24 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
w «. r 
A dog of the Imperial Kennels, which 
since the days of the first Czar have 
housed at least fifty grown Borzoi 
L ITHESOME grace and proud,dignified 
mien stamp the Borzoi indelibly with 
the hallmark of blood and breeding. He is 
the seigneur of all dogs, the great aristo¬ 
crat of dogdom. He looks down with 
amused indifference upon the common mob 
of canines; such a sturdy squire as the 
beagle he ignores; he even snubs that splen¬ 
did old gentleman the foxhound; he is in¬ 
clined to patronize his cousins, the grey¬ 
hound and the deerhounds. 
The Borzoi has reason to be proud of 
his race. For centuries his ancestors have 
been the companions in sport of the Rus¬ 
sian autocracy. In 1260 the German am¬ 
bassador to the court of the Grand Duke 
of Novgorod wrote of these coursing 
hounds, and the first Standard, describing 
the correct type, was drawn up in 1650. 
Since the time of John the Terrible, the 
first Czar, the Imperial Kennels have never 
DOG OF ALL THE 
R U S S IA S 
WILLIAMS HAYNES 
Photographs by Courtesy of the Valley Farm Kennels 
housed less than fifty grown hounds, and 
even larger kennels have been maintained 
continuously from father to son on the 
estates of some of the greater nobility. 
Over a hundred years ago, when English 
sporting circles were agog over the sale of 
a foxhound for the record-breaking price 
of fifty pounds, and when an American 
who would have paid fifty dollars for a 
dog would have been considered crazy, 
Borzoi of the Courland strain sold at public 
auction in Petrograd for from seven to ten 
thousand roubles each, a matter of over a 
thousand guineas or more than $5,000. 
Borzoi Coursing 
In Russia they still course the hare, the 
fox and the wolf with all the forms and 
ceremonies that have been handed down 
as a precious sporting heritage for cen¬ 
turies. Modern conditions have militated 
against the sport in a measure, and the 
hunts are more modest than of yore; but 
the masters are still punctilious in the mat¬ 
ter of the picturesque native livery of their 
hunt servants, and some of the larger ken¬ 
nels turn out thirty, forty, even fifty couples 
of carefully trained hounds. In his de¬ 
lightful monograph on the breed, Mr. 
Joseph B. Thomas thus vividly de- 
described a covert hunt with the Per- 
china hounds in Russia: 
“In the early morning may be seen, 
wending its way along the trail-like 
roads of the district, a long line of 
mounted hunters, each holding in his 
left hand a leash of three magnificent 
Borzoi, two dogs and a bitch as nearly 
matched in color and conformation as pos¬ 
sible, and followed by a pack of Anglo- 
Russian foxhounds, with the huntsmen and 
whips in red tunics. On arriving at the 
scene of the chase, the hunters are stationed 
by the master of the hunt at intervals of a 
hundred yards, so the entire grove is sur¬ 
rounded by a long cordon of hounds and 
riders. A signal note is heard on a hunting 
horn, and with the mingled music of the 
trail hounds, shouts of the men, and the 
cracking of the whips, the foxhound pack 
is urged into the grove in pursuit of the 
hidden game. 
“The scene is certainly a mediaeval one. 
The hunters, dressed in typical Russian 
costumes, with fur-trimmed hats, booted 
and spurred, and equipped with hunting 
horn, whip and dagger, and mounted on 
padded Cossack saddles high above the 
backs of their hardy Kirghiz ponies, hold¬ 
ing on straining leash their long-coated, 
exceedingly beautiful animals, make a pic¬ 
ture that once seen is not easily forgotten. 
But hark! the sound of the hound voices 
is changed to the sudden sharp yapping 
of the pack in ‘full cry,’ and simultaneously 
there springs from the covert a dark grey 
form bent on reaching the next woods, some 
hundred yards away. In an instant he is 
well in the open, and sees, only too late, 
that he has approached within striking dis¬ 
tance of the nearest leash of Borzoi. With 
a cry of ‘Ou-la-lou,’ and setting his horse 
at full gallop, the hunter slips his hounds 
when they view the game, to sight which 
they often jump 5' or 6' in the air. There 
is a rush, a spring, and with a yelp the fore¬ 
most hound is sent rolling; but instantly is 
back to the attack, which continues—a con¬ 
fused mass of white and grey, swiftly leap¬ 
ing forms and snapping fangs—until a 
neck-hold is secured by the pursuing Bor¬ 
zoi, who do their best to hold the wolf 
down. Then, in a most spirited dash, the 
hunter literally throws himself from the 
(Continued on page 58) 
'M 
'i 
He is huilt for speed and endurance, 
a powerful dog of striking appearance 
The place for the Borzoi is in the country, where he can secure the exercise to which his breeding entitles him. 
As a companion on a ’cross-country ride he is distinctly appropriate, and he can follow a horse indefinitely 
