THE BLOODHOUND 73 



Cheer the dark Bloodhound on his way, 

 And with the bugle rouse the fray. 

 I'd give the lands of Deloraine 

 Dark Musgrave were alive again. 



In order to follow the Border rievers, or cattle-lifters, a special 

 law, imposing a tax for the maintenance of Bloodhounds as trackers, 

 obtained in Scotland ; and by the law of Hot-trod, which implied 

 tracking the rievers at once, on discovery of the loss of stock or 

 gear, as Scott has it if the hounds traced the thief to a house, 

 and showed their desire to enter, the occupants refusing admittance 

 were held equally culpable with the cattle-lifters, and rendered 

 themselves liable to punishment. 



In later times the Bloodhound has been used successfully in 

 tracing poachers. Meyrick, in his useful little work on dogs, gives 

 an interesting example of a successful poacher-hunt. The hound 

 was also often used for tracing thieves ; and, as an instance of this, 

 about the beginning of the last century the Thrapstone Association 

 for the Prosecution of Felons a class of institution now almost 

 obsolete kept a trained Bloodhound for the tracking of sheep- 

 stealers. 



So excellent an authority as Colonel Hutchinson, author of " Dog 

 Breaking," gives details of a case of Bloodhounds, " held with long 

 cords," being put on the track of a gang of poachers in a frosty 

 night of December, 1844, an d following them for nine miles into 

 the town of Coventry ; and he also quotes, as an established fact, 

 that a discharged groom, who had mutilated a horse of his former 

 master, was tracked by a Bloodhound for twenty miles, and followed 

 to his bedroom, where the man was found and, in proof of the 

 sagacity of the hound, admitted his guilt. 



As late as March, 1896, a well-authenticated instance of the value 

 of the Bloodhound for gamekeeping purposes was given in the 

 field, as below. For obvious reasons there is a desire to omit 

 the name of the locality where this took place ; but the truth of the 

 narrative is vouched for by the superintendent of the police of the 

 district, by his constable who used the hound, and by the breeder 

 of the hound. The story is as follows : 



Some time this year a constable was out in the early morning, 

 when about 6.30 a.m. he came across a couple of notorious 

 poachers, who were walking along a footpath through some fields. 

 They, seeing the constable, called out in alarm as a signal to 

 their companions, who were no doubt coming behind. Owing to 

 the darkness, the latter escaped ; but the constable took some 

 rabbits and nets from the men he had met, for being in posses- 

 sion of which, under such circumstances, they were later on duly 

 punished. At daybreak the constable, accompanied by a young 

 Bloodhound bitch, returned to the place, and was able to di- 



