28 Otters and Otter-Hunting. 



account of an Otter-hunt ever written, and provided 

 us, in the phrase '' sly, goose-footed prowler," with 

 a classical description of the Otter that is altogether 

 admirable. The local bards of lovely Devon have 

 not omitted to hymn the praises of Otter-hunting, in 

 rhymed hexameters chiefly, which have been pre- 

 served, and portions of which were reprinted in 1900 

 in an interesting pamphlet giving an account of the 

 Dartmoor Otter Hunt, which the present Master, Mr. 

 A. J. Pitman, has very kindly sent me for perusal. 

 There are also two good Lancashire Otter-hunting 

 songs — one in dialect — printed as an appendix to 

 Mr. Lomax's ''Diary of Otter-hunting"; and a 

 few others are given in Mr. Hedley Peek's " The 

 Poetry of Sport." 



In the realm of art the Otter, for all his handsome 

 shape, and Otter-hunting, for all its picturesqueness, 

 have suffered much neglect. Of purely archaeological 

 interest is the representation of an Otter in a mosaic 

 pavement at Palestrina (Prsenestina), mentioned in 

 the Totius Latinitatus Lexicon of Forcellini. The 

 Otter also occurs sparingly in heraldry, notably in 

 the allusive arms of the family of Luttrel. There is 

 an etching on copper, entitled " Otter-hunting," 

 signed " Howitt in. et f." (one of a series, which 

 includes " Grouse-shooting," similarly signed, and 

 an etching of men and pointers in turnips with no 

 legend) " republished by E. J. Mason, 1834," which 



