90 FIELD ANECDOTES. 



dangerous enemy to sheep than the Lurcher. He is distinguished by his affection 

 to man, which he demonstrates by the cringing- and fawning of the spaniel, taking 

 correction, unresistingly and with the utmost submission : this last trait in his 

 character, however, admits of an exception, as to those Lurchers in which there 

 may have been a Mastiff or Terrier cross, which make good Drovers' dogs, and 

 are calculated for purposes which require strength and resolution as well as consi- 

 derable activity and cunning. 



The following curious relation, in which a Lurcher signalized himself characte- 

 ristically, but fatally, we had from a sporting clergyman, of one of the Midland 

 Counties. A gentleman kept a pack of five and twenty couple of good hounds, 

 among which were some of the highest bred modern Fox-hounds, and some as near 

 to the old Blood-hound, as could be procured. They were high-fed and 

 underworked, in course somewhat riotous. One day after a sharp run of conside- 

 rable length, in which the whole field, Huntsmen, Whipper-in and all, were 

 suddenly thrown out, Reynard, in running up a hedgerow, was espied by a Lurcher, 

 accompanying the farmer his master. The dog instantly ran at the chase, and 

 being fresh, chopped upon it as he would have done upon a rabbit or hare. The 

 fox turned and fought bravely, and whilst the farmer was contemplating with 

 astonishment this singular combat, he was destined to behold a spectacle still more 

 admirable the hounds arrived in full cry, and with indiscriminate fury, tore both 

 the combatants to pieces, the Whipper-in, and the proprietor of the pack, and two 

 or three Gentlemen the best mounted, arriving in time to whip the dogs off, 

 obtain the brush, and pick up some scattered remnants of the limbs and carcase 

 of the poor lurcher ! 



Another remarkable instance of combat between the dog and the Fox, occurred 

 near Wood Ridden, on Epping Forest, Essex, in March 1806: Mr. Frisby, and 

 Mr. Gardner, in company with a few friends, were coursing on the Forest, with a 

 brace of Greyhounds, when Mr. Gardner's Bitch made a full stop at a bush in a 

 field adjoining the Forest. One of the party beating the bush, started a Fox, 

 which the Greyhounds instantly pursued, and coming up with him, he turned upon 

 Mr. Frisliy's black dog, and biting him severely, the dog turned tail ; when Mr. 

 Gardner's Bitch seized the Fox and held him, until a servant catched fast hold on 

 him by the nape of the neck. Reynard taken in this uncommon manner, was 

 presented to Mr. Conyers, of Copt Hall, who, keeping Fox hounds, reserved him 

 for a day's sport. 



Although the Lurcher has for a long time, retained no place in regular Sporting 

 estimation, and the breed has greatly decreased from the jealousy of Sportsmen, yet 

 his history is necessarily connected with that of the Greyhound, and any circum- 

 stances omitted in relation to the latter, will not be much out of place here. We 

 recoil* <-i an outlying Deer in Essex which was coursed and pulled down by a 

 couple of Lurchers, at which period, the personal mischief to be apprehended from 



