io8 BRITISH DOGS 



kept up a long and constant communication with Ireland. . . . Now, 

 these Irish warriors came from a land famous for deer-hunting, as 

 Bede informs us, the inhabitants of which were ardent in the chase 

 of stags and wolves. . . . Being hunters, then, those warriors took 

 their big Greyhounds with them to ' Caledonia stern and wild,' 

 and kept up the breed for hunting, being able through their close 

 connection with Ireland for centuries to import dogs from thence 

 if necessary. In that case, as the wolf-hunting Greyhound of the 

 seventeenth century was descended from the dogs that remained 

 in Ireland, so the Deerhound was descended from the old Irish 

 dogs that were exported. Hence we find that the Highland Deer- 

 hounds were called Irish Greyhounds, as the Highlanders are called 

 Irish (Gaels) and their language Irish (Gaelic)." 



The opinions above quoted by no means exhaust those put 

 forth with regard to the early history of the breed by the more 

 modern writers. With the exception perhaps of Richardson (of 

 whom Captain Graham is a disciple), who wrote in the " forties," they 

 may be regarded as the chief. 



If we look for enlightenment in the writings of the older authors, 

 we find little ; indeed, rather is it a case of confusion worse con- 

 founded. In some descriptions seem grossly exaggerated ; while in 

 others they are lacking in those essential details that, if forthcoming, 

 would have helped us with greater accuracy to piece together the 

 unwoven threads of history. Take, for instance, the coat, which is 

 one of the most debatable of all points in connection with the hound. 

 Was it a rough or a smooth coat? The weight of evidence is in 

 support of the latter. Nor is there more unanimity among, or 

 greater assistance from, the artists of the time. Bewick depicts a 

 smooth dog, as did Lambart some four years later ; but whereas the 

 former shows a dog of Greyhound type, the latter's depiction more 

 closely approximates to the Mastiff. Reinagle, a Royal Academician 

 and a contemporary of Bewick, illustrates in the " Sportsman's 

 Cabinet " a dog that is quite out of harmony with the description, 

 which applies to a Great Dane-like animal. It must, however, be 

 confessed that Reinagle's picture (Fig. 35) accords more with the 

 popular creation of the Irish Wolfdog than anything that we know. 

 It has been suggested that Reinagle's is a fanciful creation rather 

 than a representative picture of the W T olfhound of the time a time, 

 be it noted, that accords with that in which Lord Altamount's dogs 

 were supposed to be in existence. 



By some the Irish Wolfhound is thought to have disappeared 

 with the last Irish wolf somewhere about 1710; but in a work on 

 "Canine Madness," by Dr. James, and published in 1733, he refers 

 specifically to an Irish Wolfhound of uncommon size. The dog 

 attacked his owner's child, and would have killed it but that he wore 

 a garland ; this, the author explains, consisted of two cross-hoops, 



