58 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



effect of cross-breeding. In disposition, the greyhound is 

 gentle and affectionate ; indeed he, perhaps, exhibits the lat- 

 ter quality too indiscriminately. 



The greyhound was brought to the highest state of per- 

 fection by Lord Orford and Major Topham. Those 

 brated sportsmen owed their unparalleled success to the in- 

 troduction of a cross with the bull-dog, and though the two 

 dogs may appear very different from each other at first 

 view, a very little re/lection will show, that from the bull- 

 dog, the greyhound could derive all the wished-for < 

 lence courage, small ear, whip-tail, large and deep chest, 

 and general firmness of muscle. On the other hand, speed 

 was found to be recovered undiminished, while all the above 

 points were retained, at the seventh remove from the bull- 



SNOWBALL, perhaps the fastest dog that ever ran, came of 

 this stock; he won four cups, and thirty-two or thirty-three 

 matches, at Max ton, and on the Yorkshire wolds. 



" Ah, gallant Snowball ! what remain*, 

 Up Fordon's banks, o'er Flixtou's plain*, 

 Of all thy strength thy rinewy force, 

 Which rather flew than ran the coone 7 

 Ah ! what remain*? save that thy breed 

 May to their father's fame succeed ; 

 And when the prize appears in view, 

 May prove that they are Snowballs too/' 



Many trials of speed to ascertain the comparative powers 

 of the horse and greyhound have been instituted. It appears 

 from these, that on a flat course, a first-rate racer will beat a 

 greyhound, but that in a hilly country he must succumb to 

 him. 



The greyhound has been sometimes crossed, and that to 

 much advantage, with the rough Scotch breeds. The cele- 

 brated Gilbertfield, who beat all that ever he encountered 

 thus bred : Gilbertfield excited so much attention in his day, 

 that I think the following account of him will prove interest- 

 ing, and may also prove serviceable to our Irish breeders : 



" The reiterated success of this old dog (Gilbertfield) may 

 well excite a smile at those who would talk or write him down 

 as a third-rate, or stigmatize him as a lurcher ! If he be a 

 third-rate, the march of intellect among the knights of the 

 long tails must verily be retrograde ; and if he be, indeed, a 

 lurcher, it becomes necessary to know, by what name are to 

 be called the ninety unsuccessful competitors for the Glasgow 



