CHAPTER XLV 



The Irish Wolfhound 



HE resuscitated wolfhound of Ireland has been made a stouter 

 edition of the Scottish deerhound, but there is no absolute 

 proof that that was the sole type of dog that went by the 

 name of wolfdog or was used for wolfhunting in Ireland. 

 That there was a smooth dog in Ireland is beyond a 

 question, indeed the burden of proof may almost be said to be upon the sup- 

 porters of the rough dog, because all the pictures and most of the information 

 on the breed from 1750 to 1830 runs in favour of a dog of Great Dane type. 

 To claim positively that the rough is the only original is more than the facts 

 warrant, and the doubts which must occur to all who have gone into the sub- 

 ject with an unbiased mind have left us with anything but a decided opinion 

 upon the subject. We seem to have got about as far as to have a theory, and 

 we do not know but that is a better position than the man who starts in to 

 prove what he wants to prove and sifts his information to secure only facts in 

 accordance with his wishes. Those who hold to the rough dog as having 

 been the only wolfhound in Ireland have to ignore the fact that Bewick in 

 1790, Reinagle in 1800 and Captain Brown in 1839 ^^^ depicted the Irish 

 wolfhound as not a rough dog. Reinagle gave his dog a little indication 

 of not being entirely smooth, but the other two illustrations are perfectly 

 smooth dogs. BufFon also said that the large one he saw was like a Great 

 Dane. Colonel Hamilton Smith, writing before 1840, said that there 

 seemed to be various types of these wolfhounds, rough dogs and smooth 

 dogs, besides other differences. We also have the reference to Irish grey- 

 hounds in the " Pennilesse Pilgrimage," quoted in the deerhound chapter. 

 Captain Graham, who has for years been an enthusiast on the subject 

 of the Irish wolfhound, collected a great deal of information regarding the 

 wolfhound, and if it were not for the illustrations mentioned his many refer- 

 ences would be well-nigh conclusive that it was a rough dog of greyhound 

 variety, but in none of the books he quotes from that we have had access to 

 is there any mention of the Dane or, what was the same thing, the alaunt, 

 yet there must surely have been some of these in existence. 



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