The Lurcher. 43 



CHAPTER V. THE LURCHER. 



BY CORSINCON. 



IT would be in vain to look for the lurcher in the streets or parks of 

 London, in any of our considerable towns, or at any of our dog shows. 

 In some of our manufacturing towns he is kept, but out of sight ; his 

 appearance is so suggestive that the modesty and retiring disposition of 

 his master will not allow him to parade the dog before the public gaze. 

 The lurcher is, in fact, par excellence the poacher's dog, and those who 

 desire to see him must look for him in the rural districts ; there look 

 out for the jobbing labourer, the man who never works but from dire 

 necessity, a sturdily built but rather slouching fellow, whose very gait and 

 carriage half swagger, half lurch proclaim the midnight prowler, and 

 close to his heels, or crouched at his feet beneath the ale house bench, 

 you will find the lurcher. 



The dog is by no means the ugly brute he is sometimes described to 

 be. True, they vary greatly, and the name more properly describes 

 the peculiar duties of the dog, and his manner of performing them, than 

 distinctiveness of type ; but still the old-fashioned genuine lurcher has a 

 well-defined character of his own which no other dog can lay claim to. 



The lurcher proper is a cross between the Scotch colley and the grey- 

 hound an average one w ill stand about three-fourths the height of the 

 greyhound ; more strongly built and heavier boned, yet lithe and supple 

 withal, his whole conformation giving an impression of speed, just, 

 as his blinking, half-closed eye, as he lies pretending to sleep, 

 impresses one with his intelligence and cunning. His coat is rough, 

 hard, and uneven ; his ears are coarse, and altogether there is 

 an air of, not rusticity, but vulgarity, about him. You cannot help 

 associating dog and master, and, to be just, you will admit that there 

 has been gross neglect or fundamental errors in the education and 

 bringing up of both dog and man, for which they may not be altogether 

 responsible ; and, to conclude your philosophising, you may, with a sigh, 

 regret that so much capacity for real work should be turned into a wrong 

 channel. 



If we may compare the two in morals, the dog has much the better of 



