108 THE BLOODHOUND. 



The Bloodhound was of great use, and held in 

 high esteem amongst our ancestors. His employ- 

 ment was principally to recover game that had 

 escaped, wounded, from the hunter ; or that had 

 been killed, or stolen, out of a forest. The lost 

 beast was traced by its blood ; and the animal 

 could with certainty discover the thief, however 

 great the distance of his flight, or however thick 

 and secret the forests through which he passed. 



At each of the Lodges in the New Forest, Hamp- 

 shire, there are at this day Bloodhounds kept, for the 

 purpose of tracing wounded Deer. In doing this, 

 they are often known to pass through whole herds 

 of these animals; but their attention is never 

 drawn off from the line of scent they are following. 

 Nothing diverts them from the object of their 

 pursuit. 



Bloodhounds were formerly used in certain 

 districts on the confines of England and Scotland, 

 where the borderers, on each side, were continually 

 ravaging the herds and flocks of their neighbours. 

 And a tax was annually laid on the inhabitants, for 

 the keeping and maintaining of a certain number 

 of these animals. 



In the Courier newspaper, of the eighteenth of 

 October, 1803, I remarked the following para- 

 graph: " The Thrapston Association for the 

 prosecution of felons, in Northamptonshire, have 

 provided and trained a Bloodhound, for the detec- 

 tion of sheep-stealers. To prove the utility of the 



Hound, 



