NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 59 



Gold Cup. Perhaps, after all, it will turn out that these 

 seeming detractions are but a cunning device of the friends 

 of Gilbertficld, intended to impress the public witli the idea, 

 that the achievement of a reputation, greater than that of any 

 other dog in the United Kingdom, is but a small part of his 

 victory, and that the greater part is the accomplishment of an 

 absolute change in language, so that henceforth, the word 

 lurcher is to designate superiority, instead of, as heretofore, 

 inferiority of blood ; and the word third-rate, to apply to the 

 ascending scale in degrees of comparison, or in other words, 

 to denote the superlative drgree of excellence. But be this 

 a it may, we are happy in being enabled to be the first to 

 publish the pedigree of Gilbertfield, supplied us at our request 

 by his owner. We give only three generations, both because 

 these carry us to the common ancestors of his sire and dam, 

 and because the ancestors of Bluehrr and Tickler never ran 

 in public. Gilbertfield (brindled and rough) was pupped in 

 Juno, 1831 ; and is first, by Giraffe (brindled and smooth) 

 out of Venus, (yellow and rough.) 



" Second, Giraffe was by Capilly (brindled and smooth, bro- 

 ther to Oscar) out of Puzzle, (brown and smooth, sister to Mr. 

 E rum's well-known Charles James Fox.) Venus, by Mr. 

 Hamilton, of Greenbank's, Alfred (white and red, and smooth, 

 siro of Captain, May, Serpent, Pomni, Lady Mary, &c.) out 

 of Marion, (brindled and rough, sister to Capilly, Oscar, Or- 

 lando Furioso, and Burr.) Third, Capilly and Marion were 

 by Blucher (black and smooth) out of Sir William Maxwell, 

 of Calderwood's Tickler, (white and rough.) This pedigree 

 runs counter to many of the pet theories of breeding, which 

 would seem to be the mere * idols of the kennel,' as Lord 

 Bacon would have styled them, rather than the conclusions 

 of reason, or the result of experiments. 



*' Bred from first cousins, and sprung from three successive 

 crosses betwixt the smooth and the rough, Gilbertfield, him- 

 self rough, is a great public winner, notwithstanding, it is 

 said, that breeding in destroys spirit, and that every cross 

 after the first, betwixt the smooth and rough, more and more 

 banishes the good qualities of the greyhound. 



" Opinion, or rather caprice, even among those friendly to 

 one cross with the rough, is diverse as to which parent should 

 be rough. It so happens, that in this pedigree the dams were 

 the rough. But this cannot be held to establish much, when 

 it is remembered that Gilbertfield's own progeny, out of a 

 gmooth bitch, (Black-Eyed Susan,) have distinguished them 



