(Fig. 29), prepared from a photograph kindly placed at our disposal by Mr. W. H. Fawkes, of the Vicarage, Harrogate. The head has the occipital bone well developed, the eyes are of medium size, brown, expressive, and intelligent-looking. The ears are set on high and carried slightly forward. White patches on the body are not admissible; but a little white upon the breast and feet (as seen in some Newfoundlands) is tolerated by those that regard the dog as a distinct variety breeding true to type. Anything, however, suggestive of a St. Bernard cross is not tolerated.

CHAPTER VII

THE BLOODHOUND

He who attempts to discover the origin and trace the history of any one of our breeds of dogs, beyond comparatively few generations, will, in most or all cases, speedily find himself in a fog, tossed on a sea of doubt, driven hither and thither by the conflicting evidence of the writers he consults, who seem to emulate each other in the meagreness of the information they give, and the vagueness with which they convey it. To this the Bloodhound is no exception; and it is, perhaps, wiser to accept the inevitable, and frankly admit that we know very little about the origin of this or any other breed, for at best we can but guess at the most probable from the very insufficient data at our command to form any certain opinion. This is certainly a wiser and more dignified course than to prate about this, that, and the other breed being the original dog of the British Islands, as many are disposed to do, One thing is very certain, that, could we go back, say, a thousand years, and select a hundred of the finest specimens then living, and bring them as they then were into competition with their descendants of to day, say, at a Crystal Palace show, the whole century of them would be quickly sent out of the ring as mongrels : they would stand no more chance than a herd of our ancient wild cattle would against a herd of Shorthorns.

The first printed book touching on dogs that we have is the "Book of Huntynge," by Juliana Berners. The list of dogs given by her does not include Bloodhounds, but it does the Lemor and Raches, both of which were dogs that ran their game by scent, and the former was probably the nearest approach to our notions of a hound, and was used to trace the wounded deer, etc., the name Lymer being taken from the fact of his being led in a leash, or lyam, In more ancient times the Lymehound, under the name of Inductor, appears to have been employed to lead up to the harbour of the game sought, being selected for that work on account of the superiority of his scenting powers. Xenophon (500 B.C.) describes a Lymehound as a dog that follows up by scent the quarry in quest,

and then, calling others together, rouses the game by barking. The principles of breeding were sufficiently well known to the hunting men of Greece and Italy to assure us that this special superiority of nose would be propagated and improved by mating the animals most distinguished in that quality-in fact, the first principle in breeding, and one that lies on the surface, staring the most unobservant in the face, that like produces like, would certainly be acted on, and so the earliest steps be taken in fixing a special type of hound, the particular quality of which we see inherited now by many allied breeds.

No doubt at the date at which the "Book of Huntynge" was written, and for a long time previous, English hounds were being modified by crosses from imported dogs brought in by the Norman conquerors from France, some varieties of them having originally come from the East, and the slow hunting hounds of that day have, by various commixture, produced for us the varieties we now recognise.

Dr. Caius mentions the Bloodhound as the greatest sort which serves to hunt, having lips of a large size, and ears of no small length." In Turberville's "Book of Hunting" there are a number of dogs portrayed, all of the hound type, and with true hound ears; whereas, in the "Book of St. Albans," printed a century earlier, the dogs represented have much smaller ears, and thrown back, as the dogs are seen straining on the slips, greyhound-like. Turberville has a good deal to say about hounds. If he could be credited, the progenitors of our modern dogs originally came from Greece, and the first of them that reached this country were landed at Totnes.

It was the custom in Turberville's time to range the dogs according to colour; of these, white and fallow, white spotted with red, and black, were most esteemed. White spotted with black or dun was not so much valued. The best of the fallow dogs were held to be those with their hair lively red, with white spots on the forehead, or a white ring round the neck; and of these it is said: "Those which are well joynted and dew-clawed are best to make Bloodhounds," clearly showing, as passages from all the old writers could be quoted to do, that the term Bloodhound was applied to the dog because of the work set him, and that, in fact, where hounds are spoken of the Bloodhound is included. That the work of this hound was varied-that he was used as a Lymehound, as well as in tracking wounded deer and deer-stealers, sheep-stealers, and other felons, even so late as two centuries ago-is clear from Blome's instructions in his work "The Gentleman's Recreation" (1688): "To find out the Hart or Stag, where his harbour or Lare is, you must be provided with a Bloodhound, Draughthound, or Sluithound, which must be led in a Liam; and, for the quickening his scent, it is good to rub his nose with vinegar."

Black hounds, called St. Huberts, are described as mighty of body, with legs low and short, not swift in work, but of good scent. The following couplet shows that the St. Hubert hounds were highly thought of:

My name came first from holy Hubert's race;
Soygllard my sire, a hound of singular grace.

The Count le Couteulx de Canteleu, in his work "Les Races de Chiens Courans Français," says: "The hounds of St. Hubert, famous since the eighth century, under the name of Flemish Hounds, were divided into two varieties, the black and the white. The most esteemed was the black variety, and the abbots of the St. Hubert Monastery preserved the breed in memory of their founder. They were generally black, running into tan, tan markings over the eye, and feet the same colour; long ears.

Descendants of the white St. Huberts existed in the Duke of Lorraine's hounds, spoken of by Ligniville; Salno also mentions the existence of the black and the white St. Huberts in their native country, the Ardennes.

In 1620 we have an account of two packs of the black and tan St. Huberts belonging to the Cardinal de Guise and the Marquis of Souvray. The St. Huberts were transported to England at the time of the Conquest, and Henri IV. presented a team to James I. From about 1200 to the year 1789 the abbots of the St. Hubert Monastery annually supplied the royal kennels of France with three couples of black and tan St. Hubert hounds, which were used as limiers, and were very greatly prized. At the end of Louis XIV.'s reign, according to Gaffet de la Briffardière, they were preserved by gentlemen in the north of France for their all-round hunting capacities. By the time of D'Yauville the breed had become rare."

There is no higher living authority on the question than the Count, and he has no doubt that the Bloodhound was derived from the St. Hubert. He considers that at the time when fox-hunting in something like its present form was first instituted, the Sleuthhound, or hound of the country, was not found fast enough, and crosses were made with the Greyhound and other breeds, and gradually the present Foxhound was evolved. During this transition it became customary, when speaking of the hound of the country (as distinct from the Foxhound), to allude to him as the Bloodhound, meaning the hound of pure blood, just as we speak of a blood horse.

Writers are apt to lay too much stress on colour, and, in studying this question, it must not be forgotten that black and tan combined are colours common to almost every breed Spaniels, Setters, Collies, Terriers, and even Greyhounds, have been known

of these colours, and with the characteristic spots on cheeks and over the eyes.

Turberville says: "The Bloodhounds of this colour prove good, especially such as are 'cole' black." The dun hounds are much nearer in colour to our modern dog; these were dun on the back, having their legs and forequarters red or tanned, and it is added the light-tanned dogs were not so strong.

Gervase Markham, who was a very copious writer, follows Turberville pretty closely. His description of a Talbot-like hound. would, in many respects, stand for a modern Bloodhound, although certainly not in head, on which point he does not seem to have expressed his meaning very clearly. He says: "A round, thick head, with a short nose uprising, and large, open nostrils ; ears exceedingly large and thin, and down hanging much lower than his chaps, and the flews of his upper lips almost two inches lower than his nether chaps; back strong and straight; fillets thick and great; huckle bones round and hidden; thighs round; hams straight; tail long and rush-grown-that is, big at the setting on, and small downwards; legs large and lean; foot high knuckled and well clawed, with a dry, hard sole."

From all this, and much more that might be quoted, it may be gathered that whilst the dun and tan-that is, the black saddle back and tan-legged-dogs most nearly agree in colour with our Bloodhound, it is a mere accident of selection, although that may have been influenced by that coloured dog showing more aptitude for the special work he was put to, and certainly the colour is admirably adapted to a dog used for night work, as he often was ; for even Dr. Caius relates how these dogs were kept in dark kennels, that they might better do night work. The practice would assuredly defeat its object.

Daniels, in his "Rural Sports," says of the Bloodhound: "This singular race of dogs is nearly extinct, Mr. Astle and his family possessing a few only of the pure breed. The height of the species was seven or eight and twenty inches; of compact, muscular form; the upper part of the face broad, gradually contracted to the snout; nostrils wide; ears large and pendulous, and narrowing to the tip. One distinguishing trait of purity in the breed was the colour, which was almost invariably a reddish tan, progressively darkening to the upper part, with a mixture of black upon the back."

It appears that Daniels made the mistake, so common with modern ephemeral writers on dogs, of taking a particular strain or a kennel as the type of a breed, instead of a variation of the breed in unimportant points.

When the Bloodhound was first used to track fugitives has never been satisfactorily determined. However, an undoubted allusion. to their employment in such a capacity that we have found occurs