152 



THE LATE DUKE OF HAMILTON'S PACK OF OTTERHOUNDS. 

 Photograph by C. Rcid, Wishaw. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

 THE OTTERHOUND. 



BY GEORGE S. LOWE. 



"My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind. 

 So flew'd, so sanded ; and their heads are 



hung 

 With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; 

 Crook-knee' d, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian 



THE Otterhound is a descendant of the 

 old Southern Hound, and there is 

 reason to believe that all hounds 

 hunting their quarry by nose had a similar 

 source. Why the breed was first called 

 the Southern Hound, or when his use 

 became practical in Great Britain, must 

 be subjects of conjecture ; but that there 

 was a hound good enough to hold a line 

 for many hours is accredited in history 

 that goes very far back into past cen- 

 turies. The hound required three centu- 

 ries ago even was all the better esteemed 

 for being slow and unswerving on a line 

 of scent, and in many parts of the King- 

 dom, up to within half that period, the 

 so-called Southern Hound had been especi- 

 ally employed. In Devonshire and Wales 

 the last sign of him in lus purity was perhaps 



Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like 



bells, 

 Each under each. A cry more tuneable 

 Was never halloo'd to. nor cheer'd with horn, 

 In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly : 

 Judge, when you hear." 



— " A .Midsummer Night's Dream." 



when Captain Hopwood hunted a small pack 

 of hounds very similar in character on the 

 fitch or pole-cat ; the modus operandi being 

 to find the foraging grounds of the animal, 

 and then on a line that might be two days 

 old hunt him to his lair, often enough ten 

 or twelve miles off. 



When this sort of hunting disappeared, 

 and improved ideas of fox-hunting came 

 into vogue, there was nothing left for the 

 Southern Hound to do but to hunt the 

 otter. He may have done this before at 

 various periods, but history rather tends 

 to show that otter-hunting was originally 

 associated with a mixed pack, and some 

 of Sir Walter Scott's pages seem to 

 indicate that the Dandie Dinmont and 

 kindred Scottish terriers had a good 

 deal to do with the sport. It is more 



