CHAPTER XIV 

 THE OTTERHOUND 



THE Otterhound is a descendant of the old Southern Hound, 

 and there is reason to believe that all hounds hunting their 

 quarry by nose had a similar source. Why the breed was first 

 called the Southern Hound, or when his use became practical 

 in Great Britain, must be subjects of conjecture ; but that 

 there was a hound good enough to hold a line for many hours 

 is accredited in history that goes very far back into past 

 centuries. The hound required three centuries ago even was 

 all the better esteemed for being slow and unswerving on a 

 line of scent, and in many parts of the Kingdom, up to within 

 half that period, the so-called Southern Hound had been 

 especially employed. In Devonshire and Wales the last 

 sign of him in his purity was perhaps when Captain Hopwood 

 hunted a small pack of hounds very similar in character on the 

 fitch or pole-cat ; the modus operandi being to find the 

 foraging grounds of the animal, and then on a line that might 

 be two days old hunt him to his lair, often enough ten or twelve 

 miles off. 



When this sort of hunting disappeared, and improved 

 ideas of fox-hunting came into vogue, there was nothing 

 left for the Southern Hound to do but to hunt the otter. He 

 may have done this before at various periods, but history 

 rather tends to show that otter-hunting was originally asso- 

 ciated with a mixed pack, and some of Sir Walter Scott's 

 pages seem to indicate that the Dandie Dinmont and kindred 

 Scottish terriers had a good deal to do with the sport. It is 

 more than probable that the rough-coated terrier is identical 



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