322 



THE HOUND. 



Siberian Dog, Hound, Terrier, Large Spaniel, 

 Small Spaniel, Water Dog, Small Water Dog, 

 Bull Dog, Large Danish Dog, Irish Greyhound, 

 English Greyhound, and Mastiff. Taplin, in his 

 Sporting Dictionary^ expresses his surprise that the 

 Pointer is omitted ; but we consider the Pointer 

 as a dog of recent foreign extraction, and to our 

 early ancestors certainly unknown. 



The original stock from which English hounds 

 have been bred would be very difficult to determine 

 upon ; but one thing is certain, namely, that the 

 several sorts with which the country once abounded 

 have been becoming fewer and fewer, in the course 

 of the last hundred years, and now centre in three 

 varieties, namely, the Fox-hound, the Harrier, and 

 the Beao^le. The stao:-hound is ojone, at least there 

 is no pack of real stag-hounds now kept in Great 

 Britain, the last having been disposed of and sent 

 abroad, soon after the stag hunting establishment 

 in Devonshire, was broken up, a few years ago. 

 The beao'le is also become rare ; and otter-hounds, 

 such as we may conclude the y^cKsro^iai of Xenophon 

 1 have been, never existed in this country, the dog 

 used in hunting the otter being the common rough- 

 haired harrier ; and perhaps the parent of all, the 

 majestic blood-hound, whose 



" Nostrils oft, if ancient fame sings true, 



Trace the sly felon through the tainted dew," 



is at present very thinly scattered, here and there 

 only, at keepers' lodges in some of our royal forests. 

 But we more than doubt whether a true specimen 

 of the original English blood-hound exists in Eng- 



