Hounds

“ Two strange hounds, meeting for the first time, behave as civilly toward each other as if two men. I know a hound that has an ancient, wrinkled, human, far-away look that reminds one of the bust of Homer among the Elgin marbles. He looks like the mountains toward which his heart yearns so much. ”

“ Nothing is a greater disgrace to the MASTER, the HUNTSMAN, or the pack, than to see a parcel of straggling tail hounds, labouring in vain; except a leading hound loaded with a leaden necklace, to restrain his speed, and depress the instinctive impulse of his nature to a level with those who are not his equals. ”

“ A magnificent lot of dogs, containing the blood of the most celebrated hounds in the best packs, they are not much disturbed by the entrance of strangers. Some of them half step down from the bench, when you pat and stroke them; they do not attempt to bite, and are, in fact, exceedingly quiet, unless you are foolish enough to strike them. Then you will see. Although the hounds are so much alike, the huntsman has the name of each dog on the tip of his tongue, and when, he calls, the animal is back in his place in an instant—so absolute is his command. ”

“ And at last the huntsman and whips came trotting slowly along the drive and on to the grass, and the hounds streaming along with them waving their sterns, a useful, well-matched pack, much alike in the mass, but each with as much individuality as the men and women who thronged around them. ”

“ Mounted on two ugly steeds, When vicious packs abound the most, They furiously commence the hunt, Belching out death on every side. Curse thou their hunt and devastation, Their two steeds so black in hue; Lay them, their backs stretched on the turf, Scatter the heads of this black band. There is a band of cruel hounds Harbouring at Inch Ald Art, They’re horrid brutes, Thou God forsake them, Let bags out of their skins be made. Though many be the skins of wolves, Covering our harps, both small and great, The cold and empty skulls are many, Given us by these fierce hounds. ”

“ Imagine the difficulty of breaking in a young hound for elk-hunting when the jungles are swarming with such a list of vermin! The better the pup the more he will persevere in hunting everything that he can possibly find; and with such a variety of animals, some of which have the most enticing scent, it is a source of endless trouble in teaching a young hound what to limit and what to avoid.
It is curious to witness the sagacity of the old hounds in joining or despising the opening note of a newcomer. ”

“ The pack of hounds were an endless source of delight to the general. We had about forty: the stag-hounds that run by sight, and are on the whole the fleetest and most enduring dogs in the world, and the fox-hounds that follow the trail with their noses close to the ground. ”

“ Everything he does evinces extraordinary resolution, determination, and courage. While the high-bred hounds that are following him over-top every hedge, he dashes through their boughs, thorns, and briars, as straight as an arrow from a bow. ”

“ When hounds are at a check, every one should be silent, and stand still, the huntsman had better let the hounds alone, or content himself with holding them forward, without taking them off their noses.
If hounds come to a check on a high road, by the fox being headed, in trying back they have the best chance of hitting off the scent again, as they may try on both sides at once.—Beckford.—Daniel. ”

“ The back and ribs, are strong, and the former of great length, the stern, is gaily carried, like that of Hounds in general, and when the Hound is on the scent of game, this portion of his body gets extremely animated, and tells me, in my own Hounds, when they have struck a fresh, or cold, scent, and I even know when the foremost Hound will give tongue! ”

“ And now as the hounds speed over the rich alluvial pastures by the brook, occasionally one throwing its tongue, occasionally another, for the scent is first-rate and the pace severe, there is a turning of heads, a checking of horses, and an evident inclination to diverge. ”

“ When hounds come to a check, not a horse should move, not a voice should be heard: every hound is eagerly employed, exerting all his powers for a recovery of the scent, in which, if not officiously obstructed, they will most probably soon succeed. ”

“ There are some days (those which invariably carry the best scent) when hounds will find, and fly away like magic, not one in the pack attempting to throw tongue. Here, if the cover be large, unless you have them in your eye, the odds are you never get away; and see what you lose—the excellence of the scent has stopped the cry: the faster hounds go, the less they say about it. ”

“ At this point someone called in from the doorway that the hounds were running in full view. Out we poured in a great hurry, the old man as nimble as any, and moving without the aid even of a stick. We watched the pack gallop hard along the grass, then lost them a moment as they crossed a deep ravine. In less than three minutes the hare led them out of sight again over the ridge, and we saw them no more. ”

“ These dogs, by their superior swiftness, are soon at his haunches, and worry and impede his flight, until their heavy friend the hound comes up; for the strongest greyhound could never manage a wolf, unless he was assisted in his meritorious work by dogs of large size and superior strength. The huntsmen, well mounted, follow and halloo on the hounds; every one runs, every one shouts, the forest echoes their cries, and wolf, dogs, and sportsmen pass and disappear like leaves in a whirlwind, or the demon hounds and huntsmen of the Hartz. ”

“ While some roll on the grass and push themselves along sideways to get clean, and others attempt the impossible task of licking the mud off their legs and feet, the older hounds, who are less self-conscious, poke their heads into the hands and against the chests of their ready-made friends, the village children, who rush in while the master and the field and lookers-on are exchanging courtesies, and embrace all the pack whom they can reach. ”

“ My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew’d, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee’d and dewlap’d like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in pursuit, but match’d in mouth like bells,
Each under each. ”

“ A twang of the horn now brings the hounds—who have been running with a flinging catching side-wind scent on to the line, and a full burst of melody greets the diminished field, as they strike it on the bright grass of the plantation. ”

“ Their voices are heard exciting the hounds, and unless we put spurs to our steeds, we may be too late at our stand, and thus lose the first opportunity of shooting the fleeting game, as it passes by. Hark again! The dogs are in chase, the horn sounds louder and more clearly. ”

“ Let us admire, as much as you please, the certainty with which a hound takes a spring into a third way, as soon as he finds by his nose that the game he pursues has left no scent in the other two. Let us admire the hind, who, they say, throws a good way off her young fawn, into some hidden place, that the hounds may not find him out by the scent of his strain. ”

“ The different classes of hounds, being kept in kennels, do not exhibit this power to the same amount as many others, as they are not sufficiently domesticated, and their intercourse with man is confined to the one particular branch of hunting ”

“ Then the hare stuffs his pockets, or a little bag he carries slung over his left shoulder, and away he starts, dropping a handful here and a handful there, and the rest of the boys—the hounds, you know—follow him by the scent, and catch him if they can. They're bound to follow wherever he leads, and he darts behind trees, and doubles, and does all sorts of things to put them off his track. If they don't catch him, he wins, and the hounds all sit down in a row and bark mournfully. ”

“ With this exasperating feature of bear and lion chases I was familiar. Most hounds, when they struck a trail, could not tell in which direction the bear was traveling. A really fine hound, however, like Buffalo Jones' famous Don, or Scott Teague's Sampson or Haught's Old Dan, would grow suspicious of a scent that gradually cooled, and would eventually give it up. Young hounds would back-track game as far as possible. ”

“ After that I have spoken of the nature of beasts of venery and of chase which men should hunt, now I will tell you of the nature of the hounds which hunt and take them. And first of their noble conditions that be so great and marvellous in some hounds that there is no man can believe it, unless he were a good skilful hunter, and well knowing, and that he haunted them long, for a hound is a most reasonable beast, and best knowing of any beast that ever God made. ”

“ The several varieties of hounds, harriers, beagles, pointers, setters, terriers, etc., have been designed to meet a dozen or more variations in the conditions of the chase. The marvellously complete way in which special peculiarities have been developed in mind and body makes this field of domestic culture the most fascinating subject of inquiry to the naturalist. ”

“ To the doe the hounds cheerfully attached themselves, and we had much fun out of it, and it was given to us to see, as they went away, that one hound had a rabbit in his mouth. It is not every day that one hunts a fox, a deer and a rabbit at the same moment. It was like old hunting scenes in tapestry. C., the old huntsman, and his old white horse went like smoke in the boggy, hilly country. It was pleasant to see, and the doe beat the hounds handsomely and got back safely to the wood, to which, in the meantime, the fox had strolled back by the avenue. ”

“ Acquire an eye to hounds, that is, learn to detect the [170] moment when the leading hound turns right or left, or, losing the scent, checks, or, catching it breast high, races away mute, “dropping his stem as straight as a tobacco-pipe.”
By thus studying the leading hounds instead of racing against your neighbours’ horses, you see how they turn, save many an angle, and are ready to pull up the moment the hounds throw up their heads.
Never let your anxiety to be forward induce you to press upon the hounds when they are hunting; nothing makes a huntsman more angry, or spoils sport more. ”

“ A moment’s delay for pleasant greetings between all and sundry, and the hounds are quickly thrown in for business; their tails, and little more, wave above the long ling and the tall bracken. The whips gallop to their points of observation. Presently a whimper or two is heard; then the deeper tone of an old hound takes it up; the rest rally about him, and soon the whole pack join in full chorus. A halloo is heard from a ride, as the fox crosses it ”

“ When the hounds appear--they have come nearly as far from the kennels as the master has from home--they are covered with road mud from foot to head. The gritty splashes have changed all the white and tan to grey, and made the black badger-pied. ”

“ Then should he let them run and play long in a fair meadow in the sun, and then comb every hound after the other, and wipe them with a great wisp of straw, and thus he shall do every morning. And then shall he lead them into some fair place there where tender grass grows as corn and other things, that therewith they may feed them (selves) as it is medicine for them, for sometimes hounds are sick and with the grass that they eat they void and heal themselves. ”

“ The grey hounds are the swiftest of dogs and a pair of them are invariably to be found in a pack, the balance being some heavier and fiercer breed of dog, such as the blood hound, fox hound or a cross of the two. It is the grey hounds that run the game down and hold it until the arrival of the balance of the pack, the heavier dogs doing the actual fighting. ”

“ As when their lap is finished, the cautious huntsman to their kennel gathers the nimble- footed hounds, they with lank ears and tails slouch sullenly on, whilst he, with his whippers-in, follows close at their heels, regardless of their dogged humour, till, having seen them safe within the door, he turns the key, and then retires to whatever business or pleasure calls him thence ”

“ And sometimes the hounds hurt themselves in their feet, and in their legs, and in their breast. And when it is in the joints of their feet that be run out of their places, the best help that there is is to bring them again into joint, by such men as can well do it, and then lay upon that place flax wetted in white of egg, and let them rest until the time that they be whole. ”

“ That other is a common mange when the hounds claw themselves with their feet and snap with their teeth, and it is on all the body of the hound. And all manners of mange come to hounds from [Pg 93] great travel and from long hunting, as when they be hot they drink of foul water and unclean, which corrupteth their bodys, and also when they hunt in evil places of pricklings of thorns, of briers, or peradventure it raineth upon them, and they be not well tended afterwards. Then cometh the scab, and also the scab cometh upon them when they abide in their kennel too long120 and goeth not hunting. ”

“ Nothing is more busy and wittier than a hound, for he hath more wit than other beasts. And hounds know their own names, and love their masters, and defend the houses of their masters, and put themselves wilfully in peril of death for their masters, and run to take prey for their masters, and forsake not the dead bodies of their masters. We have known that hounds fought for their lords against thieves, and were sore wounded, and that they kept away beasts and fowls from their masters' bodies dead. ”

“ For the Choice of Hounds we are to rely much on their Colours, and accordingly make our Election. The Best and most Beautiful of all for a general Kennel, is, The White Hound, with black Ears, and a black spot at the setting on of the Tail, and is ever found to be both of good Scent, and good Condition, and will Hunt any Chace, but especially the Hare, Stag, Buck, Roe, or Otter, not sticking at Woods or Waters. ”