58 REVIVING LOST RACES. 



produce be fully saturated with mastiff-blood, in fine, complete mastiffs. Should 

 it be urged that, breeding- in and in would reduce the size and deteriorate the 

 qualities of the stock, the remedy is easy ; take at first several breeding individuals 

 and persevere to the end, in inter -crossing- the breed. Suppose a breed totally lost : 

 select individuals of the nearest desired size and qualities, and breed on, continually 

 selecting-, till you have obtained the full desideratum. Behold a Receipt for the 

 manufacture of Mastiffs, not by an Old Wife but an Old Man ; who however, has 

 the discretion to leave to his pupils, to write probatum est. 



The old Bloodhound was originally neither more nor less, than the large hound, 

 used for the chase of the Deer, Wolf, and Wild Boar. He was also, in those 

 early and uncivilized times, when Middlesex had not the modern honour and 

 advantage of paying eight and twenty thousand pounds per annum, for Police, 

 and yet swarm with thieves, employed to hunt the foot of trespassers, who could 

 not be traced and taken by any other means then in use. Since the Fox has been 

 the fashionable beast of chace, the old Hound has been variously crossed, chiefly 

 hv the Greyhound, for the sake of speed, to which the exquisite power of scent 

 has been postponed. Nevertheless our Stag and Fox Hounds in their present state, 

 and more especially the native Southern hound, might be trained to hunt the human 

 scent. From the Southern, or Spanish Hound, imported into America, have 

 descended those fierce and high-trained bloodhounds, the notable exploits of which 

 on the American Continent, and Islands, have immortalized in story, the huma- 

 nity of Spaniards, French, and ENGLISHMEN. 



In Scotland, and indeed England, formerly, the Blood, was called the Sleuth- 

 hound. He is of the largest size, whole coloured, except being shaded, and of a 

 reddish brown or tan. He is finely and strongly formed, with a large and long tail, 

 great bone and sinew, and large deep ears. Muzzle somewhat coarse, like the 

 Spanish Pointer. A few, under the name of bloodhounds, not all of which are 

 true-bred, are still kept in the Royal Forests, and in one or two of our great 

 Hunting Establishments : the employment of these is to trace wounded Deer, or 

 Deer-Stealers. Numerous old stories have been told of the exquisite power of 

 scenting in this animal, and his unconquerable perseverance. The latest authen- 

 ticated anecdote of this kind, of which we are apprized, is as follows A servant 

 discharged by a Northern Sporting Gentleman, broke into his Stables, by night, 

 and villanously cut oft' the ears and tail of a favourite hunter. An alarm by the 

 doo-s, \\as raised within an hour, and a bloodhound brought into the Stable, which 

 immediately clapped on a scent, traced it upwards of twenty miles, stopping 

 at the door of a certain house, from which he could not be removed. On being 

 admitted, he ran to the top of the house, and bursting the door of a garret, found 

 his object iu bed, whom lie instantly seized and would have torn to pieces, but for 

 the Huntsman, who was luckily at his heels. The plate, drawn from the life, is a 

 very near resemblance of the old Sleuth-hound^ as appears from a collation with 

 ral drawings of the highest antiquity. 



