636 The Dog Book 



ears. Hancock drew what must have been considered a typical head for 

 the "Sportsman's Annual" of 1829 an ^ tnat ls not in any way noticeable for 

 bloodhound type as we know it. He afterwards painted a portrait of a dog 

 called Marmion, given in Jesse's 1858 edition. This dog shows a very wide 

 rounded skull, with a weak foreface, but is a strong, large, well-built dog so 

 far as can be judged. The hound in Landseer's "Dignity and Impudence" 

 is a more modern type of dog than any he shows in his many Highland 

 sketches, or in the study head used by Youatt. 



Notwithstanding this lack of some essentials in bloodhound character 

 we are fully convinced that bloodhound characteristics did exist in some 

 English hounds of quite a long time ago. We do not think the narrow 

 skull and prominent peak and bloodhound type could develop themselves 

 naturally, as can be seen in some black and tan hounds of the old Maryland 

 and Southern Pennsylvania type. About twenty years ago the opportunity 

 to see this bloodhound type in these dogs was better than it is now, and so 

 struck were we with a small black and tan foxhound bitch we saw at a 

 Philadelphia show that we secured the promise of her from Mr. Howard 

 Ireland, her owner, for the purpose of sending her to the Crystal Palace show, 

 not for competition, but to show English men that there was a connection be- 

 tween our old black and tan foxhound and their bloodhound, which must 

 have had its origin in the hounds of two hundred years ago, for these Amer- 

 ican dogs were undoubtedly descendants from importations made in the days 

 of the Lords Baltimore. The bitch unfortunately died soon after the show, 

 where she was in poor condition. She was far too small and weedy for show- 

 ing as a bloodhound in England but she was all bloodhound in type. 



It was owing to the knowledge we got as to these old hounds at that 

 time that when Mr. Strong of Cooperstown wrote to the American Kennel 

 Club for advice as to a cross for better constitution, and the question was re- 

 ferred to us, we advised him to have nothing to do with the suggestion of the 

 great English authority on the breed, Mr. Edwin Brough, who recommended 

 a Great Dane cross, but get what he wanted from these Southern Pennsyl- 

 vania black and tan hounds. This he did with success, as he lost but little 

 character even in the first cross and breeding back to the bloodhound again 

 secured good type and an improved dog in constitution. 



This weakness in constitution and inability to stand the attacks of dis- 

 temper, to which they seem to be particularly susceptible, is the great 

 difficulty bloodhound breeders have to contend against. When at Danbury 



