288 Modern Dogs. 



exhibitions, but most of them were small and some- 

 what light and weedy — far from such powerful 

 animals as the best that are with us to-day, and even 

 they in height do not reach that which belonged to 

 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 1884 a couple of Borzois, 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, resembling that of the 

 St. Bernard and 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. 



