CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



Hippolyta, his betrothed, Queen of the Amazons, replies : 



' I was with Hercules and Cadmus, once, 

 When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear 

 AVith hounds of Sparta; never did I hear 

 Such gallant chiding; * for, besides the groves, 



Tbe skies, the fountains, every region near 

 Seem'd all one mutual cry : I never heard 

 So musical a discord, such sweet thunder." 



The hounds we have engraved are from a celebrated picture by Desportes, and were probably 

 painted from some of those of Louis Quatorze. That monarch kept a very extensive and costly 

 sporting establishment; and the forests in the neighbourhood of Paris were regularly stocked with 

 stags, fawns, roebucks, boars, and wolves. During the summer months the court hunted at Versailles, 

 Mendon, and Compiegne ; during the winter, at Rambouillet and Fontainebleau. 



England has long been remarkable for its field sports ; and our object will be now to describe the 

 various species of dogs employed for such purposes. 



THE TALBOT, OR OLD ENGLISH HOUND. 



IN the library of the British Museum there is a magnificent folio manuscript, which has an illuminated 

 title-page, representing the valiant Earl Talbot presenting it to Margaret of Aiijou, queen of Henry VI., 

 with his dog in attendance. The cognizance of the ancient house of Shrewsbury was 



" the deep-flf weil hound, 



Bred up with care; strong, heavy, slow, but sure; 

 Whose ears down-hanging from his thick round head, 

 Shall swei p the morning dew ; whose clanging voice 



Awake the mountain echoes in his call, 

 And shake the forests the bold Talbot kind ; 

 Of these the prime as white as Alpine snows, 

 And great their use of old." 



Whittaker, in his " History of Manchester," describes this as the original stock of our Island. 

 ID the celebrated chase of Fitzjames, from Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake," we read : 



" Yell'd on the view the opening pack ; 

 Rock, glen, and cavern, paid them back; 

 To many a mingled sound at once 



Among these, however, were 



" Two dogs of black, St. Hubert's breed, 

 Unmatched for courage, breath, and speed, 

 Fast on his flying traces came, 

 And all but won the desperate game; 

 For scarce a spear's length from his haunch, 

 Vindictive toiled the bloodhounds stanch ; 



The awaken'd mountain gave response. 

 A hundred dogs baj'd deep and strong, 

 ClatterM a hundred steeds along." 



Nor nearer might the dogs attain, 

 Nor farther might the quarry strain. 

 Thus up the margin of the lake, 

 Between the precipice and brake, 

 O'er stock and rock their race they take. 1 



This famous black race was established in the Ardennes, in the sixth century, and was taken 

 thither from the Soiith of France, but is supposed to have been introduced by pilgrims from Pales- 

 tine. The saint had also another a white breed taken from the same country, more prized 

 than the black, which it exceeded in size ; and, though not introduced by St. Hubert, was, never- 

 theless, named after the patron of limiting. A third breed of hounds, of considerable stature, and 

 with large ears, was brought from Palestine by St. Louis, about the middle of the thirteenth century. 

 This breed was swift, bold, and vehement ; the prevailing colour was rufous gray. A large, red-haired 

 breed of hounds was employed on the Continent, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, for hunting 

 the wild boar and wolf. 



Colonel H. Smith supposes that to the white breed of St. Hubert's the Talbot is allied. It was 



with such hounds that, 



" to hunt the deer, 

 Earl Persie took his waje ;" 



and it was with them that our ancestors chased the larger kinds of game, with which, when our island 

 was almost one vast forest, the country abounded. For delicacy of scent and acutoness of hearing, they 

 were unrivalled, and their great power rendered them a match, even singly, for the strongest of their 

 quarry. 



One of these animals, recently seen, was tall and robust, with a chest of extraordinary depth and 



Sound. 



