

BLOOD-HOUND. 



BLOOI>-H< 



them off One of them, in spite, loaned from hi* hone, ami 

 to the ahepherd seised him l>y tho belt he wore round his waiit ; and 

 letting his foot upon hu body pulled it till it broke, and carri.- 1 it 

 away with him. They rode off at the gallop; and the shrph. r.l 

 giving the alarm, the blixMl-hiiu<l wait turned loose, and the people 

 in the neighbourhood alarmed. The marauders, however, escaped, 

 notwithstanding a sharp pursuit Thin circumstance serves to show 

 how very long the license of the Borderers continued in some degree 

 to manifent iUclf." 



This, perhaps, u the last instance of an attempted ' Border foray ' 

 o record. The time* were changed. The noble* had ceased to 

 prid* themselves on their ignorance of all the arte save the art of 

 war, and to make it matter of thankiigiving that they knew not how 

 to use the pen. Civilisation advanced as learning was diffused, till 

 the law of the strongest no longer prevailed against the law of the 

 land. The Blood-Hound, from the nobler purauit of heroes and 

 knight*, ' minions of the moon,' who swept away the cattle and goods 

 of whole districts, marking the extent of their 'raid' by all the 

 horrors of fire and sword, sank to the tracker of the deer-stealer and 

 petty felon. About a century and a quarter ago, when deer-stealing 

 was a common crime, the park-keepers relied upon their blood-hounds 

 principally for detecting the thief; and so adroit were these dogs, 

 that when one of them was fairly laid on, the escape of the criminal 

 was with good reason considered to be all but impossible. Even 

 now the breed still lingers about some of the great deer-parks ; and 

 many of our readers will remember the noble specimen at Richmond 

 Park, bearing the name of Procter, and the admirable study of his 

 head engraved by T. Landseer from a painting by his brother Edwin. 

 Another of this race has been perpetuated by Sir Edwin Landseer. 

 It belonged to Jacob Bell, Esq., and was killed by jumping out of a 

 window, and iU accidental death is perpetuated by the artist having 

 drawn it after death as though sleeping. 



This noble variety is now only kept as an object of curiosity and 

 ornament; for iU services have long since been superseded by the 

 justice's warrant and the police-officer. We find it. indeed, recorded 

 about 50 years ago, that "the Thrapston association for the prevention 

 of felons in Northamptonshire have provided and trained a blood- 

 hound for the detection of sheep-stealera. To demonstrate the 

 unerring infallibility of this animal a day was appointed for public 

 trial ; the person ho was intended to hunt started, in the presence of 

 a great concourse of people, about 10 o'clock in the forenoon, and at 

 11 o'clock the hound was laid on. After a chase of an hour and a 

 half, notwithstanding a very indifferent scent, the hound ran up to 

 a tree in which he was secreted, at the distance of 15 miles from 

 the place of starting, to the admiration and perfect satisfaction of the 

 very great number assembled upon the occasion." But this may be 

 considered more in the light of a proceeding 'in terrorem' than 

 anything else. 



Strong and hardy as the Blood-Hound seems to be, it is unable, 

 apparently, to encounter a low temperature. Mr. Lloyd, in his 

 ' Reid Sports,' relate* that one presented to him by Mr. Otway Cave 

 was entirely paralysed by the piercing cold of the northern regions 

 which were the scene of his exploits. 







ih niood-llnuml. 



Cuban Ulnrxl-lliiund. The reputation whirl] thi* variety has obtained 

 for sagacity and fierceness, and the share that the terror of its name 

 had in extinguishing the last Maroon war in Jamaica, render it an 

 object of some interest. In 1733 these Maroons had become very 

 troublesome, and the Assembly, among other plan* for suppressing 

 them, appointed garrisons, from whose barracks excursions were from 

 time to time made against the insurgents. " Every barrack," says 



Bryan Edwards, "was also furnished with a pack >vidcd 



by the churchwardens of the respective parishes, it being foreseen 

 that these animals would pVove extremely serviceable, not only in 

 guarding against surprises into* night but in tracking the enemy." 'Tim 

 tiresome war went on however, till at last articles of pacification with 

 the Maroons of Trelawney town were concluded on the 1st of March, 

 1738. This alliance continued, not without frequent rompla 

 the conduct of the Maroons, till July, 17!'."., wht-n two of these people 

 from Trelawney town, having been found guilty by a jury of stealing 

 some pigs, were sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes each, and the 

 sentence was executed. On their return to Trelawney town thrir 

 account drove the Maroons into open revolt, and a bloody and success- 

 ful war was waged by these savages against the whole force that the 

 government could direct against them. 



At last the Assembly, in the month of September, remembering the 

 expedient of employing dogs previous to the treaty of 1738, resolved 

 to send to the island of Cuba for 100 blood-hounds, and to engage a 

 sufficient number of Spanish huntsmen to direct their operations. 

 The employment, according to Edwards, to which these dogs are 

 generally put by the Spaniards is the pursuit of wild bullocks, which 

 they slaughter for the hides ; and the great use of the dogs ia to drive 

 the cattle from such heights and recesses in the mountainous p 

 the country as are least accessible to the hunters. This determination 

 of the Assembly was not made without some opposition. After much 

 discussion it was determined to send for the dogs, and at last after 

 several delays the commissioner, who had been dispatched to the 

 Havanna, arrived at Montego Bay on the 14th of Decvmlx-r with forty 

 chasseurs, or Spanish hunters, chiefly people of colour, and about 

 100 Spanish dogs. 



Dallas, in his ' History of the Maroons,' gives the following account 

 of the first appearance of these dogs before the commander in-chief : 

 " Anxious to review the chasseurs, General Walpole left head- 

 quarters the morning after they were landed before day-breni. 

 arrived in a post-chaise at Seven Rivera, accompanied 1<\ Colonel 

 Skinner, whom he appointed to conduct the ii 



of his coming having preceded him, a parade of the chasseurs was 

 ordered; and they were taken to a distance from the house, in onlrr 

 to be advanced when the general alighted. On his arrival the commis- 

 sioner having paid his respects was desired to parade them. The 

 Spaniards soon appeared at the end of a gentle acclivity, drawn out 

 in a line containing upwards of forty men, with their dogs in front 

 unmuzzled, and held by cotton ropes. On receiving the command 

 ' fire,' they discharged their fusils and advanced as upon a real attack. 

 This was intended to ascertain what effect would be produced on the 

 dogs if engaged under a fire of the Maroons. The volley was no sooner 

 discharged than the dogs rushed forward with the greatest fury, amid 

 the shouts of the Spaniards, who were dragged on by them with irre- 

 sistible force. Some of the dogs maddened by the about of attack, 

 while held back by the ropes, seized on the stocks of the guns in the 

 hands of their keepers and tore pieces out of them. Their impetuosity 

 was so great that they were with difficulty stopped before they reached 

 the general, who found it necessary to get ex|>editiousry into the chaise 

 from which he had alighted ; and if the most strenuous exertions had 

 not been made to stop them, they would most certainly have seized 

 upon his horses." 



Th scene was well got up, and it had its effect. General Wal]K>le 

 was ordered to advance on the 14th of January following, with his 

 Spanish dogs in the rear. Their fame however had reached the Maroons, 

 and the general had penetrated but a short way into the woods when 

 a supplication for mercy was brought from the enemy, and 2i;n ..f 

 them soon afterwards surrendered on no other condition than a 

 promise of their lives. 



It i stated that these dogs when properly trained will not kill r 

 harm the pursued unless they are resisted. " On n-ai-liing a fugitive 

 they bark at him till ho stops, and then couch near him, terrifying him 

 with a ferocious growling if he stirs. They then bark at intervals to 

 give notice to the chasseurs, till thry come up and secure tin n- 

 prisoner." 



Dallas however, who had his information from the commissioner 

 himself, William Dawes Quarrell, to whom hia v. . atnl, (,'ivrn 



a description and representation of one of these Spanish chaaseurx with 

 his dogs ; and he relates the following instances of the strength and 

 determined ferocity of the latter : 



" The party had scarcely erected their huts when the barking of a 

 dog was heard near them. They got immediately under arms, and 

 proceeding in the direction of the sound discovered a negro endcnv >ur- 

 ing to make his escape. One of the Spanish dogs was sent after him. 

 On coming up the negro cut him twice with his muschet,* on whirh 

 the dog seized him by the nape of the neck and secured him. He 

 proved to be a runaway said that he and two other negroes had 

 deserted the Maroons a few days before, and that the party wax nt a 

 great distance from the town, but that he would conduct them to it 

 n next day." 



In the next anecdote recorded by Dallas the attack was fatal both 



A long fttralght imnchct, or coutrnti, longer than a dragoon's nword, and 

 twice u thick, something like a flat Iron bar nharpened at the lover end, or 

 which about eighteen inchea arc an sharp as a raxor. The point in not unlike 

 the old Roman iword. Such U Dallas'! description of the chaueur'i muschet. 



