210 Modern Dogs. 



even they in height do not reach that of the late 

 Duchess of Manchester, and already alluded to. 

 Of course, long before this, the dog, in all his 

 prime and power, was to be found in most kennels 

 of the Russian nobles. Some of them had strains 

 of their own, treasured in their families for years. 

 Such were mostly used for wolf-hunting, some- 

 times for the fox and deer, and bred with sufficient 

 strength and speed to cope with the wolf- 

 not, indeed, to worry him and kill him, but, as 

 a rule, to seize and hold him until the hunters 

 came up. 



In 1 884 a couple of Borzoi, which even then we only 

 knew as Russian wolfhounds, were performing on a 

 music-hall stage in London, in company with a leash 

 of Great Danes. The latter were, however, the 

 cleverer " canine artistes," though the former the 

 handsomer and more popular animals. I fancy 

 their disposition is too sedate to make them 

 eminent on the boards, something like that of 

 the St. Bernard or ordinary Highland deerhound, 

 neither of which we have yet seen attempting to 

 emulate the deeds of trained poodles and terriers 

 in turning somersaults and going backwards up a 

 ladder. 



A correspondent, writing to the Field in 1887, 

 gives the following description of the Borzoi, and it 



