VARIOUS TYPES OF DACHSHUNDS. 315 



will be seen in the succeeding chapter. We, therefore, consider ourselves especially fortunate 

 in being able to give the opinions of three of these gentlemen ; for though not unanimous in 

 their estimates of the points, the views of each party are thoroughly sustained therein. We 

 also propose introducing several engravings, mostly derived from foreign sources, descriptive of 

 the breed, as, from its rapid progress in public estimation, we are of opinion that the Dachs- 

 hund will soon be one of the most popular dogs in this country. 



In the first place we will begin by quoting from the notes kindly supplied us by the 

 Rev. G. F. Lovell, of St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, who writes as follows : 



" Though the origin of the dog generally is lost in obscurity, yet the Dachshund can claim 

 a very long pedigree; for a dog resembling it is found on the monument of Thothmes III., 

 who reigned over Egypt more than 2,000 years B.C., and at whose court the inscriptions state 

 he was a favourite ; and a breed of similar appearance has been discovered by Dr. Haughton 

 on early Assyrian sculptures. No doubt further research would bring to light other notices 

 of the same kind, but these show that the abnormal shape of the fore-legs is not due to 

 disease, as has been supposed by some who have not studied these dogs. 



" This peculiarity is more commonly found than is generally imagined. Besides the Basset, 

 both rough and smooth, and the Dachshund of France, it is apparent in an Indian breed, in 

 the Swedish Beagle,' in the Spaniel of Hungary and Transylvania, and almost certainly in the 

 old English Bloodhound, though judges, setting Shakespeare at nought, are trying to get rid of 

 it as a deformity. 



" It has been asserted by a popular writer ' Snapshot ' that the Dachshund was not 

 known in Germany until after the French Revolution, having been introduced by the French 

 faiigrfc ; but however this may be, most of our dogs of this breed have come from there, 

 and it is the head-quarters of the race. Yet the Germans have in this, as in other cases, 

 taken little pains to preserve the purity of the race, and mongrels abound among them. 



" They may be divided into three varieties : the Hound, the Terrier, and the Toy, though. 

 of course, these are crossed with one another. The first of these is more generally recognised 

 in the south of England, the second in the north. The third breed, which seems chiefly 

 to come from Hanover and the adjacent countries, is distinguished by its snipy jaw, broad flat 

 head, and small size. It has never found acceptance with judges, who prefer a dog that looks 

 good for work. 



" Dismissing this last, then, we find two distinct types, easily distinguished. The 

 Terrier which I shall pass over in few words, as I believe the hound-character to be the nearer 

 to the original breed is a hardy dog, with broad flat skull, short ears, often twisted, higher on 

 the leg and shorter in body than the hound ; his stern is also not so long as the other variety. 

 The Dachshund proper, as it would seem from old engravings, was a hound in miniature ; so 

 he appears in Du Fouilloux for his Basset d jambes torses is clearly not the modern 

 Basset, which has been developed from the ancient badger-digging dog of the sixteenth 

 century (just as in Germany itself a large Dachshund is used as a tuftcr). No one would 

 think of putting a modern Basset to dig out a badger or fox, so that either the badger or 

 the Basset must have altered, and evidently the latter. 



" I shall refrain in the following notes from criticising the opinions of others who have 

 written, often very well, on their pet breed, but will merely give the conclusions which I have 

 come to after having read everything I could find, having kept and bred these dogs for some 

 years, and having taken notes of some hundreds of specimens. 



