."

Charles IX (1560-1574) remarks of the hounds in the royal kennels in his reign they "were as tall as grey-bounds, with heads as fine as those of braves" [pointers]; they only hunted the right scent [deer] and when the game tried to put them off they behaved gloriously.

These were the hounds that made the reputation of French venery

• Les Chasses de Francois I., By the Counte de la Ferriere. 1589

† Drapes: the term "ruche" and "branche" were applied to dog-hounds and bitch-hounds that hunted by scent  123

This breed, which came to be known as the "Great White Hound," reached the height of its fame during the reign of Louis XIII (1610-1643). *It is stated that they would run down a stag in half an hour, and the men who hunted them would remain with them for more than three-quarters of an hour, and that they would kill as many as four stages one after another in a day's hunting; also that they would remain staunch to the line of their hunted stag through covert which might contain two hundred warrantable deer.

This would explain why the White Hound in its purity did not gain acceptance in England. It ran rather by sight than by scent; there was nothing "cunning," i.e., clever and playful, about the pursuit of purest sable. The English taste of the period supposed that there would be little "questing and melody," see page 51, with hounds that ran into and pulled down their game so speedily. At the same time, the general appearance and qualities of these hounds, when considered with those of our old English staghounds, permit the assumption that the latter owed something of their speed, noise and colour to a cross of the French White Hound.

The French royal pack of White Hounds held its position and fame until the later years of Louis XIV (1643-1715), when it was numbered among the extinct breeds. The king was growing old, could no longer ride to hounds, and wished to follow the chase on wheels. The White Hounds were too fast to be followed thus, so to meet the old king's wishes, they were crossed with the breed known as Normandy hounds. This blood was introduced into the royal kennels about the year 1700.

Little is known of this Normandy hound. The Count de Canteloube thinks it was descended from a

• Histoire de la Chasse en France. By the Baron de Neimonti

 124

series of crosses between the St. Huberts and other breeds, basing his belief to some extent upon its "tricolour" coat—black, red (tan) and white. It was a large hound, standing between 26 and 30 inches; it had a fine pointed muzzle, and a long, straight tail, admirably for retrieving a cold scent; but its chief recommendation as a cross with the White Hounds of Louis XIV lay in the fact that it was slow.

Louis XIV's action in crossing the white and Normandy breeds led to a proceeding on the part of his successor, Louis XV (1715-1774), which bears out the belief that the White Hound, or at least White Hound blood, had been used in England

Louis XV wished to restore the speed of the royal pack. The cross-bred White-Normandy hounds did not satisfy him. To achieve his end he procured some cross-bred hounds from England. His reason was that they were "faster and more vigorous and better hunters" than his own pack.  125

APPENDIX B

THE ALAUNTE

These dogs, it is thought, were of Caucasian origin. They were used for warlike purposes, and, in the days when bear and boar were hunted were employed to grapple with those animals. Whether they were used for the pursuit of deer is at least doubtful.

Three kinds were recognised: the "Alaunte genoile," the "hunting Alaunte" and the "Alaunte of the butcheries." The hunting Alaunte was shaped like a greyhound, but was of heavier build; the head was large and short, the eye small and the jaw square; the ears were trimmed and pointed; in colour it was white, grey or blackish. The dog which, on a white coat, had black markings near the head and above the tail was most liked.

The Alaunte of the butcheries was a drover's dog, and was used with cattle; it was also employed for bull- and beat-hunting.

The Alaunte was prone to attack domestic animals. The Master of Game says: "It is better shaped and stronger than any other beast," but it was treacherous and foolish and "of evil understanding." A good hunting Alaunte would run as fast as a greyhound, and would "catch and hold." Mr. Baillie Grahaman, in his edition of The Master of Game, suggests that this dog was very like the German boarhound. It may have been the dog from which the German boarhound is descended.  126

INDEX

Accidents in driving deer post "hounds" ... 58 Adam of Carlisle, hunting charter 1194-1214 ... 5 Agricultural Methods, effect on foxhunting ... 98 Animal Painters of England, by Sir Walter Gilbey (footnote) ... 07 Alaunet, not liked for hunting deer, §2: uses of, 133: varieties of, 123: defects of ... 125 Ancient or Correct Chase, by Rev. William Chaffin, 1818 ... 88 Archbishop of Canterbury kills Lord Zouche's keeper while staghunting ... 38 Art of Hunting, by Wm. Twite ... 7 Art of Feneric, by George Turbervilk, 1375 ... 10 Arredens, Lord, pack of foxhounds, 1692-1700 ... 87 Arresdenes, original home of St. Husbards bred ... 8 Badger, a beast of slinking flight ... 17 Baddinton Pack in 1680 (Horrock) ... 100 Barns or Greifer ... 52 Beagles, rough and smooth, 42: 195: "Little" 97 192: rough picture of, 195: term formerly denoted different kind of hound; 195: Queen Elizabeth's small, 195: Gertrude Markham on, 195: William HFs, 194: Richard Blome on, 194: John Mowbray on, 194: John VV's fast pack, 105: Lord Hardy's pack, 105-106: packs of a inch kept formerly, 106: slow but sure hunters, 106: used to trail hare to form, rods Mr. Mowbray's pack at a meeting of for different styles of country now used, 107: "Singling" ... 107 See Hound or Beagle, Northern  127

BECKFORD PETER. Thoughts on Hunting, 45: on foxhound breeding, 90-93: on possibility of improving foxhounds ... 92

BELLORO, K. W. H. Horatio on ancestry of pack, 68-71: in 1820 (Hackett) 199-200

BERLETO: thought to be name of a variety of hound 5-6

BLANK, William. Essays on Hunting 40

BLOCH, Richard. Gentleman's Recreation 24: on entering young hounds at stag or buck, 64: on foxhounds, Northern Icagle and Southern Hound cross 68-74: on beagles ... 104

Bloodhound, descent of: 12: early significance of the name, 12: name applied to hound used in either hunting or coursing ... 195

BLUE MOTTLED HARBERS ... 37

BOAR, bad effects on staghounds if used for hunting ... 51

BOAR-HUNTING in the Forest of Dean, Henry II's time ... 51

BOOTHOY, Mr. Thomas, jack of foxhounds, 166s-173t ... 87

BRACHIE OF BRACHIE (footnote) 7

BRACHIE: entering hounds (Twit) ... 7

BREAKING up the deer, ceremony of ... 36

BREEDING HOUNDS; advice of Sir Thomas Cockayne 1381 ... 17

BRESCHE HOUND of France, colour of, 21, 119: formerly used for Hare-hunting, 109: resemblance between, and Welsh, 109: used by Mr. Waldron Hill for otter-hunting ... 119-120

DE BREZIE, Jacques, huntsman to King Francis I, on entering hounds at White Hounds in 1524 ... 11-12

BRITTANY HOUNDS; for otter-hunting ... 120

BUCK, Richard Bloak, on entering young hounds at 64 Buckhounds, value of the ancient Welsh King's t-2; used in Forest of Essex, 1306 ... 3

See STAGHOUNDS 

128	63
Buckhunting, Cockaine on entering young hounds
See Staghunting:
Cats' English Dogs	1575
DE CANTELLE, COUNT DE COUETELS, on St. Hubert's breed	10
CANUT'S KING, hunting laws	8
CARTED DEER, introduction of hunting	68
CAT, WILD, included in Royal hunting licences	72
CHAFFIN'S REV. WILLIAM, Anecdotes of Cranbourne Chase	88
CHARACTERISTICS persistence of ancient	95
CHARLES I'S King, outer-hounds	117
CHARLES IX of France, his White Hounds	122
CHARLOTTE BES. of 26th January, 1739, slow pace of CHARTERS, HUNTING OF Horses	86
CHELIN'S Ark, of Kinlet, and fast riding to hounds	96
D'CLARE, JOHN, and others fixed for killing deer and others in 1290	112
CHECHIE and adjoining parishes in Essex, hunted by abbot and canons of St. Oathly's Priory.	5-72
COCKINE'S Sir THOMAS, Short Treatise of Hunting,
:16 on entering young hounds at hare, :32 on entering young hounds at buck, :63 on invading the field with hounds at hare etc sqq.
COLOURS OF Hounds as indications of merit	20
C0MMON hunt of London, licence or charter con- firmed by Henry I	4
Comptat Anger, references to other-hunting in Cook's COLONEL Observations on Foxhunting	118
COTTEMORE Pack in 1830 (Hotdock)	98-100
COUNTRY Contemplations, by Germaine Markham, 1611	18
"COYELIN'S NE ROCK," harrowing, two-22 sqd seq.
CRAE'S Mx., gynch boughs

 129

CROSSING breeds of hounds, early mention of, 18; to make a foxhound, 24-25; for "cunning" or clever hunting, Gervase Markham on, 34; 35-36; "Lather" example of cross-bred hound 85

"Cunning" or clever hunting, highly considered in former days, 33-34; Gervase Markham on ... 34

DANIEL, REV. W. B. Rural Sports ... ... ... 69

DALE'S T. F., History of Behovr ... ... ... 97

"DASH" Col. Thomas Thornton's leashed-point hound (footnote) 95

DEAN, Bourhunting in Forest of ... ... ... 51

"Deep-mouthed" Hounds, London Common Hunt puck consisted of ... ... ... 4

Deer, The Master of Game on hounds used for hunting, 51-52; mutilation of, for entering young hounds 64

Hound Hounds, ... ... ... ... 11

DEVON, North, the last of Old English Staghounds 70-71

EDUCATION OF HOUNDS, pains taken with, 6; in Beckman's time 93-94

Edward II, King sent huntsmen to the Forest of Essex, 5; sent harriers to Charles of Saiterno, 1279; 7; foxhounds ... ... ... 72-73

Edward III, King, sends "bowed-legged harehounds of Wales" to France, 1304-25; 29; "otter-dogs" 114

"Ells" hunted by royal houndbunch in 1725 ... ... ... 68

English Dogs, by John Caius, 1575 ...

ENGLISH HUNTING, in England and the Continent ... ... ... 35

ENTERING HOUNDS, adoption of more exact methods ... ... ... 44

Essay on Hunting, by William Blane, 1781 ... ... ... 40

Essex hunting charts or licenses ... ... ... 4-5

Export of English hounds allowed under royal licence only ... ... ... 25

K 

130	PAGE
FANE'S, MR J., "true-lead" harriers, 1819 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Fast hounds coming into use for hare-hunting	.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 40
Fast hunting in the North of England	.. 14, 34
Fish, importance of, in pre-Reformation times	.. 112
FLEET, HENRY IV, jack, in 1565 (Hodgson) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ......60
"FLEET" hound	.. 24
"FLEET sharp-nose" dog used for hare-hunting	.. 47
"FLYING LEAPING" with hounds introduced	.. 96
FOREIGN demand for English Hares in early times	.. 7
FOREST LAWS, old, of England	.. 2-3
FOREST of DEN, hunting boar in Henry I's time	.. 51
FOREST of Essex, King Edward I sends huntsmen to Fox, a beast of stinking flight, 17; royal licences to hunt foxes, 18; foxes scarce in England, 75; scarcity of in Queen Elizabeth's time, 76; not eaten by hounds in 16th century, 77; killed after long chase (Cockaine), 78; eaten by hounds latter part of 17th century, 84; of former days probably stronger and stoutier than now. -89
FOWLER'S, a term applied to dogs used for sustenance of wild hares, 49; Edward II, ?; mentioned in royal hunting charters, ?;
Sir Thomas Cockayne on (1519), ?; et seq.; Cockaine on entering, ?; strain e., faintly established in England sent to Duke of Richmond by Mr. J. Bright, ?; strain of m.18th century, ?; Lord Arundel's jack, ?;
Mr. Boothley's pack, ?; Mr. Thos. Fowles' pack, ?;
masters of a former day conservative,
Sy; breeding varieties of hound available,
c. o. s? ; a breed of hound for reference in Beckford's time, ?; Beckford on possibilities of improving, ?; education of in Beckford's time, ?;
94 show in Beckford's time, ?;
Crossed with pointer (foamate), ?;
In picture, ?;

 131 FOXHOUND - continued improving, 1781-1920, 97-98; rounding ears of, 97; shortening stern of, 97; prices paid for, 101-102; used for hare-hunting, 101; crossed with greyhounds, 110

Foxhunting. Lancashire otter-hounds used for, 42 ; foxhounds stopped from hare in Queen Anne's time, 43; nets used in early times, 73; described in the "Lancashire Greyhound," 75; greyhounds used with foxhounds, 75; Turville on, 75 et seq.; method in North of England, 16th century, 14, 77; in time of Charles II, 80 et seq.; Northern method adopted in the South, 82 et seq.; method at end of 17th century, 81-82; the Chatton run of 1739 slow, 86; method till days of the Regency, 88; early meets in former days, 89, 94; riding to hounds in Beckford's time, 66; effect on of agricultural methods, 68; early meets abandoned, 68

French and English hunting of hounds intermingled ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ......98 French and English hunting of hounds intermingled...66

French Forest Laws contain no mention of dog mutilation ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ...........3 Fowles', Mr. Thomas, pack of foxhounds, 1730 ..... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Froude's, Mr., harriers: "Gelert" on, in 1849 ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... Fuller's, Mr., hounds in Anglesea, 1819 ..... ...... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ........... ................47 Gardehound described by Caisus ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... .............14-15 "Gelert," Guide to the Hounds of England .................46 Gentleman's Recreation, by Richard Blome, 1660 ............24 George IV's King, beagles ....................... ............105 Gilley, Sir Walter, purchase of Puckeedge hounds ............102 Great White Hunt, fame of, 13; characteristics of, 67; description of, 121; too swift for English tastes ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... .......................123 

132	109
Green Price, the late Sir Richard, opinion of Welsh hound ...	52
Crofters or Banks ...	75
Greyhounds, obligation to muzzle, by old forest law, and to hunt harriers, 35-37; for hunting deer not liked, 32; with staghounds, 57; used in foreshunting ...	46
Guide to the Hounds of England, by Gekert, 1849	5
de Guy, Henry, of Codnor; hunting charter granted by Richard I ...	31
"Halou," or reward given to harriers ...	8
Harebodied, kinds of game, with hyner ...	105
Hare's Colours, small beagles ...	41
Hare, early 15th century method of hunting up to 39; parts of given to pack, 31; the principal quarry in old days 33; indulgence shown in former days ... (footnote)	31
Hare-hunting, little practised in France, 11-12;	29
Markham's mention of crossing breeds for, 18;	29;
method described in the Minister of Game, 29;	29;
terms used for hares, 30; use of long legs by horsemen, 30; greyhounds used in, 31;	29;
"cunning" hunting, 33; pleasures of "running" hunting, 36; hours for, on foot, 37; hound music a great feature of, 38; "under the pole" described by Newton, 36-38; death of hare not desired, 39; Some hounds out sounds for, 40; fast hours for, coming into use, 40;	29;
objections to Northern hound for, 41; various hounds used for, 42; hounds staunch to hare preferred, 43; Beckford's views on, 45; Bresse hounds used for ...	109

 133 PAGE

HARRIERS, used in Forest of Essex, 1326, 5; mention of, in the Maitre de Game, 6; sent by Edward I to Charles of Salerno, 1279, 7; Scatton and Sesskore, 13; described by Cains, 13; game hunted with, 13; "impossible to dissociate from stag- or buck-hound in former days," 28; Welsh bow-legged in 14th century, 28-29; reward on killing, 31; education of, by Cockinns, 32; tendency to run at sheep, 37; to hunt hares, 38; "coming out" with fox, 39; Markham on cross-bred, 34 et seq.; for hunting on foot, 37 et seq.; several kinds of hound used as, 40; 42; unwisdom of allowing to hunt fox recognised, 45-47; first found on keeping own game, 45; Blythe's course of 1666 for many years distinct from foxhound, 46; "Gelerf" on laced out, in 1849, 46; Mr. Fuller's "old fashioned," 47; Mr. Lewis' black and tan, 47; Mr. J. Fane's "truebred," 47; K. W. H. Herlock on, 47 et seq.; numbers individually replaced, 48; in packs of old breeds remain, 49; Harrier, used to describe one of the servants with staghounds, 52; used with staghounds, 58; the "perfect good," suited to any quarry (Turcervil), 62; Mr. Frode's "good old English staghound," 70; mentioned in old hunting licences, 72; must carry a good head (Blane) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... 94

HEUGES few in former times, 35; heavy hounds required help over ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., ....... 84

HENRI II of France, his White Hounds ......... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... 122

HENRY I, King, law as to mutilation of dogs, 5; confirmed hunting charter to Common Hunt of London ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 4  134 Henry III, King, law as to mutilation of dogs. 3 ; hunting charter granted to St. Osthil's Priory. 5 ; 72 Henry III, King, keg stage; and back-hounds. 50 Henry VIII, King, grants other-hunting licence to Tudor nobility. 114 Hill, Mr., Waldron; his Boscum house for otter- hunting. 119-20 ; his heul-moat hybrid otter- hounds. 119 ; ... ... ... ... ... 120 History of Belvoir, by T. F. Dale. 9 ; ... ... ... ... 92 History of the Royal Backwoods, by J. P. Horne. 68 Hollishead, Ralph, on scarcity of foxes, 16th century. 76 Hodges, Thomas, granted other-hunting licence by Henry VIII. 114 Horlock, K., W., H., Recollections of Fox Hunting. 47 Horns, Hunting, circular and straight. 97-98 Hound Breeding, not yet bred for chase of one particular quarry; 16 ; advice of Cockayne, 1591, 7 ; crossing breeds; 23-24 ; Markham, on crossing; 34 ; Beaulieu's harrier pack; 46 ; breeds of hounds; 65 ; Foxhound; 66 ; Cockayne on foxhounds; 77 ; Northern Bragge crossed with Southern Hound. 83 ; pedigree of "Thatcher". 86-87 ; Beckford on; go; nine experiments on it; possibilities of improve- ment in it; 97-98 ; crossbred Welsh and English foxhounds. 100-101 Hound Music; voice of Yorkshire hounds (Markham), 20 ; importance attached to, 21-22 ; small beagles added to pack to improve the "Concert" (Markham); 23 ; harriers on line of hare; 32 ; of South Wales; 37 ; "singing" beagles; origin of hunting; 38 ; Mr. Fuller's old fashioned harriers; 47 ; of Old English staghounds; 69 ; "singing" beagles; 107 ; of Welsh and Bresse hounds; 109 ; of otherhounds. ... ... ... ... ... 115  135 PAGE

HOUND of BEAGL, Northern, Markham's description of, 19; Yorkshire breed indicated, 21; a "sleek" dog, 23; scarcity of Yorkshire breed in 1632, 24; used by country hounds for hare-hunting, 34; Murkham best acquainted with, 35; too fast for fair hare-hunting, 40-41; the cross between, and Southern hound, 42; various terms for the breed, 82; "hounds of the North," 82; for foxhunting (Bone), 82; crossed with Southern hound for foxhunting, 82-84; " Luther" had blood of, 86; Symour's sketch, probably a, 86; Beckland on, 90; blood of appears dominant in, 90; "a good pack," 90-91; breed on use of blood for making foxhounds, 93; in picture ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ?6 et seq.

HOUNDS as royal gifts, i. §2: mention of in Ancient Laws of Wales, i.e., "deep-mouthed" of Common Hunt of London, 4; royal charters to keep unmutated, 4-5; 7-23: different, used for different game, 5; "running": various kinds, e.g., "the great" (see LYME); Normans brought to England, 8; St. Hubertes (see ST. HUBERTS): colours of, indicative of merit, 9; "running," described in The Misericord (see GREAT WARRIOR): hunting fallow deer: St. Hubert's hound (see GAZER-HOUND) not bred for special quarry, 16; hunted all game, 17: Gervaise Markham on local breeds in England, i.e. sciu.; crossing breeds (Bone), 24: in duncan on the Continent, 25: export of forehinds, 25: method of "hunting" for right ears only, 26: in picture, 26-27: used for different game, 28; bow-legged hare, of Wales (see WELSH HOUND): Cockaine on entering, 31-32: "middle-sized" (Markham), 36: staunch, required to hold the  136

Hounds—continued

scant, 37 ; perfect discipline of, 39 ; fast and slow for hare-hunting, 40 et seq. ; Lancashire otterhound, 47 ; prefer game first entered at, 44 ; general education of, passing out of vogue, 44, 46 ; carefully entered to stag in old times, 51 ; slow but enduring preferred for deer, 52 ; finders of staghounds, 54 ; hounds, 58 ; for staghunting, 54 ; for courting, 61 ; for breeding for staghunting and other chases (Cocaine), 62 ; feeding, 62 ; entering at back, 63 et seq. ; English and French breeds much crossed, 66 ; of Normandy, Artois, Picardy, 66 ; for foxhunting (Turkeby), 71 ; of France, 71 ; Ribble, 77 ; as killed above ground with (Cocaine), 78 ; for foxhunting, strain established, 79-80 ; learned to eat fox, 84 ; Luther, 84 et seq. ; choice of, open to masters, 92 ; in picture, 96-97 ; roaming cats of, 97 ; great difference between in famous kennels noted by Horlock 99-100 See also Beagles; Bloodhounds; Bresse; Brittainy; Foxhound; Harriers; Hound; Northern Hound; Southern; Stag- hounds; Utterham

Hound. Southern or "deep-mouthed" kept by Common Hunt of London, 4 ; derived from St. Haberts (q.v.), 8 ; "true Tallents" for nose, 20-21 ; in picture, 26-27 ; on line of hare, 37 ; perfect discipline exacted 37-39 ; used for hunting-on the scent, 42 ; crossed with Northern hounds, 83. Mr. Fuller's "old fashioned" harriers derived from, 47 ; recognisable in harriers described by Horlock, 48 ; origin of, 66 ; proper for thick cover, (Bloom), 82 ; owed something to Normandy hound, 83 ; cross with Northern produced a  137 PAGE

HOUNO, SOUTHERN—continued

"middle sort" of hound, 84 ; old Chariton jack probably of this blood, 86 ; Hookford on, 80-93 ; "hounds of the middle between, and Northmen," 88 ; blood predominant in Cotes- more pack (Horlock), 100 ; resemblance: of Welsh, to 102 ; used for otter-hunting, 116 ; used in building up otter-hound ... 118-119 "HUNTED UP," kind of game, by the pack ... 8 Hunting Directory, by T. B. Johnson, 1826 ... 115 HUNTING HOUNDS, breed of hounds, 4-5; licence of Henry I to Common Hunt of London, 4 ; method of following hounds in North of England in 16th century, 14 ; "Under the Pole," 30 ; description in Notator of 1771, 38 ; on foot, 57-58 ; horns, circular and straight ... 97-98 JAMES I, King, love of the chase, 25-26 ; Queen Anne of Denmark's kill his favourite hound while staghunting, 59 ; and otter-hunting ... JOHN, King, other hounds sent to Somersetshire in 1212-113 JOHNSON, T. B., on breeding of otter-hound in 1826 118

KENETS, small hounds ... ... ... ... ... ... 6-7 KERRY BEAGLES, partly derived from Vendees Hounds 13 "King's Great Game" (stag), jealous preservation of King, Jno., Edward F.s huntsman ... ... ... ... 5 LANCASHIRE HOUND ... ... ... (footnote) 78 LANCASHIRE OTTER-HOUND ... ... ... ... ... 42 "Lawing" of dogs in ancient times, 3 ; practice attributed to the Danes, 3 ; methods (footnote) 4 LEE, Mr. Rawdon, on origin of otter-hounds ... 119 LEESLEY, Hon. Mr., otter-hound ... ... ... ... 117-118 LEWIS', Mr., black and tan harriers ... ... ... ... 47  138

Licences, Hunting, granted to privileged persons	4
London, Common Hunt of	4
LOUIS XIII of France; his White Hounds	123
LOUIS XIV of France changes character of White Hounds by law	123
LOUIS XV procures staghounds from England	124
"Letter" foreshold sent to Duke of Richmond by Mr. John Bright	84
"Limerick", use of, as described by Twixt; 7 : best kind, 122 : used with hare, 29 : deer	33 et seq.
MARKHAM'S GENTLEMAN, Country Contentments	18
Marten, 17 : hunted with Lameshire hester-hound	42
Master of Game: translation of the Libre de Chasse, made about 1387-1390; 6 : on best hue of running hounds; 9 : on true merit of hounds; 9 : on hounds for hunting deer; 32 : foaming described, 74 : on the other, 112-13 ; on defects of hounds	25
MELBOURNE, WILLIAM, King Henry IV's enter huntsman	111-112
"Middle-sized Dogs", Gervase Markham on	36
In Middlehope, Elias, 15th century master of Penistone Hunt
Modern Dogs, Mr. Rawdon Lee	5
Musicians' charges to keep dogs granted to;	41
conditum under which chancers granted;
Moorfields, kennels of London Hunt, 1300-1600	5
Mutilating deer for entering young hounds	64
MUTILATION of dogs compelled by old forest laws	3-4
Nets used in early foxhunting...	73
New Forest, hunting deer in Henry III's time	50
NORMANDY HOUND, Southern Hound owed something to, & c crossed with White Hound...	123-124

 139 PAGE

NORTHERN HOUND OR BEAGLE (or HOUND OR BEAGLE, NORTHERN)

Observations on Foxhunting, by Colonel Cook, 1829 98 Otter in old times hunted as vermin, 111 ; applied to game as game in old days, 112 ; The Master of Game, 112-113 Otter-bound : Welsh Hound used in building up, 110 ; old one made good backhound, 116 ; T B. Johnson on breeding of in 1826, 118 ; Mr. Rawdon Lee on origin, 119 ; Lancashire see LANCASHIRE OTTER-BOUND Otter-hounds, King John, sent to Somersetshire, 114 ; Henry VIII, son of the Prince of Wales', maintained at public expense, 115 ; James I's, 116 ; Charles II's, 117 ; described by Caius in English Dogs ... ... ... 114-115 Otter-hunters travelling professional, in old days 114 Otter-hunting, spent discarded, 115, 118 ; charter granted by Henry VIII, 114 ; described by Turberville, 58 ; Sir Thomas Coke on, 166 ; said to be rare, 166 ; Ezekiel Walton on, 117 ; not of sufficient importance to breed hounds for old days, 117 ; any kind of hound used for, 117 ; out of favour in earlier part of 16th century, 118 ; with Dresser hounds, 129-130 ; Birtley hounds for, 120 ; hounds hybridised for use ... ... ... 120 PARRY, JOHN, Master of James I's otter-hounds, 116 ; authority given him to control millers'dams 146-147 Penistone Hunt, Yorkshire, origin of ... ... ... 5 Plumpton Correspondence : references to hunting deer in time of Henry VIII, 59 et seq. ; to travelling professional older-hunter ... ... ... 144  140

Pointers crossed with foxhounds	... (footnote) ...	95
Pole, hunting under the, early close to	...	30
Polecat	...	17
Prices paid for Foxhounds, no early records, 101;	3600 gallons paid for Mr. Lankford's pack	...
1836, 1825 £4,500 paid by the author for the Puckridge pack 1896	...	102
Rache, or Racket	...	7
"Ravenous Vermin"	...	17
Raccllctions of Fox Hunting, by K. W. H. Horlock,	1864	47
Records of the Old Charlton Hunt, by the Earl of March	...	43
"Keeble" Hounds	...	77-78
RICHARD I, King; hunting charter granted to Henry de la Haye of Codnor; g: his wonderful run with stag from Sherwood to Barnsdale, 1194.		50
ROBERT, son of Payne, life charter to hunt fox and have granted. 1314	...	73
ROEDEER, formerly plentiful in England, 16th method of hunting in 16th century, 16: Sir Thomas Cockaine on entering hounds to ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ?		33
Rounding cars of hounds		97
"Runnim" Hounds; "different kinds used for different game; g: described in the Master of Game" g:9-10

ST. HUBERT'S HOUNDS: foundation stock of Southern Hound; g: tender nose of; g: Count de Cantuex de Cantuex on antiquities of; g: description of g: Turberelle's description of g: II-12; Gervase Markham on g: 29-31

ST. HUBERT'S MONASTERY : hounds presented by to Kings of France; g: 9  141

St. Osyth's Priory, hunting charter granted to by Henry II. ⁵² Saville, Sir Henry, describes sport with hound, bow and greyhound to his cousin Plumpton, 1544 Scartee Hounds Scotland, specimen of early licence to hunt Scrutator, pseudonym of K. W. H. Horlock (q.v.) Secinor Harriers, origin of ... Seymour, James, sketch for foxhunting picture Shaft-Haired Tailor... Sharp-sueded Hound Shetland Sheepdogs to run at... Short Treatise of Hunting, by Sir Thomas Cocking, 1591 Singling: Beagles Slapton (South Devon) blue mottled harriers Smith, Simon, Charles II's "serjeant" of otter-hounds Somervile on hounds for hare-hunting in The Chase ** Sovereigns of England devoted to the chase** Sparrow-Hawk Sporting Dictionary, by William Taplin, 1803 Stag, value, of under ancient Welsh laws, 2; harboured by the lynx; 8; hunted in England from the earliest times, 50; Richard Blome on entering young hounds at... Stag and Buck-nose dogs kept by Henry III: 50; used in the hunting hour, 12th century, 51; carefully entered in 12th century, 51; "reward" of, on killing deer in old times, 60; Turberville on education of, 61; method of educating described by Cockaine, 62 et seq.; Blome on entering, 64; reputation of English abroad in 1715: 85; English owe something to French Great White Hound, 67: Daniel on old 

142
STAG- AND BUCK-HOUNDS--continued
English, in Rural Sports 60: Mr. Froude's harriers (1849) descended from old English, 70: the North Devon jock, 68-69; able of North Devonshire, 71: English procured by Louis XV to improve French royal pack	... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...	124
STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, 2; methods described in the Matter of Game, 53 et seq.; decay of in England and causes, 68; carted deer
"SINKING FLIGHT," beasts of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	... ... ...	68
"SWEET FLIGHT," beasts of ..	... ...	17
TALBOT (see St. Hubert's Hounds)
TAPLIN WILLIAM, Sporting Dictionary	... ...	106
THEODORIS PALLAS; James I's Queen kills the king's best hound here	... ...	58
THOMAS, Sir William, letter on foxhunting in Sussex	80-81
THORTON, Colonel Thos.: foxhound-pointer "Duchy"	(footnote)	93
Thoughts on Hunting, by Peter Beckford, 1781	... ...	45
"TEXTING," first use of the term .........	... ...	63
TURBERVILLE'S GEORGIA: Art of Vouire, 1575	... ...	19
TERROR, Major or: licence to hunt granted to Henry de Guy of Codnor .........	... ...	5
TWICK, William, huntsman to King Edward II.	... ...	7
VALUE OF HOUNDS in Ancient Times .....	... ...	1-2
VENEX HOUNDS, descended from Great White Hound	... ...	13
WALTON, Izaak, on otter-hunting .....	... ...	117
WALES; values of hounds prescribed in laws of Ancient I. DE WIDNE, Thomas, King Edward IV's huntsman .....	... ...	5
WELSH BOW-LEGGED HARIERS, mentioned in 1304-5 .....	... ...	29

A page from a book with text about hunting dogs and their history.

STAG- AND BUCK-HOUNDS--continued

STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, 2; methods described in the Matter of Game, 53 et seq.; decay of in England and causes, 68; carted deer

TALBOT (see St. Hubert's Hounds) TAPLIN WILLIAM, Sporting Dictionary   THEODORIS PALLAS; James I's Queen kills the king's best hound here &nb THOMAS, Sir William, letter on foxhunting in Sussex &nb THORTON, Colonel Thos.: foxhound-pointer "Duchy" THOUGHTS ON HUNTING, by Peter Beckford, 1781 &nb "TEXTING," first use of the term ......... TURBERVILLE'S GEORGIA: Art of Vouire, 1575 &nb STAG- AND BUCK-HOUNDS--continued STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNTING, season in ancient times, STAG-HUNNING, STAG- AND BUCK-HOUNDS--continued STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG-HUNNING STAG S T A G - A N D B U C K - H O U N D S -- C O N T I N U E D S T A G - A N D B U C K - H O U N D S -- C O N T I N U E D S T A G - A N D B U C K - H O U N D S -- C O N T I N U E D S T A G - A N D B U C K - H O U N D S -- C O N T I N U E D  143 Welsh Hound, Count de Cantelou's belief concerning origin, 13 ; retains ancient character, 108 ; description of, 128 ; resemblance to Bresse Hound, 129 ; used by the late Sir Richard Green Price's belief in, 105 ; now rarely found pure, 110 ; crossed with English foxhound, 110 : used in producing otter-nound, ... ... ... ... ... ... 110 WENTWORTH VISCOUNT Thomas, on scarcity of Yorkshire hounds, 1632 ... ... ... ... ... ... 24 Wild Cat, mentioned in Royal hunting licences ... ... ... ... ... ... 72 William III, King, his beagles ... ... ... ... ... ... 104 York, Duke of, translator of the Master of Game (q.v.) YORKSHIRE: deerhunting in; Henry VIII's time (Phlomion Correspondents) ... ... ... 59 et seq. YORKSHIRE HOUND: described by Gervais Markham, zo ; scarcity of in 1632 ... ... ... ... ... ... 24  [API_EMPTY_RESPONSE]