CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 219 



Some, but such instances were not common, had a little white about them, such as a star in the 

 face, tfcc. The general opinion is, that the original stock was a mixture of the deep-mouthed 

 southern hound and the powerful old English stag-hound. 



Our English ancestors, some centuries ago, discovered the extraordinary power of this breed in 

 tracking any animal by its scent. They therefore trained it to the chase, and afterward used it 

 to hunt down criminals. The perseverance and sagacity of these creatures in following a man on 

 whose track they had been set, often for many miles, and even through towns and villages and 

 crowded thoroughfares, was indeed wonderful. In general, when they found the culprits, they 

 would patiently keep guard over them, and not permit them to move away until their masters 

 came up. Sometimes, however, dogs of a ferocious disposition would fall upon them and tear 

 them in pieces. The manner in which the blood-hound pursued the robber is thus described by 

 the poet Somerville : 



" Soon the sagacious brute, Lis curling tail 

 Flourish'd in air, low bending, plies around 

 His busy nose, the steaming vapor snuffs 

 Inquisitive, nor leaves one turf untried, 

 Till, conscious of the recent stains, his heart 

 Beats quick. His snuffing nose, his active tail. 

 Attest his joy. Then, with deep opening mouth, 

 That makes the welkin tremble, he proclaims 

 Th' audacious felon. Foot by foot he marks 

 His winding way. Over the watery ford, 

 Dry sandy heaths, and stony barren hills, 

 Unerring he pursues, till at the cot 

 Arrived, and, seizing by his guilty throat 

 The caitiff vile, redeems the captive prey." 



Before the union between England and Scotland, the " Border" between the two countries was 

 the theater of constant forays, for the purpose of stealing sheep, cattle, and other property. The 

 English and Scotch were, in fact, as great robbers as the Bedouins of the present day. In this 

 state of things the blood-hounds became indispensable as guards. The pursuit of border forayers 

 was called the " hot-trod." The " harried" party and his friends followed the marauders with 

 blood-hound and bugle-horn, and if his dog could trace the scent into the opposite kingdom, he 

 was entitled to pursue them thither. Sir Walter Scott states that the breed was kept up by the 

 Buccleuch family on their border estates till within the eighteenth century, and records the fol- 

 lowing narrative : " A person was alive in the memory of man who remembered a blood-hound 

 being kept at Eldinhope, in Ettrick Forest, for whose maintenance the tenant had an allowance 

 of meal. At that time the sheep were always watched at night. Upon one occasion, when the 

 duty had fallen upon the narrator, then a lad, he became exhausted with fatigue, and fell asleep 

 upon a bank, near sun-rising. Suddenly he was awakened by the tread of horses, and saw five 

 men well mounted and armed ride briskly over the edge of the hill. They stopped and looked 

 at the flock; but the day was too far broken to admit the chance of their carrying any of them 

 off. One of them, in spite, leaped from his horse, and coming to the shepherd, seized him by the 

 belt he wore round his waist, and, setting his foot upon his body, pulled it till it broke, and car- 

 ried it away with him. They rode off at the gallop, and the shepherd giving the alarm, the 

 blood-hound was turned loose, and the people in the neighborhood alarmed. The marauders, 

 however, escaped, notwithstanding a sharp pursuit. This circumstance serves to show how very 

 long the license of the Borderers continued in some degree to manifest itself." 



This, perhaps, is the last instance of an attempted " Border foray" on record. The times were 

 changed. The nobles had ceased to pride themselves on their ignorance of all the arts save the 

 art of war, and to make it matter of thanksgiving that they knew not how to use the pen. Civili- 

 zation advanced as learning was diffused, till the law of the strongest no longer prevailed against 

 , the law of the land. The blood-hound, from the nobler pursuit of heroes and knights, " minions 

 of the moon," who swept away the cattle and goods of whole districts, marking the extent of their 

 " raid" by all the horrors of fire and sword, sank to the tracker of the deer-stealer and petty felon, 

 as we have related. About a century and a quarter ago, when deer-stealing was a common crime 

 in England, the park-keepers relied upon their blood-hounds principally for detecting the thief; 



