94 British Dogs. 



has finished his badger in some very small numbers of minutes. But 

 there are badgers and badgers baby badgers ; and if we are to believe a 

 tithe of what we hear on this head, the supposition is forced upon us that 

 a great many badgers die in their infancy. 



"We do know that the premier dachshund of the present day has 

 within the last two months drawn a wild fox from his fastness and finished 

 him, unaided, in about four minutes ; but an unsnubbed, fully-matured 

 badger of five or six summers is an awkward customer, and with him the 

 result might have been quite different. 



"What are called dachshunds may be picked up in most German 

 towns, but those are often of an inferior sort, or half-breds, the genuine 

 blue blood being almost entirely in the hands of the nobles. Familiar to 

 us in the north were those of the late King of Hanover ; those of Baron 

 Nathasius and Baron Von Cram in the south. The Grand Duke of Baden's 

 kennel at Eberstein Schloss is unrivalled. Prince Couza, Baroness Ingel- 

 heim, and Baron Haber also possessed some of the best and purest strains. 



" In England, Her Majesty the Queen and H.I.H. Prince Edward of 

 Saxe- Weimar have for many years possessed the choicest specimens of the 

 best strains in Germany ; and we have been favoured with stud dogs and 

 brood from some of the above-named kennel, which required some- 

 thing more than gold to possess them. A habit has sprung up of late, and 

 a very bad one it is, of entering rough-coated little dogs as dachshunds 

 at some of our best shows, and some of them have received honours which 

 they are in no way entitled to. This is misleading, as they are not dachs- 

 hunds, but 'bassets,' very nice little fellows, but with no more right to 

 be exhibited as dachshunds than a setter or a spaniel would have in a 

 pointer class. They may be half-breds, as dachshund-basset or dach- 

 shund-spaniel ; we have also met with others, hound marked and smooth- 

 coated, which looked like dachshund-beagle ; these are all bassets, a 

 term applied by the French to all low, short-legged dogs. The best we 

 have met with were a leash owned by a French marquis ; these had grand 

 heads of the otter hound type, with rough coats, very long bodies, and 

 short crooked legs, and were called 'Eostaing bassets,' and were 

 excellent workers in thick coverts, but they rarely possess either the 

 courage or the scenting powers of the dachshund." 



Between the points translated from the German by Her Von Schmie- 

 denburg, editor of " Der Hund," and the English view, as given by 



