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interested the spectators not a little. There was no mistake as to the correctness of his nose up to the plantation; but here, where the quarry had turned, the hound was at fault. He cast about till striking the line again, and was hard on the track of the man on turning into the road home. This he stuck to until near the goal, when he became somewhat disconcerted, no doubt striking the wind of the crowd as he approached them. His trial was very well

run.

Mrs. Danger's Jaff was absent, and Mr. E. Brough's Blueberry strangely refused to run, though what we saw of her work on Monday proves her an excellent bitch, and her owner considered her about his best. Mr. Brough's Barnaby, mentioned earlier on, went quicker along the line the runner had taken than Hector had done, and, like him, cleared or went under the railings according to the mode the quarry had adopted. Just before reaching the plantation Barnaby lost the scent, but cast to the right and left until it was struck again. He, too, was a considerable time out of sight behind the plantation, but on reappearing in the road he was running the line of the man, which he continued much as Mr. Wright's hound had done, failing to quite come up to the winning post for similar reasons.

Dr. Hales Parry's Primate was absent, so the

end of the stake was reached, there being four of the nine entries that failed to meet their engagement. The judges awarded the prizes as follows: First, Mr. R. H. Wright's Hector II.; second, Mr. E. Brough's Barnaby; third, Mr. W. J. Scott's Hebe III.; the fourth, of course, being withheld. There was little to choose between the first two, for both ran excellent trials, considering the unfavourable surroundings, and afforded ample proof, even to the incredulous, that the bloodhound will hunt a man without even smelling any part of his person or clothes until laid on the track of his footsteps.

The second stake is of no account whatever, being that already alluded to, where the men acting as quarry had their shoe soles smeared with raw horseflesh. It was, however, thought that three competitors of the five entries would run well, so the time was taken, and Koodoo, who did badly on the "clean boot," now ran a brilliant course at a good pace, going the distance, including a check behind the wood, in five minutes. Hebe III. and Hector II. both began well, but, losing the line at about three-fourths the distance, failed to regain it, and were called up. They were awarded equal seconds, Mr. Knowles's Koodoo taking premier honours.

So much for the bloodhound trials; and now, when writing in 1892, they appear to have been

entirely discontinued, at any rate so far as public exhibitions of them are concerned.

With the introduction of dog shows the general public were enabled to see how far the bloodhound survived, and the early exhibitions held at Birmingham always included two nicely filled classes of this dog, which many persons believed to be almost extinct. Stonehenge," writing in 1869, says:

Until within the last twenty-five years, or thereabouts, the bloodhound has been almost entirely confined to the kennels of the English nobility; but at about that distance of time Mr. Jennings, of Pickering, in Yorkshire, obtained a draft or two from Lord Faversham and Baron Rothschild, and in a few years, by his skill and care, produced his Druid and Welcome, a magnificent couple of hounds, which he afterwards sold, at what was then considered a high price, to Prince Napoleon for breeding purposes. In the course of time, and probably from the fame acquired by these dogs at the various shows, his example was followed by his north-country neighbours, Major Cowen and Mr. J. W. Pease, who monopolised the prizes of the show bench with successive Druids, descended from Mr. Jennings's dog of that name, and aided by Draco, Dingle, Dauntless, &c., all of the same strain. In 1869, however, another candidate for fame appeared in Mr. Holford's Regent, a magnificent dog, both in shape and colour, but still of the same strains, and, until the appearance of Mr. Reynold Ray's Roswell in 1870, no fresh blood was introduced among the firstprize winners at our chief shows. The dog, who died in 1877, maintained his position for the same period almost without dispute, and even in his old age it took a good dog to beat him.

About 1860, Lord Bagot, of Blithefield, near Tamworth, had some very fine hounds, and was success

ful with both the dogs and bitches he put on the benches at the National Show in Curzon Hall.

Coming down to the present time, there are perhaps more admirers of the bloodhound than at any previous period of its history. Dog shows have, no doubt, popularised him; and, well cared for and well treated, made a companion of, instead of being kept chained in a kennel or in a dark cellar, he has lost most of his natural ferocity, and is quite as amiable as any other variety of the canine race. Colonel Cowan still keeps a hound or two at Blaydon, near Newcastle; Mr. E. Brough, near Scarborough, is perhaps our greatest breeder; but good bloodhounds are also to be found in the kennels of Mr. Tinker, near Birmingham; of Mr. F. B. Craven, Bakewell; of Mr. M. H. Hill, Birmingham; of Dr. Reynolds Ray, Dulwich; of Dr. Parry, Norfolk; of Mr. C. Garnett, near Bolton; of Mr. R. H. Wright, Newtonle-Willows; of Mr. H. C. Hodgson, Lichfield; of Mr. E. Nichols, South Kensington; of Mr. Morrel, Mr. M. Beaufoy, Mr. J. E. Wilby, and others.

Here mention must be made of the pack of bloodhounds, kept about sixteen years ago, by the late Lord Wolverton, who hunted the "carted" deer with them in Dorsetshire and in the Blackmore Vale Country. They were sold by him to Lord Carrington, who had them but a single season, during

which he showed sport in Buckinghamshire. From here they went into the kennels of Count Couteulx de Canteleu, in France, where they have been useful in hunting both wild deer and wild boar.

Prior to this Mr. Selby Lowndes had several couples of bloodhounds, in Whaddon Chase, where occasionally they had a run after deer. One of his hounds, named Gamester, bore a great reputation as a man-hunter, and on more than one occasion was useful in capturing thieves. This hound appears to have been a waif from some other kennel, for he was purchased from a hawker for ten pounds, the latter using him as a protection, and to run under his van.

Then it is said, bloodhounds have been owned by the verderers in connection with the New Forest in Hampshire, but they were known as Talbots, and most of these hounds were smaller than our modern hounds. Mr. T. Nevil had a small pack at Chillend, near Winchester, dark coloured hounds-black St. Huberts they were called; a well-known writer in Bailey's Magazine, gives a long description of them, which, he says, were descendants of the pack of which William Rufus was master. It was said they would hunt anything, from "the jackal and the lordly stag, to the water-rat and such small deer.'" At the present time there is no pack of bloodhounds

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