THE BLOODHOUND. 227 



as 1837. About 1841, Mr. Selby Lowndes, since celebrated 

 as a master of fox-hounds, had several couple of them — in fact, a 

 pack — with which he hunted the fallow deer in Whaddon Chase; 

 and on my once asking him if he considered they had finer 

 noses than modern fox-hounds, he told me he had found little 

 difference in them. This carries out my own idea, which is 

 that a bloodhound simply hunts a colder scent than a fox- 

 hound hccause he takes more pains. He stoops for a scent 

 when the other is driving ahead. It is like the quick school- 

 boy and the plodding one ; they are each very well in their 

 place — that of the fox-hound being to chase his victim to death 

 as quickly as possible, the bloodhound to hunt it down by 

 patience and perseverance. A very capital article on the blood- 

 hound, which I shall quote, gives, perhaps, a better idea of 

 their peculiarities, and tends at the same time to show how 

 little they have changed, more than any observations I could 

 make on the subject. It was contributed by Mr. W. Meyrick 

 to the Sporting Magazine, in 1841, and gives a description of 

 a hound called Marmion, whose portrait, by Hancock, adorns 

 the number : — 



"J^otwithstanding neglect, the bloodhound is still occasionally 

 to be met with in something like its former purity ; and, although 

 their powers are seldom tried, well authenticated instances, 

 even at this present day, show us that the faculties attributed to 

 them by ancient chroniclers were no more than the truth fully 

 warranted. Amongst many instances, the correctness of which 

 I can vouch for, I may mention that it is not more than twelve 

 months since a hound of this description was mainly instru- 

 mental in discovering two men from the neighbourhood of 

 Buckingham, who were subsequently tried and transported for 

 sheep-stealing ; the hound having traced them from the spot 

 where the sheep were slaughtered to the cottage in which, as 

 well as in a pond adjoining, portions of the lost mutton were 

 discovered. The principal breeds of bloodhounds which have 

 come under my own observation are those of Mr. Lowndes, of 



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