56 British Dogs. 



into the thickest throng, they will find him out notwithstanding he 

 be hidden in wild woods, in close and overgrown groves, and lurk in hol- 

 low boles apt to harbour such ungracious guests. 



' ' Moreover, although they should pass over the water, thinking thereby 

 to avoid the pursuit of the hounds, yet will not these dogs give over their 

 attempt, but, presuming to swim through the stream, persevere in their 

 pursuit, and when they be arrived and gotten to the further bank they 

 hunt up and down, to and fro run they, from place to place shift they, 

 until they have attained to that plot of ground where they passed over, 

 and this is their practice, perdie they cannot at the first time smelling find 

 out the way which the deed doers took to escape. So at length get they 

 that by art and cunning and diligent endeavour which by fortune and 

 luck they cannot otherwise overcome, in so much as it seemeth wisely 

 written by Elianus to be as it were naturally instilled and poured into 

 these kind of dogs, for they will not pause ror breathe from their pursuit 

 until such time as they be apprehended and taken which committed the 

 fact. The owners of such dogs use to keep them in close and dark channels 

 in the day time, and let them loose at liberty in the night season, to the 

 intent they might with more courage and boldness practise to follow the 

 felon in the evening and solitary hours of darkness, when such ill-dis- 

 posed varlets are principally purposed to play their impudent pranks. 



" These hounds, when they are to follow such fellows as we have 

 before rehearsed, use not that liberty to range at will which they have 

 otherwise when they are on game (except upon necessary occasion, where- 

 on dependeth an urgent, an effectual persuasion, when such purloiners 

 make speedy way in flight), but being restrained and drawn backward 

 from running at random with the leash, the end thereof the owner hold- 

 ing in his hand, is led, guided, and directed with such swiftness and 

 slowness (whether he go on foot or whether he ride on horseback) , as 

 he himself in heart would wish for the more easy apprehension of these 

 venturesome varlets." 



The employment of dogs in the detection of a great crime quite 

 recently brought the question of the utilisation of the bloodhound for 

 such purposes up for discussion. In the case referred to the dog had 

 displayed no more sagacity than is common to the whole species, 

 advantage being taken of the deep sensation produced by the inhuman 

 nature of the crime to impose as a wonderful performance the most 



