196 Modern Dogs. 



wolfhound was, if not a Great Dane, a smooth-coated 

 creature very like him ; and additional evidence that 

 such was the case is to be found in the following 

 instance. 



Some four years or so ago, I was shown by the 

 Earl of Antrim a life-sized painting of an enormous 

 hound which had been in his family for about a 

 hundred years. Through generations this had been 

 handed down as a true Irish wolfhound, a noble 

 creature that had saved the life of one of his lord- 

 ship's ancestors under peculiar and extraordinary 

 circumstances, so the faithful creature had its por- 

 trait painted. Now this dog was a huge southern 

 hound in appearance, marked like a modern fox- 

 hound, with long pendulous ears, possibly an animal 

 identical with the matin of old writers. The painting 

 gave the idea that the subject had, in life, stood 

 about thirty-four inches high at the shoulders. 



It was but natural, when I introduced this interest- 

 ing discovery to the public through the columns of the 

 Field, that discussion and controversy thereon would 

 arise, and such was the case. Little new material as 

 to the history of the Irish dog was elicited, and it 

 was to be regretted that Lord Antrim could afford 

 no further particulars as to the animal to which 

 attention was first drawn. 



One might have expected to find something 



