THE HOUND. 223 



"My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 

 So flewed, so sanded ; and their heads are hung 

 With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; 

 Crook-kneed and dewlapped like Thessalian bulls, 

 Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells, 

 Each under each, a cry more tunable 

 Was never hallo'ed to, nor cheered with horn, 

 In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly." 



It is not worth the while to inquire whether the La- 

 conian and Thessalian hounds, so often alluded to by 

 Horace, Ovid and other classical writers, were in truth of 

 the bloodhound type, or if they were not rather of the 

 large, shaggy, half mastiff, half sheep-dog type, peculiar 

 still to Albania and Epirus, and adapted to the hunting of 

 the bear or boar, for which purpose they seem to have 

 been principally used. 



The first improvement in this old stock was, it would 

 seem, the old improved foxhound of Somerville's and 

 Beckford's stamp, and admirably described by the latter 

 writer in the following passage. 



" Let his legs be straight as arrows, his feet round and 

 not too large ; his shoulders back ; his breast rather wide 

 than narrow ; his chest deep ; his back broad ; his head 

 small ; his neck thin ; his tail thick and bushy if he carry 

 it well, so much the better ; . . a small head, however, as 

 relative to beauty only, for as to goodness, I believe large- 

 headed hounds are in no wise inferior." 



This is the stamp of dog after which our forefathers used 

 to ride from the days of Queen Anne to the latter half of 

 the reign of George the Third ; and not very different were 



