"[When] the stag first hears the cry of the hounds, he runs with the swiftness of the wind, and continues to run as long as any sound of his pursuers can be distinguished. That having ceased, he pauses and looks carefully around him; but before he can determine what course to pursue, the cry of the pack again forces itself upon his attention. Once more he darts away, and after a while again pauses. His strength perhaps begins to fail, and he has recourse to stratagem in order to escape. He practises the doubling and the crossing of the fox or the hare. This being useless, he attempts to escape by plunging into some lake or river that happens to lie in his way, and when, at last, every attempt to escape proves abortive, he boldly faces his pursuers, and attacks the first dog or man who approaches him."[24]
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Southern Hound.
There used to be in the south of Devon a pack or cry of the genuine old English or southern hounds. There is some reason to believe that this was the original stock of the island, or of this part of the island, and that this hound was used by the ancient Britons in the chase of the larger kinds of game with which the country formerly abounded. Its distinguishing characters are its size and general heavy appearance; its great length of body, deep chest, and ears remarkably large and pendulous. The tones of its voice were peculiarly deep. It answered the description of Shakspeare: |
"So flewed, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd, like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each."
It was the slowness of the breed which occasioned its disuse. Several of them, however, remained not long ago at a village called Aveton Gifford, in Devonshire, in the neighbourhood of which some of the most opulent of the farmers used to keep two or three dogs each. When fox-hunting had assumed somewhat of its modern form, the chase was followed by a slow heavy hound, whose excellent olfactory organs enabled him to carry on the scent a considerable time after the fox-hound passed, and also over grassy fallows, and hard roads, and other places, where the modern high-bred fox-hound would not be able to recognise it. Hence the chase continued for double the duration which it does at present, and hence may be seen the reason why the old English hunter, so celebrated in former days and so great a favourite among sportsmen of the old school, was enabled to perform those feats which were exultingly bruited in his praise. The fact is, that the hounds and the horse were well matched. If the latter possessed not the speed of the Meltonian hunter, the hounds were equally slow and stanch.
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