226 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



tendency to stand true, and not to be put off easily. " In fact," 

 says the royal writer, " they can only suit people who labour 

 under the gout, and not those whose object is to shorten the 

 life of a stag." 



The description Shakespeare gives of the hounds of Theseus, in 

 "A Midsummer Night's Dream," has been taken by many to 

 apply to the bloodhound, but I think he refers more particu- 

 larly to the Manchester or Southern hound, and have no doubt 

 but that animal was more common, and more generally used in 

 chase in his day than the bloodhound. Gervase Markham says, 

 "The black hound, or he that is all liuer (liver) coloured or 

 milk-white, which is the true Talbot, are best for the string or 

 lyam, for they do most delight in blood, and have a natural 

 inclination to hunt dry-foot, and of these the largest are ever 

 the best and most comely." At the same time he recommends 

 spotted hounds for composing a pack. 



The white St. Hubert, or Talbot, appears to be entirely lost 

 (in England at any rate) in the present day, but the blood- 

 hound was used in the jSTew Forest by the keepers, as I shall 

 presently relate, and by them known under the name of 

 Talbot, until the destruction of the deer. Richardson speaks 

 of the Talbot thus : " The Talbot is perhaps the oldest of our 

 slow hounds. He had a broad mouth, very long pendulous 

 ears, was fine coated, and not as some write, rough on the belly ; 

 and his colour was generally a pure white. This was the hound 

 formerly known as St. Hubert's breed, and was distinct from 

 the bloodhound. It is remarkable for its deep, sonorous voice ; 

 and it is very likely the same as the old Southern hound" — 

 an inference which, if the author of " French Hounds " is right, 

 must be decidedly wrong, as it was really a white bloodhound. 



Having now said something about the bloodhounds in ancient 

 times, I may state that, in the early part of the present century, 

 the celebrated Colonel Thornton used a couple of them to hunt 

 outlying deer, and that, later on. Sir Clifford Constable had a 

 pack with which he hunted turned-out deer, at any rate as early 



