CHAPTER XLIX 



The Bloodhound 



HE dog to which we usually give the name of English blood- 

 hound, to distinguish it from various dogs called blood- 

 hounds, is a very different animal from what was called 

 originally by the same name in England. Like the mastiflF 

 and a good many other dogs he has been improved beyond 

 recognition from the dog of even fifty years ago. It is not necessary to go 

 over the ground that we already have done in the introductory chapter re- 

 garding hounds. Poetical descriptions are not essentially facts and to say 

 that a dog had heavy flews and long ears does not mean that he had the ex- 

 cess of loose skin about the head we see in our show dogs, nor their length 

 of ears. Illustrations of bloodhounds and Southern hounds, which are 

 generally held to have been the main progenitors of our bloodhounds, do 

 not differ essentially from drawings by the same artists or contemporary 

 artists, when one goes back to 1800-30, of other dogs that were called blood- 

 hounds and were found in other countries. All of these hounds showed 

 more flew and dewlap than the foxhound, and had natural ears, while the 

 foxhound has had his ears rounded or trimmed for many years. At the time 

 we speak of the eflForts of foxhound breeders was to get a small-headed 

 dog, and they were then drawn with some exaggeration in that respect, for 

 the heads on portrait dogs are usually out of proportion to the style of dog, 

 so as to suit the fancy for small heads then prevailing. 



The bloodhounds at the Tower Menagerie, as shown in the volume 

 issued in 1829 descriptive of the animals then on exhibition — the drawings 

 being from life by Harvey — are strikingly like some of Landseer's. These 

 dogs were brought from Africa by Colonel Denman, who had gone there on a 

 hunting expedition and had been so impressed with the work of the hounds 

 he got there that he brought back three and presented them to the mena- 

 gerie. Cuban bloodhounds were also taken to England and they are seen to 

 be the same type of dog. Youatt used a study by Landseer on the title page 

 of "The Dog" and described the bloodhound as broad skulled, with long 



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