CHAPTER VII 



THE BLOODHOUND 



HE who attempts to discover the origin and trace the history of 

 any one of our breeds of dogs, beyond a comparatively few genera- 

 tions, will, in most or all cases, speedily find himself in a fog, tossed 

 on a sea of doubt, driven hither and thither by the conflicting 

 evidence of the writers he consults, who seem to emulate each 

 other in the meagreness of the information they give, and the 

 vagueness with which they convey it. To this the Bloodhound 

 is no exception ; and it is, perhaps, wiser to accept the inevitable, 

 and frankly admit that we know very little about the origin of 

 this or any other breed, for at best we can but guess at the most 

 probable from the very insufficient data at our command to farm 

 any certain opinion. This is certainly a wiser and more dignified 

 course than to prate about this, that, and the other breed being 

 the original dog of the British Islands, as many are disposed to do, 

 One thing is very certain, that, could we go back, say, a thousand 

 years, and select a hundred of the finest specimens then living, 

 and bring them as they then were into competition with their 

 descendants of today, say, at a Crystal Palace show, the whole 

 century of them would be quickly sent out of the ring as mongrels : 

 they would stand no more chance than a herd of our ancient wild 

 cattle would against a herd of Shorthorns. 



The first printed book touching on dogs that we have is the 

 " Book of Huntynge," by Juliana Berners. The list of dogs given 

 by her does not include Bloodhounds, but it does the Lemor and 

 Raches, both of which were dogs that ran their game by scent, 

 and the former was probably the nearest approach to our notions 

 of a hound, and was used to trace the wounded deer, etc., the name 

 Lymer being taken from the fact of his being led in a leash, or lyam, 

 In more ancient times the Lymehound, under the name of Inductor, 

 appears to have been employed to lead up to the harbour of the 

 game sought, being selected for that work on account of the 

 superiority of his scenting powers. Xenophon (500 B.C.) describes 

 a Lymehound as a dog that follows up by scent the quarry in quest, 



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