44 British Dogs. 



it. He worships his master ; he is as ready to defend as to adulate ; 

 his obedience is willing, prompt, and thorough, and rendered with a 

 silence that would command the praise of the Chelsea philosopher. No 

 yelp, youf, or yowl from the lurcher. Steady at heel or keeping watch 

 at the stile till the wire is in the meuse and the net across the gate ; then 

 a motion of the hand, and, without a whimper, he is round the field, 

 driving rabbit and hare into the fatal snare. 



I attribute the wonderful intelligence displayed by some lurchers I 

 have known to their constant and most intimate association with their 

 owners. They eat, sleep, and thieve together ; and if the dog were not of 

 Sir Wilfrid Lawson's opinion on the subject, they would, after a success- 

 ful raid on the squire's preserves like Tarn o' Shanter and Souter 

 Johnny "be drunk for weeks together." 



Lurchers will run either by nose or sight, as suits them, but always 

 cunning. Let them start a hare, they will probably make for the meuse 

 and meet poor Wat ; but their great game is with crouching stealthy step 

 to pounce on him in his form. 



All of them will retrieve their game. Watch that itinerant tinker and 

 collector of sundries, trudging behind that thing on four wheels he calls 

 a cart, drawn by a nag that should be at the knacker' s ; he has seen the 

 keeper heading for the Pig and Whistle. "Hie in, Jerry! " and the 

 lurcher that enters the spinney empty mouthed, comes out two hundred 

 yards below, and deposits a hare at his master's feet. 



As before said, these dogs vary greatly in general size and shape, 

 and so they do in colour, but my beau ideal of a lurcher is a heavyish 

 greyhound conformation with enough of the colley to make them look in- 

 telligent, and in colour red, brindle, or a grizzle. 



