This is a comparatively unimportant breed; it is employed in England solely for the purpose of attending on carriages, from which circumstance it is often called the Carriage-dog. It is about the size of a Greyhound, usually of a white colour spotted with black, and its hair is quite short. The Danish Dog is a large sub-variety of the same breed.
THE GREYHOUND.
The various breeds of this Dog ([see figure on p. 117]) are the most elegant in the whole species. The expression “a line of beauty is perpetual motion,” hackneyed though it be, occurs to every one in thinking of a Greyhound, the shape and movements of which are so perfectly graceful. The general characters of the variety are well known, and are well and pithily given in an old rhyme, quoted by Mr. Youatt, according to which
“A Greyhounde should be headed lyke a Snake,
And neckyd lyke a Drake,
Fotyd like a Cat,
Tayled like a Ratte,
Syded like a Teme,
And chyned like a Bream.”
The head is proportionally smaller than in any other variety, and, in consequence of this, the Greyhound is by no means one of the Dogs particularly noted for intellect, his energy having all gone off in the direction of speed, and there being, in consequence, none to spare for brain-power. He is, in fact, an athlete, and nothing more—a pace et præterea nihil. In former times the Greyhound was sufficiently strong to cope with the Wolf, but for many hundred years he has gradually degenerated in strength, and towards the close of the last century was so deficient in courage and perseverance that Lord Oxford, one of the lights of the sporting world at that time, hit upon the ingenious plan of crossing his Greyhounds with Bull-dogs. This expedient was so successful that, “after the sixth or seventh generation, there was not a vestige left of the form of the Bull-dog; but his courage and his indomitable perseverance remained, and, having once started after his game, he did not relinquish chase until he fell exhausted, or perhaps died. This cross is now almost universally adopted. It is one of the secrets in the breeding of the Greyhound.”