88 



SECOND DIVISION OF THE 



THE SOUTHERN HOUND. 



There used to be in the south of Devon a pack or cry of the genuine 

 old English or southern hounds. There is some reason to believe that this 

 was the original stock of the island, or of this part of the island, and that 

 this hound was used by the ancient Britons in the chace of the larger kinds 

 of game with which the country formerly abounded. Its distinguishing 

 characters are its size and general heavy appearance ; its great length of 

 body, deep chest, and ears remarkably large and pendulous. The tones of 

 its voice were peculiarly deep. It answered the description of Shakspere, 



" So flewed, so sanded ; and their heads are hung 

 With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; 

 Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd, like Thessalian bulls ; 

 Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, 

 Each under each." 



THE SOUTHERN HOUND. 



It was the slowness of the breed which occasioned its disuse. Several of 

 them, however, remained not long ago at a village called Aveton Gif- 

 ford, in Devonshire, in the neighbourhood of which some of the most 

 opulent of the farmers used to keep two or three dogs each. When fox- 

 hunting had assumed somewhat of its modern form, the chace was followed 

 by a slow heavy hound, whose excellent olfactory organs enabled him to 

 carry on the scent a considerable time after the fox-hound passed, and also 



