BURTON'S GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, AND AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW. AUGUST, 1839. THE GAME KEEPER'S FIRESIDE. IN ILLUSTRATION OF AN ENGRAVING ON STEEL. MR. HANCOCK here represents a veteran Scotch gamekeeper, enjoying himself with his pipe, by his own homely fireside, in company with his dogs, who appear to partake with him of the satisfac tion attending a good day's diversion. From the bald head and wrinkled brow of this experienced sportsman, he must be nearly approaching that period which is called by the Psalmist "the age of man ;" still, from the muscular frame of his body, and the undiminished size of his limbs, it is evident that he has many more years' work left in him, the almost sure result of the health-giving pursuits he has followed, and the pure air he has breathed, since he breathed at all. The dogs here represented, are rare specimens of their sort. The one apparently the most attached to his master, is a fine Russian Setter, a breed much esteemed on the moors, from their general hardiness of constitution, and being less given to thirst than those of the English kind; which is a great desideratum to the grouse shooter, in many parts of Great Britain, where good limpid water is sometimes not to be met with, in a beat of considerable extent. In their natural formation and effect, they are far from being the most beautiful and attractive of the canine species; in fact, they have neither that uniformity of shape, nor elegance of figure, which so much distinguish the English and Irish setter; neither do they exhibit the pleasing variegation in color, which we find in them :-in short, their beauty may be said, in a great part, to consist in their ugliness, the true test of their pure blood being a long wiry coat, from which their heads are not even free, extending beyond the eyes, nearly to their exclusion from our view, and oftentimes with a moustache which would satisfy the Great Mogul. There is also another point of difference between the breeds. The Russian generally stands to his game and dogs, after the manner of our pointer, which is an advantage in a wide range of moors. This dog is also good as a retriever, and by no means shy of taking water. The dog lying down by the fire, is a portrait of a blood-hound, the property of the late lord Middleton, of Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, England, who was celebrated for his dogs, of almost every description used in the field, as well as for having been a master of fox-hounds during the greater part of his life, and considered a superior judge of the animal, (dog,) generally. The bloodhound, or Sleuthe-hound of the Scots, although a fine subject for the painter, is not a general favorite, from the character he bears of decided enmity to man; for which he is indebted, not so much to his nature, as to a property ascribed to him, of pursuing human beings by their footsteps, and not quitting the scent until he has seized them, or marked them to their place of retreat. That there has existed, and does exist, a species of dog of this description, trained to discover the haunts of robbers |