The Bloodhound. 33 



English nobility ; but at about that distance of time Mr. Jennings, 

 of Pickering, in Yorivshire, obtained a draft or two from Lord 

 Feversham and Baron Rothschild, and in a few years, by his 

 skill and care, produced his Druid and Welcome, a magnificent 

 couple of hounds, which he afterwards sold, at what was then 

 considered a high price, to Prince Napoleon for breeding purposes. 

 In the course of time, and probably from the fame acquired by 

 these dogs at the various shows, his example was followed by his 

 north-country neighbours, Major Cowen and Mr. J. W. Pease, who 

 monopolised the prizes of the show bench with successive Druids, 

 descended from Mr. Jennings' dog of that name, and aided by 

 Draco, Dingle, Dauntless, &c., all of the same strain. In 1869, 

 however, another candidate for fame appeared in Mr. Holford's 

 Eegent, a magnificent dog, both in shape and colour, but still of 

 the same strains, and, until the appearance of Mr. Reynold Ray's 

 Roswell in 1870, no fresh blood was introduced among the first- 

 prize winners at our chief shows. The dog, who died in 1877, 

 maintained his position for the same period almost without 

 dispute, and even in his old age it took a good dog to beat him. 



About i860, Lord Bagot, of Blithefield, near 

 Stafford, had some very fine hounds, and was 

 successful with both the dogs and bitches he put on 

 the benches at the National Show in Curzon Hall. 



Coming down to the present time, there are 

 perhaps more admirers of the bloodhound than at 

 any previous period of its history. Dog shows have, 

 no doubt, popularised him ; and, well cared for and 

 well treated, made a companion of instead of being 

 kept chained in a kennel or in a dark cellar, he has 

 lost most of his natural ferocity, and is quite as 

 amiable as any other variety of the canine race. 



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