94 Modern Dogs. 



from ; hampers, horse, and all disappearing, nor was 

 their whereabouts ever discovered. 



" Stonehenge," in " Dogs of the British Isles/' 

 gives an interesting account of Mr. Crane's rabbit 

 beagles, a Dorsetshire pack, which all round has 

 certainly never been excelled for excellence in the 

 field, and beauty on the show bench. " Idstone," 

 the writer of that article, says : 



He has seen them on a cold, bad scenting day work up a 

 rabbit and run him in the most extraordinary manner, and 

 although the nature of the ground compelled the pack to run 

 almost in Indian file, and thus to carry a very narrow line of 

 scent, if they threw it up it was but for a moment. Mr. Crane's 

 standard is qm., and every little hound is absolutely perfect. I 

 .saw but one hound at all differing from his companions, a little 

 black-tanned one. This one on the flags we should have drafted, 

 but when we saw him in his work we quite forgave him for being 

 of a conspicuous colour. Giant was perhaps the very best of the 

 pack, a black- white-and-tanned dog hound, always at work, and 

 never wrong. He had a capital tongue, and plenty of it. A 

 bitch, Lily, had the most beautiful points. She is nearly all 

 white, as her name implies. Damper, Dutchman, Tyrant, are 

 also all of them beautiful models. The measurement of Damper 

 was: Height, Qin. ; round the chest, i6in.; across the ears, izin.; 

 extreme length, 2ft. 4in. ; eye to nose, 2-|in. Mr. Crane's 

 standard is kept up with great difficulty. He has reduced the 

 beagle to a minimum. Many of the mothers do not rear their 

 offspring, and distemper carries them off in troops. Single 

 specimens may occasionally be found excessively dwarfed and 

 proportionately deformed. These hounds would perhaps be 

 wanting in nose or intelligence if they could be produced in 

 sufficient force to form a pack ; but Mr. Crane's are all models 



