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TUFTS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 3 9090 014 533 588 
 
 Webster Family Library of Veterinary MedScine 
 Cummlngs School of Veterinary Medicine at 
 Tufts University 
 200 Westboro Road 
 North Grafton, MA 01536 
 
FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
LONDON : PRINTED BY 
 
 EDWAKD J. FRANCIS, TOOK'S COURT, 
 
 CHANCERY LANE, E.C. 
 
FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 Umcticallg (&oxvMmh; 
 
 HYDROPHOBIA Am DISTEMPER ; 
 AVITH SOME KE MARKS ON DARWIN. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Hon. GRANTLEY F. BERKELEY. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 •^^i^' 
 
 l.oubou : 
 SAMUEL TINSLEY, 
 
 10, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND. 
 
 1874. 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 
11 
 
 \ 
 
— ♦ — 
 
 TO HER SERENE HIGHNESS, 
 
 THE PRINCESS EDWARD OF SAXE WEIMAR, 
 
 WITH THE HIGHEST SENTIMENTS OF REGARD. AND ESTIMATION, 
 BY HER SINCERE FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This work ought to have been piiljllshed in the 
 autumn of 1872. Delay arose from no fliult of 
 the author, hut highly cletrmiental to him from 
 an author's point of view, as a season was thus 
 lost at a time when the subject of his work, and 
 matters therein discussed, were awakening a wide 
 interest, and creating a demand for an explanation 
 of the author'^ practical positions. 
 
 With regard to one important subject treated 
 of in this work, much mischievous inconvenience 
 has arisen from my having deemed it a civil 
 duty to reply to questions asked me in weekly 
 papers. Upon the appearance of those ^^ replies 
 to correspondents" there arose much vitupera- 
 tion, of course from anonymous writers, having 
 apparently little faith in the respectability of 
 their real names. 
 
 In the body of this work I have explained 
 that even after vaccination a dog may have 
 common distemper, either by contact or inocula- 
 tion, a second time ; but always, in that case, 
 in a very mitigated form. 
 
YIU riiKFACE. 
 
 It was this conviction, and to avoid this possi- 
 bility, that made me take special care that the 
 Yoimg hounds, that had come into kennel for the 
 '^ entry," could by no means get into contact, 
 nose to nose, with the body of old hounds. 
 
 ^' Hydrophobia," happily, is extremely rare ; 
 and, wide as tlie belief is in that silly term 
 ''rabies," which men under red feathers would have 
 us believe to be the disease incurable, or only to 
 be treated with pills of lead, where is there a 
 man who has dog-kennels enough at his command 
 to house or put up the dogs that might be sent 
 him for experiment or in number similar to 
 those in my possession ? 
 
 Unless each dog has a certificate from a sensible 
 owner to say whether or not he had liad the distem- 
 per, or had been vaccinated to prevent his having it, 
 the saliva from the dog's jaws would tell no decided 
 tale, so far as concerns madness from distem2:)er, 
 hydrophobia, or any other insanity whatever. 
 
 It may be all very well to request people, all 
 of whom have an inflammatory dread of the ''ill 
 name that liangs a dog," to tale saliva from Ms 
 jaws ; but, having myself been a constant atten- 
 dant on hundreds of cases annually, for more than 
 half . a century, I know the dread of servants, 
 even those best trained to obedience, when told 
 to touch a liound or dog afflicted Avitli anf/ sort 
 of insanityj subjecting it to that accursed and all- 
 including appellation, "a mad dog." 
 
PKEFACE. IX 
 
 Lot the ^^ Red Feather" ask his superior, the 
 ^' Green Feather," if in the hmnan race insanity 
 does not manifest itself in a hundred different 
 directions. The thinking, and, to a great extent, 
 reasoning^ brains of animals, — of the dog espe- 
 cially, — are just as liable to varied forms of 
 aberration as those of the human race. How 
 foolish, then, how cruel to timid men, nervous 
 women, and young children, to horse-shoe their 
 minds with a nailed and clinched horror that 
 every so-called ^^ mad dog" they see, brings de- 
 struction and death in a single bite. 
 
 In the following pages there is a story of a 
 dog supposed to be mad with hydrophobia, and 
 a sentinel of the Guards, whose box in St. James's 
 Park was beneath the walls of my father's 
 garden, close to Spring Gardens passage. That 
 tale demonstrates the madness of a collected 
 mob, and the wise and gentle determination of a 
 poor, little, apparently friendless girl, in rescuing 
 her favourite from the insane cruelty of a crowd, 
 and the presented bayonet of a soldier, which w^as 
 about to dislodge the forlorn little four-footed 
 intruder from the sentry-box, where it had sought 
 safety from its pursuers in its terror and distress. 
 
 In the cause of humanity, and in defence of 
 the poor dog, I deeply regret to say that it has 
 more than once become known to me, that, for 
 the sake of a ^^lark," the lowest of the lower 
 orders, when able to steal or entice a dog into 
 
TREFACE. 
 
 their baneful possession, have anointed his limbs, 
 or more sensitive parts of the frame, with a 
 mixtm^e denominated ^^ horse oils." Then, if in 
 a town or populous place, they have turned this 
 poor agonized animal out of doors, for the time 
 essentially mad, but no more mad, from any 
 disease fatal to himself or any other creature, 
 than a newly-born lamb. The appearance of this 
 poor animal, particularly when the mind of a 
 population has been frightfully imposed on, then 
 gives rise to a mischievously designed cry and 
 to an exciting chase, always acceptable to the 
 lowest of the low. Policemen follow in cabs, kill 
 an innocent dog, and get cheered for their courage. 
 The attention of the Police, and the Society 
 for the Protection of Animals, had better have 
 punished the biped villains, and spared the poor 
 quadruped, whose temporary madness emanated 
 from designing man. 
 
 Grantley F. Berkeley. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is usual for authors, I know not why, to begin 
 tlieir work with an Introduction, intimating to 
 hoped-for readers the contents of the consecutive 
 pages, briefly, but still in a manner to disclose the 
 object and design of the author. If sensation be 
 the object, the pen assumes to be dipped in tears, 
 love and murder balance in the scale, and the onh' 
 thing kept out of sight is, whether happiness or 
 horror is to kick the beam. 
 
 My last work but one went to its second 
 edition on the evening after the morning of its 
 birth, — so that, at least, appears to iiave been a 
 thriving bantling of the brain. My next work, 
 ' Tales of Life and Death,' met with a flattering 
 reception, though the guardian to whose care the 
 infant was- entrusted ^^flew in the face of the 
 family," — to quote Lord Eldon's dictum on another 
 matter, — ^' neglected the interests of the minor," 
 and, by so doing, according to that puisne Judge, 
 
Xll INTrtODUCTlON. 
 
 conimitted a literary crime deserving' the most 
 serious reprehension. 
 
 This present work needs no introduction from 
 me, nor much guardianship, Nature being both 
 its nurse and guardian. Fiction ^^ fashes not my 
 brain/' nor is there a plot, save a garden-plot, 
 to clog by its influence the smooth com^se of my 
 intentions. 
 
 My precejDtress, Nature, sits kindly by me. If I 
 need a word of affection, gentle and sublime, I have 
 only to listen to the dear birds or the fall of the 
 murmuring water ; if, on the contrary, the hasty 
 syllables of action suit my mood, I seem to hear 
 the mighty roar of the beast at bay, — I recall the 
 dangerous beauty of the bison's or the Avild boar's 
 cliarge, and the stern self-reliance which the dan- 
 gerous hour demands from man. Sweet sounds, 
 harsh sounds, jileasaut to the sportsman's ear, 
 these are my counsellors ; and if I have to be very 
 gentle in narration, then, in the flowers of my 
 garden I can bury my face, inhale their sweet 
 essence, and from that source draw the few j^oetical 
 expressions my truthful task demands. 
 
 I write of Nature and her l)eautiful behests, her 
 works of mystery, from the elephant and lion down 
 
IXTRODUCTION. XIU 
 
 to the tiniest insect tliat labours in its appointed 
 calling, and, to its utmost power, defends its young 
 to its little life. 
 
 If I cannot iind aid from so wide a source of 
 inspiration, then ami ^^ poor indeed." But ^^my 
 mind does not fail me," therefore '^ I fear no fall," 
 and in full reliance on my theme, — a practical 
 naturalist, a sportsman, and a worshipper of Nature, 
 ■ — I invite the attention of the reading public, and 
 most of all the kind notice of her to Avliom I have 
 dedicated this work, the graceful owner of a heart 
 which to me has never deviated in its friendly feel- 
 ings, nor altered with the change which constantly 
 perverts the world. 
 
 When one of the objects at which I have aimed 
 in the following pages is to remove from the human 
 mind a causeless apprehension of dreadful death, 
 which often tends to bring about the very result 
 from which the nervous mind most shrinks, surely 
 that attempt may ask a graceful patronage, and 
 meet a kind reception from the gentler sex.* When^ 
 
 ■^ See the result of the inquest by the Liverpool Coroner on the 
 body of James CuUen, as reported in the Macclesfield Coicrier, 
 of the 9th of May. A doctor who had been called in claimed this 
 death to have arisen from " hydrophobia," but the 2^ost-mortem 
 examination gave the result of ''died from an ulcer in the throat." 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 combined with tins object, is my desire, to win for 
 that most affectionate and faithful companion of 
 man and woman, the dog, more merciful kindness 
 in an ailing hour, surely if I cannot ^'command 
 success," I shall, at least, have done well in the 
 '^ endeavour to deserve it." With that hope I 
 proceed to the Augean task before me. 
 
 To swee]) away deep-rooted prejudice, to combat 
 errors imbibed in nursery hours, to refute the sense- 
 less doctrines promulgated by old women of all 
 sorts, whether of the fabulous broom-bestriding 
 order, or those of the Veterinary College, who do 
 not confine their practice to the ailments of troop- 
 horses,- — surely this is a task that might daunt my 
 energy; but I bring to it the long experience of 
 an eventful life, and bear a banner on Avliich the 
 guiding hand of Nature has inscribed ^^Love, kind- 
 ness, and hmnanity to man and brute," and a fear 
 of neither the one nor the other. 
 
 Thus armed '^ I fear no failure and I dread no 
 fall," but leave my work to the judgment of the 
 public, and court for it the closest investigation. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. Darwin and Delusion 1 
 
 II. Hunting, and Riding to Hounds . . . .19 
 
 III. Breeding and Hunting of Foxhounds . . . Qo 
 
 IV. On Distemper and Madness among Hounds . 103 
 
 V. Diseases to avhica Hounds are Liable . . 13G 
 
 VI. Effects of Physic on Hound and Dog— Kennel 
 
 Discipline — The Fox 17G 
 
 VII. Fallacies and Facts 195 
 
 VIII. Instinct and Reason in Dogs, Birds, Fishes, etc. 220 
 
 IX. Reason in the Dog 250 
 
 X. The Use of Dogs 2i5o 
 
 XI. Scent and Smell Contrasted .... 305 
 
 XII. The difficlty of dealing with Panics . .330 
 
FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DARWIN AND DELUSION. 
 
 Mr. Darwin's clever Book on " The Origin of Species " — Must we 
 give up air the pleasant illusions of our Childhood? — Early- 
 Impressions — Man and Ape — Dog — Tails — Sincerity of Tails — 
 A Supposed Case — Fossil Kemains — Curious Fact — Traveller's 
 Tales — Apollo and the Nine — Beards veisus Legs — Tale of the 
 Lady and the Frog — Tales to be cautiously received — Truth- 
 telling Tails. 
 
 When a man sits down to write on sjDort, on 
 hounds and horses, on riding, shooting and fishing, 
 and on the natural history of the living things that 
 render beautiful this sunny ^ Avorld and tempt him 
 out to brave the gloom and inclemency of winter, 
 his ideas ought to be based on practical experience. 
 He should cease to think of the dictum of the 
 bygone historian, and cast from his mind every 
 obsolete prejudice. My endeavour thus to under- 
 take the task in hand has been somewhat baffled by 
 
 VOL, I. B 
 
2 FACTS AGAINST riCTION. 
 
 the clever and elaborate work of Darwin on "• Tlie 
 Descent of Man.'' 
 
 Have the soft ideas of our childhood been made 
 the field of imposition ? Has the expanding mind 
 of boyhood been led into a false path simply to 
 find it a road to ruin ? Was all that was instilled 
 during the most plastic jieriod of his increasing 
 intelligence merely a sowing of chaff? and is the 
 man to stand rudely reft of all his earliest impres- 
 sions ? Is he to look upon himself only as an 
 improved (J) wolA more vicious ape or jelly-fish? — 
 evil purpose and evil passion increasing side by 
 side with the education of the brain^ with the loss 
 of his hairy coat, and the abduction of his tail ! 
 
 As a child and boy my mind was, of course, to 
 some extent, impressed by the first nursery notions 
 of religion — by the rude psalmody then sung, 
 in country churches, through the noses of noteless 
 boys and girls. But presumption was always a part 
 of my character, as it ought to be in that of every 
 boy or man who wishes to succeed in anything; for, 
 if either man or boy says to his tnzdaring self, — 
 " Fain would I climb but that I fear to fall," 
 
 the reply is obviouSj — 
 
 " If thy mind fail thee, do not climb at all." 
 
DARWIN AND DELUSION. 6 
 
 Presumption and assumption are widely different ; 
 and I Avould say to all my juniors, '^ Assume 
 nothing, but presume to hope and ask for all." 
 
 Being, then, as I have said, a presumptuous boy, 
 my nature inclined me to think for myself; but 
 this inclination, whenever it showed itself in a 
 desire to question the w^isdom of my elders, was 
 immediately repressed, and imi^ressed^ by a nut 
 stick, which I did not much care for, but, worse 
 still, by threats that if I did not mend I should 
 eventually be sent to reside with a demon wdiom 
 Darwin, the Duke of Somerset, and other noble and 
 learned men, have since declared to be a ruminat- 
 ing animal or a myth. When groAvn to manhood, 
 when those I loved with all my heart and soul (I 
 use this word without fear of Darwin or the Devil) 
 had revolved with a revolving world, reversed their 
 position towards me, and reft of all the sunshine 
 they could cloud the heart once so joyous, even then 
 my mind would turn to those earlier hours, with a 
 yearning to go back to them, with a singleness of 
 purpose, and a deep devotion, perhaps, seldom felt 
 in man's estate * 
 
 The shock was rude that slioolc my faith in the 
 
 threatened horrors to be expected from that black 
 
 d2 
 
4 FACTS AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 demon who, as boys, in our dramatic performance of 
 Pmicli, we used to introduce to our audience as 
 descending from above (an error, I grant), witli a 
 taper at his back to shine behind his red silk eyes, 
 a pitchfork in his hand, a cloven foot stuck mis- 
 chievously out, and a tail, angrily and severely 
 forked, set up behind him, towering far above his 
 head. In this demoniacal representation of the 
 so-called chastiser of sin, I firmly believed. My 
 tutor — Heaven rest his soul ! — never attempted to 
 undeceive me ; nor did my nurses, nor any one 
 else. They, I sujDpose, like the priests of old and 
 the Jesuits now, saw that we feared the imaginary 
 monster, and found our childish belief in tail 
 and pitchfork a useful restraint to keej) us from 
 mischief. 
 
 Alas! that the demon with his cloven foot, the 
 hellish tails, and nursery tales, should all have 
 been swept away by the damnable* doctrines of 
 Darwin, and even the milder charity of the Duke 
 of Somerset ! Eeft of my early fond belief, 
 shocked, astonished, and in some lingering doubt, 
 
 " Keader, do not think I swear, or apply this word unadvisedly 
 to Darwin's doctrines. The " bishops, priests, and deacons," all 
 pious men, &c., will ui^hold me in its use, and will, perhaps, add 
 still greater pungency to its flavour. 
 
DARWIN AND DELUSION. 5 
 
 here tliey leave me, ^^ alone in life's desert"; yet, 
 I trust, in spite of Darwin, looking beyond all 
 mists and myths, witli a hope " still pointing to 
 heaven." That happy faith, or presmnption, cannot 
 be taken from me by ^^ jelly-fish, ape, or tailless 
 monkey," nor yet by any self-satisfied professor 
 who may choose to aim his grej-goose shafts at all 
 old and long-establivshed religion, — to efface from 
 the ancient traditional pictm^e those well-known 
 forms of Adam and Eve, the guileful and successful 
 serpent, the very sour and excessively bad apple, 
 and the insufiicient leaf. 
 
 Before a man, however clever, eloquent, and 
 learned, boldly tries to upset a religion that has 
 been believed in, and is still believed in by many, 
 he should take care to be as well or better informed 
 on other matters dealt with, as he assumes him- 
 self to be on this the most important of all. Many 
 of Darwdn's physiological assertions are utterly 
 wrong. Quoting from Huxley, he says, ^^ The mode 
 of origin" (I qualify my belief in this) ^^ in man, dog, 
 bird, /rog, and fish, is, in the early stages of 
 development, identical"; but in the ^^ higher sj)hcrc 
 of anatomical identity," I do not deny that ''man^^ 
 is far nearer to apes than man or ape is to the dog. 
 
6 FACTS AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 Tlio dog is far superior to the ape in the structure 
 and action of the brain, and in point of reason is 
 close on the heels of man. The brain, and the 
 undoubted jDOwer of reason, the strength, recol- 
 lection, and duration of affection for ojie object, and 
 a resolution to defend with his life his master or 
 mistress, who are not of his kin, all tend to prove 
 that, as yet, the dog resembles man, and good men, 
 too, much more than man resembles the ape, how- 
 ever apish man may be ; and, perhaps, in some of 
 the best j)hases of his shorter life, the dog sur2:)asses 
 the said-to-be upright and tailless monkey ! 
 
 Darwin considers the loss of what would now be 
 human tails as the result of what he calls 'Asexual 
 selection" in some original ape, — which ape may 
 have eaten his tail, as sick monkeys sometimes do, 
 or he may have lost it by accident, and not from 
 the good effects of superior intercourse. He also 
 lays great stress on the growth of hair on head 
 and ])eard, and on the fineness and smoothness of 
 skin. Sujipose I carry his vast and superior ob- 
 servations with me at this moment to my pigstye, 
 — begging his pardon for offering so lowly an illus- 
 tration, — I therein invite his attention to some very 
 fair-skinned pigs, fair, in some places, as the very 
 
DAKWIN AND DELUSION. 7 
 
 foircst skin of tlic liimianized ape, and witli hardly 
 a hair upon the whole surface of their ])odies. 
 More than this, those jngs, if I am to believe the 
 ^^ Darwinian theory," mast he, through ^'sexual 
 selection " of their parents, in a state of transition 
 to superior form ; for, though born with little curly 
 tails on a remarkably human flesh-like spot, they 
 have invariably, at a very early age, shed their 
 tails and become pork, as free from that appen- 
 dage as any monkey ancestor that ever existed in 
 Darwin's theoretical mind. So much, then, for the 
 Darwin tale about tails, for my tale, and hence to 
 the tails, or sterns, as sportsmen term them, of the 
 thorough-bred canine race. 
 
 Is truth, is sincerity, a commendable virtue ? Is 
 the undoubted exj)ression of heartfelt pleasure, in 
 which there can be no mistake, a source of gratifi- 
 cation to the pleased observer ? On the other hand, 
 are deceit and falsehood to be detested? Is it 
 agreeable to possess the power of divining at once 
 the truth of words, of ascertaining the worth and 
 real meaning of a smile which seems to beam over 
 the eye, filling it with living light ? Is the power 
 to separate truth from falsehood, to see beyond the 
 mere word and feature, a source of happiness or 
 
8 FACTS AGAINST FICTIOX. 
 
 wisdom? If so, then, in spite of Darwin, let us 
 all have tails again — tails beyond our control, that 
 will wag, whether we like it or not, and leave no 
 longer any doubt of the sensation or emotion that 
 really governs the mind ! 
 
 Truly society, as at present constituted, might 
 offer some grave objections to such a state of 
 things, more particularly in the ranks of ^'fashion." 
 For instance, at our balls in palace, hall, or castle, 
 with dresses worn as they now are, of course no 
 tail would appear, but still its spontaneous ^^wag" 
 might contradict the uttered word, and most 
 inconveniently betray the real feelings of the 
 heart. In vain Avould the prudent mother whisper 
 to her daughter, '' there is that man coming to ask 
 you to dance, my love. Say you are engaged, or 
 it is too hot." In vain does the poor girl, who 
 perhaps really prefers the undesirable younger 
 brother, utter the prompted words of refusal, tlie 
 graceful folds of the tarlatan are rustled, and the 
 thrill of pleasure in her heart made audible by the 
 quick taps of the truth-telling tail upon the chair. 
 
 It might be inconvenient to have one's tail 
 trodden on in a crowded assembly ; but that ought 
 not to weigh against the wagging sincerity which 
 
DAR^YIN AND DELUSION. 9 
 
 would ccrtamly pervade the world if the liunmiiizcd 
 ape liad not lost his tail by being tamed and turned 
 into man. 
 
 The dog's tail cannot deceive. '' What stirs the 
 dog ? his ears and tail." No teaching in the world 
 can cloak the expression of his ^^ ears and tail," 
 nor conceal the honest love that really lives within 
 him. His tail will only wag at the approach of 
 those to whom he is attached, or from whom he at 
 the moment receives kindness : if he feels not 
 pleasure, his tail is still. If angered and resolutely 
 prepared for war, he bears it erect and stiff for the 
 brave encounter ; if worsted in fair fight, or 
 stricken with fear, he lowers it and retires ; but if 
 he is a vile-hearted, mean cur, he runs away at 
 once, with his tail, as the expression goes, between 
 his legs. 
 
 There is no doubt that some of the most sagacious 
 dogs, in occasional breeds, as in shepherd's dogs, 
 are to be found without tails ; but that, according 
 to the present theory, may be because they 
 are in more immediate transition to superior 
 things. 
 
 That dogs are gifted with reasoning powers, I 
 mean to prove elsewhere, but for the present 
 
10 FACTS AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 content myself with mere references to the matter 
 contained in the theoretic book before me. 
 
 If Darwin, in his curious and most extensive 
 researches, could only have established the fact 
 of a fossil ape, first as an original ape, and then 
 have discovered the fossil remains of an ape in an 
 improved form, leading on to the tailless ape or 
 man, he would have had something more than 
 theory on which to l3ase his amusing imagination. 
 If monkeys or apes were, as he says, the original 
 ancestors of man, then, in all probability, some 
 transitional specimens would remain in a state of 
 stony preservation; instead of which, neither 
 monkey nor man can be found, although the 
 most perishable of all bones, those of tlic ^^ water- 
 rat," are known to exist in a fossil state. 
 
 In my experience among wild animals some 
 extraordinary facts have fallen under my notice; 
 such, for instance, as the double uterus of ^ 
 healthful doe being found to contain not only the 
 live fawn, to be ^'fallen" in the next succeeding 
 May or June, l^ut also the remains of a dead fawn 
 of tlie previous breeding season, which ought to 
 have been born, but had never come to light. 
 
 I do not, therefore, reject a fact, merely because 
 
DAllWIN AND DELUSION. 11 
 
 it is unusual or incxplicaljlc ; but I do not deal in 
 tlioories, and I never believe, or take as trutli, any- 
 thing solely because I am told it. 
 
 I do not accej)t, on mere assertion, such mis- state- 
 ments as that gorillas frighten lions by their roar, 
 or the story of that Abyssinian troop of baboons, 
 the old males of which hurried down from their 
 rocks to rescue others of their tribe which were 
 attacked by dogs, and who ^^ roared so fearfully 
 that their assailants preci^utately retreated." 
 
 It is too much to say that ''all animals cherish 
 an invariable love for their offspring which nothing 
 can interfere with, and which overcomes all 
 rougher or more cruel inclinations," for my ex- 
 perience shows me that the sow, the ferret, the 
 doe-rabbit, and even the mouse, on very slight 
 provocation, will murder and eat their young. 
 
 If it is true that the swallows and house martins, 
 to which Darwin alludes, leave their young to 
 perish in deserted nests when the period for 
 migration arrives, this shows tliat they are not so 
 considerate in tlieir maternal love as a quotation 
 in the work before me supposes. 
 
 I perfectly agree with the assertion in ^^age 192, 
 Chap. VI., that '' the faces of many of Mr. 
 
12 FACTS AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 Darwin's man monkeys, not yet ascended to 
 humanity, 'are ornamented with beards, whiskers, 
 and moustaches." I see them very frequently in 
 man, the beard sometimes in such over-profusion, 
 when contrasted with the small, pale, monkey-faco 
 to which it is ostentatiously appended, and the 
 attenuated legs over which it presides, that the 
 possessors of this hirsute horror remind me of small 
 vegetable productions which have let themselves 
 run to seed, and become miserably impoverished 
 by the crop which their constitutions, their chins, 
 and their conceits have not the stamina healthfully 
 to sustain. 
 
 I am glad, however, that Darwin, in his re- 
 search, at times foundationless, has set at rest, to 
 some extent, the doubt as to the ^^ wisdom of a 
 child in knowing its own father." He tells us that 
 he himself, and all naturalists who believe in ^'the 
 principle of evolution," will grant that the two 
 main divisions of the ^^ Simiad^ie," namely, the 
 ^^Catarhine" and ^^ Platyrhine " monkeys, have 
 all proceeded from some one extremely ancient 
 j)rogenitor. 
 
 Darwin saj^s, at page 336 of the second volume, 
 that ^^ Dr. Seemann observes greater intensity of 
 
DARWIN AND DELUSION. 13 
 
 feeling in a single musical note than in pages of 
 writing." On my honest word, I cordially agree in 
 this very natural opinion ! Then, what a field of 
 wild harmony Darwin opens before us ! The first 
 monkeys must have sung, nor ape nor monkey 
 ever could have " roarecr'' lovably and harmo- 
 niously, passionately and to perfection, seated on 
 the topmost bough which would bear their weight, 
 to a crowd of female listeners. 
 
 There is, hanging in one of my rooms, a picture 
 of '' Apollo and the Nine," all in undress, and 
 among them only one chaperone— she, however, is 
 in possession of an immense shield. The hair of 
 Apollo is visibly on fire, he being, probably, in a 
 state of transition to the operatic ape ; but he evi- 
 dently does not agree with Darwin in the opinion 
 that male birds become gradually possessed of fine 
 plumage from the influence, during their moult, of 
 a wish to charm the female. Any such wish the 
 Apollo of the picture has evidently laid aside, for 
 he has utterly plucked himself of both feather and 
 finery, and is represented to us, in heraldic phrase^ 
 as '' a savage man proper," with his head on 
 fire. 
 
 Having to treat of birds in another portion of 
 
14 FACTS A(iAlNST IICTION. 
 
 my work, 1 iiuist puss over soiiio few theories on 
 iintural lilstoiy <4*oii(n'aHy, and oriiitliology in par- 
 ticular; l)ut tlio Darwinian theory ^' On Heads" is 
 sucli a stmuhliiii^'-block in my way to truth, that it 
 must b(^ iu)IIc(hI. 
 
 lie tells us that our a])e-like progenitors acquired 
 their beards as an ornament to charm the opi)Osite 
 sex, and transmitted them lo man as lie now exists. 
 This, accordiiig to all ]ny (^x])erieuce, is an utterly 
 wild and nonsensical theory. If the express })ur- 
 pose of the nuin-ap[)roacliing monkeys of the rising 
 world had been to acquire that which wouhl most 
 captivate the feminine eye, hair would never have 
 been cultivated on the chins and faces of om* parental 
 precursors. On the contrar}', their minds would 
 have been set on tiie culture of better legs — ''those 
 twin invaders of domestic peace," as the inimitable 
 ''Boz" has termed them. From all the observa- 
 tions I have been able to make on surrounding- 
 society, mupiestionably a good leg is more ca])ti- 
 vating to the fenude heart than the most bearded 
 chin or the best-trained moustache, often cultivated 
 only to conceal some defect of mouth, teeth, or 
 expression. 
 
 In my time, monarchs ruled the uniform of the 
 
DARWIN AND DELUSION'. 15 
 
 araiy by their ovv'n royal legs. George the Fourth , 
 who was my godfather, put me in tights when I 
 joined the Coldstream Guards, for he had very good 
 legs; and William the Fourth took me out of tights 
 and put me in loose trousers, because his legs were 
 not of so irresistiVjle a quality as hLs brothers. 
 
 The following anecdote may not be unamusing 
 to my readers, and it is strictly relevant to the 
 subject on which I am writing; for though the 
 circumstance occmTcd at a time antecedent to 
 Darwin, the heroine of my story had evidently 
 a notion tliat man and woman, perhaps Adam 
 and Eve, were descended from pre-Adamite frogs ; 
 at all events, slie thought the human race were, in 
 some of their exercises and habits, similar to frogs. 
 
 The lady to whom I allude was a strong- 
 minded woman, not handsome nor young ; the 
 absence of personal charms had, perhaps, tended 
 to strengthen her savage and unyielding virtue : 
 I say unyielding, but I know not if the fortress 
 was ever besieged. In some things she resembled 
 the young lady — I suppose her young — wlio so 
 wittily advocated ''woman suffrage'' at a recent 
 public meeting, quoting the clever speech of one 
 of George Eliot's best*drawn characters^ to tlie 
 
16 FACTS AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 effect tliat '' women were made fools to match the 
 men." 
 
 My strong-minded woman was old, and, being 
 practical in everything, determined to learn to 
 swim. In those days there were no ^' ladies' 
 swimming baths," where an accomplished female 
 swimmer instructs young ladies in the art ; and she 
 woukl have died of sheer ferocity if a bathing- 
 man had done anything more than conduct his 
 machine into the water. Before going on a 
 contemplated sojourn at the seaside, she caused 
 a gold-fish basin in her garden to be considerably 
 enlarged, and a close awning to be raised over it, 
 to shut out the rays of the wicked morning sun. 
 About this pond, in its pristine state, she had often 
 seen frogs, which, when startled at her approach, 
 would take headers back into the water, to the 
 great disturbance of the gorgeous fish, and she 
 had observed how well frogs could swim. Upon 
 this hint she acted; caused a vigorous frog to be 
 caught and conveyed to her chamber, that she 
 might study his action at leisure. Having learned 
 all she could, and confident in her own powers, 
 she carried her tutor frog in his basin to the 
 garden, and let him out into what she had caused 
 
DARWIN AXD DELlJSIOX. 17 
 
 to be made a deep, tlioiigli small jnecc of water. 
 No sooner did she see her enfrancliised frog strike 
 merrily off, than head foremost she plunged in 
 after him, directly in his Avake ; but, alas ! 
 imitating her preceptor too closely, she stuck her 
 arms against her sides, with her hands on her 
 hips, and, striking out only with her legs, went 
 head foremost to the bottom. 
 
 My readers will learn from this anecdote that we 
 must not too readily adopt every old-womanish 
 idea about our close approximation to jelly-fish, 
 monkeys, or frogs, any more than we must put 
 faith in those nursery tales whicli amuse the earlier 
 years of boy and girl, often leading to mischievous 
 consequences. 
 
 There is no doubt that all creatures in emhrijo 
 must, in some points, resemble each other. Life 
 must be subject to one governing principle, in 
 position; in that, if healthful, it seldom varies. 
 This principle is carried down to the chicken in 
 the Q^gg^ and even to the vegetable world, for the 
 frond of the rising fern is bent like the neck of the 
 unhatched chicken, to lift and break through the 
 substance that confines it. 
 
 Of course, scientific practitioners know more of 
 
 VOL. I, c 
 
18 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 these tilings tlian we do, and may be able to 
 ex2)lain tlic strange contingencies wliicli sometimes 
 occm^ ; such, for instance, as that before quoted by 
 me Avith regard to the internal structure of the 
 doc, and her power to carry a double burden, 
 dead and alive — a j^ower which pertains to no 
 other creature that we know of. 
 
 During the six years that I was employed in the 
 destruction of the deer in the Eoyal New Forest, 
 such things as the above were often brought 
 under my eye, for the Whig Government ordained 
 that everything of the deer kind should be at once 
 slain, without regard to age, sex, or condition. 
 
 Before this book concludes, I may have to 
 allude to Darwinian theories again, and to glaring 
 mistakes in ornithology. In his work, so far as 
 it has gone, I see nothing to shake my present 
 conviction that if we, the human race, ever were 
 apes or monkeys, and if what Darwin calls 
 '^ sexual selection " induced us to get rid of our 
 tails, when we lost those truth-telling appendages 
 we, at the same time, were dispossessed of our 
 sincerity* 
 
 " Thougli wagging talcs of men on fiction borrow, 
 'The (diis of dogs arc true in joy and sorrow." 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 
 
 Snaffle Bridle— Curb— " Brutus," " Jack o' Lantern," ''Taymouth"— 
 Useful Hint from Lord Suffolk — I^ever Frighten your Horse — 
 Ha-has — Mr. Norton, of Uxbridge — Incident in the New 
 Forest — Ladies' Horsemanship — Whyte Melville's reference to 
 the Author's " Beminiscences of a Huntsman " — Judge Talfourd 
 and the Doctor — Ladies Biding to Hounds — Men Biding to 
 Hounds — Putting a Horse at a Fence. 
 
 I AM not sure, but I think it was the late Mr. 
 Assheton Smith who said that there was not one 
 horse in a hundred to be ridden to hounds agreeably 
 at his best in a snaffle bridle, and not one man 
 in ten thousand fit to ride hunting Avith a curb. 
 Of course, by this, it was intended to ^particularize 
 the ciu'b as combined with the snaffle and the 
 double rein. " Griffith's Patent Snaffle," at one 
 time so mistakenly puffed in the Field, is a myth 
 as far as restraint to hard pullers. In my length- 
 ened experience as rider to hounds, as well as 
 
 c 2 
 
20 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 Master of Stag Hounds, and afterwards of Fox- 
 hounds, I do not think — in fact, I am certain — 
 that I never rode a hunter in a single-reined 
 snaffle. I have, in ninety-nine cases out of a 
 hundred, ridden hunting on the snaffle of a double 
 rein, with the curb only lightly touched to keep 
 the horse's head in the right place, or in deep 
 ground the better to hold him together; and I 
 have ridden on a ^'gag snaffle," also touching the 
 curb rein when the horse was a determined hard 
 23uller, inclined to get his head down and hang 
 upon the bit; and I have ridden several horses 
 who went most agreeably and ^^Avithin them- 
 selves," in a ^^lard and sharp." In short, as it is 
 said with ladies, there are scarce two horses alike, 
 and very few hands on a horse that are similar to each 
 other in their principle of governing the beautiful 
 animal when in fall exertion of all his powers. 
 
 Among the many curious mouths I have met 
 with in hunters, a horse called '' Captain," which 
 I bought of the late Sir George Seymour, liad 
 the most strange. His mouth entirely depended 
 on his temper, and his temper on the work he 
 was ashed to do by the huntsman on his back with 
 hounds. If the work with hounds at a clieck 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 21 
 
 called mo out of a lane, wliercin was stationed 
 all ^^tlic field/' ^^Caj)tain'' was sure to refuse to 
 go; when, on feeling tlie spurs or the double 
 tliong, in order to force him from his ill humour 
 — caressing was out of the question — he would 
 bore down his rather heavy liead, — no pulling at 
 him could prevent it, — and seize the ground with 
 his teeth, when, even with a severe gag rein with 
 sharp twisted snaffle, there was no getting his head 
 up again as long as he was desired to go the way 
 he did not wish. Pat him and let him have 
 his own way, like a human being, and he became 
 as docile as possible ; but when you countered 
 with him in opinion, he became the most sullenly 
 obstinate quadruped, in existence. His restiveness 
 arose from mere matter of opinion, and his resist- 
 ance was passive ; he did not swerve to the right 
 or left, or desire to rush anywhere ; he neither 
 reared, kicked, nor plunged: he stood still, made 
 no attempt to unseat his rider, but merely got his 
 head down, and with his teeth laid hold of the 
 ground and stood still, ready, if forced on, to 
 tumble over his own head. He was a splendid 
 horse through dirt, and a perfect fencer, stout and 
 fast, and when with a good start with hounds he 
 
22 FACT AGxVINST FICTION. 
 
 felt tliat there was no other work demanded of him 
 than keeping a foremost place, nothing could afford 
 a rider greater pleasm^e than sitting on the saddle 
 and simply guiding him to tlie best line, and 
 choosing the lightest going and the most prac- 
 ticable fences to keep him there. 
 
 I had another horse, but I forget his name now, 
 who had no mouth when he was out of temper, but 
 temper made the orifice through which he ate his 
 food as obdurate to the touch as his manger or a 
 pillar of stone. He never attempted to bolt nor 
 run away, but if in working with the hounds you 
 offended him, he did not become hot nor wildly 
 eager, but for all that he over-pulled you, and was 
 very difficult to stop or turn. This imj^ossibility 
 of mouth I at last obviated by passing the curb 
 chain from his double rein through his mouth, 
 instead of under his chin, and with the bit so dealt 
 witli lie would not pull an ounce, and, what was 
 more, he did not so materially lose his temper. I 
 have tried this plan since on pulling horses, and it 
 never fails in its effect ; but what power a curb 
 chain so placed can possess, I am utterly at a loss 
 to discover, for it acts in no way with severity, 
 nor in any severe manner, and yet the hardest 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 23 
 
 pullers succumb to tlio curb clmin so situated. 
 Notlung to mo is more annoying tlian to see 
 a hard and heavy undiscriminating hand domi- 
 neering over a soft mouth. ^^Fret" in every 
 swelling vein of the poor dear creature's tortured 
 neck, ensanguined foam on his champing lips, 
 and anger in his beautiful brown eye, all arising 
 from the heavy hand and consequently cumber- 
 ing seat of his clumsy rider. 
 
 On several occasions at coursing meetings I 
 have seen fiery, well-bred hacks bustling about, 
 and when the pace was a walk, adoj^ting an 
 ambling gait, and going at a walk, not head, 
 but tail foremost, or crab-like, sideways. When 
 the course began, away at times went horse 
 and rider in a contrary direction from the start, 
 the horse running away, and the rider thinking 
 only of keeping his seat and being stopped at 
 whatever distance by the uprise of some distant 
 hill. All this heat, speed, and wilfulness is 
 caused by bad horsemanshi]), and letting the horse 
 find out that he could go his own distance at 
 the pace he chose, run away with his rider, and 
 stop when he liked. With another horseman 
 on his back, the case at once altered. I have. 
 
24: FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 occasionally, been mounted on one of tliese really 
 wise animals, who knew very well Avhat ho was 
 about, and at the close of the coursing day the 
 owner of the hack has been surprised how per- 
 fectly docile the animal had become. If a horse, 
 for the moment, ever pulls you, and the coast 
 is clear, let lum gOj with the plain galloping 
 ground under his feet ; tJiat may be pleasant 
 enough to the horse or momentary victor, but, 
 having had his Avill, when the ground changes 
 — a ^'flat,'' even among men, cannot last for ever 
 — when uphill work begins, then let the spur 
 do its office; a long and severely ascending rise 
 takes the running out of anything ! Then it 
 is the rider's time to run away with the horse, 
 the tables are completely turned, and the steed, 
 in a remarkably short space of time, knows that 
 he has a master on his back not to be scared 
 by a spurt of run-away speed, and who will not 
 permit the ''lark'' to be ended when the horse 
 thinks Jie has larked enough. 
 
 I had two hunters in my life, both were bought 
 by me of the late John Elmore, of Duke Street, 
 and their names were '' Brutus," fifteen hands 
 three inches in height, and ^'Jack o' Lantern," 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 25 
 
 and tlioir pictures now adorn the Avails of my 
 dining'-room. When I use the phrase that I liad 
 ^^ two hunters," I v/ish to convey the moaning that 
 though I have had a great many very good ones, 
 these two were out-and-out the best of all. They 
 were very unlike each other in shape and make, 
 and in their favourite modes of fencing and 
 keeping with hounds ; they each were as sensible 
 as the dog, knew what I said, divined what I 
 wished through my hand when the fence was 
 coming, and, let the fence be unexpectedly severe, 
 double, or even treble, they always had their wits 
 as well as their legs and a second sjmng about 
 them, and strength and activity to. spare on any 
 unexpected or dangerous emergency. Brutus 
 always, whatever was the pace at which he 
 crossed the field, slackened his speed, heaved a 
 deep sigh to catch his wind, and took all his fences 
 in a shortened canter or a trot. He was the 
 widest jumper I ever sat on ; but even at a brook 
 he invariably broke into a trot, never thought of 
 refusing, and was ever ready to face an even 
 apparent impossibility. 
 
 Jack o' Lantern, save in the similar resolution 
 to face anything, was just the contrary. He was 
 
26 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 sixteen hands high, nearly quite thoroiigli-bred, 
 and looked it all over, He was much faster than 
 Brutus, and if other horses were crashing the 
 fences round about him he was slightly inclined 
 to rush. But once let him shake off the field, 
 and feel that he had the lead, his immense powers 
 of speed assuring him that he always had a pull 
 upon the hounds, then it was really the poetry 
 of equestrianism to see the beautiful arch of his 
 neck, his nose turned slightly on one side, so that 
 his one eye, for he had but one, might get a sight 
 of all beneath and before him, and then, as the 
 next fence drew nigh, to feel the swell of his ribs 
 as he gathered his wind for exertion, and, then 
 beautifully timing his stroke, to feel him fly his 
 fences, not taking off too soon, and with a latent 
 power in his forearms and shoulders to stretch far 
 beyond any unexpected impediment in his way. 
 His moutli, to his easy double rein, plain snaffle 
 and curb-bit, was as light as the air he breathed ; 
 and Jack o' Lantern and Brutus were the only two 
 of all my horses who, on coming to a double ditch 
 or a ditch much wider than was expected on the 
 contrary side, instead of dropping their legs to 
 try to catch an uncertain bank, would so far 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 27 
 
 open out their splendid shoulders ; that both these 
 liorses, on occasions such as these, I have known 
 by the extraordinary free action of their shoulder- 
 blade and forearm to burst their breastplates 
 from the ^^Ds" at the saddle-bow in their magnifi- 
 cent stretch to compass the unexpected width and 
 get safe over. Brutus occasionally would drop 
 his hind legs for a kick at the bank — I have 
 known him do it at a rail; but Jack never 
 w^ould, — at least, I never was aware that he did it. 
 Both these horses had the most perfect mouths, 
 and both were alike known to all the huntina' 
 country. It was Brutus who carried me over a 
 gravel pit, a standing jumjD twenty -three feet wide, 
 and at the time two men were w^orking at the 
 bottom of it, who were so surprised, that, on my 
 return from hunting, I found them waiting at 
 Crauford, in the servants' hall, with a line, of 
 measurement. I liave loved sjDort of every sort 
 and kind, and I rank the incidents of woodcraft 
 thus : — 
 
 No. 1, to be on the back of a horse like Jack 
 o' Lantern, getting well away with foxhounds 
 over a flying country, and finding yourself with 
 none on either side of you and nobody very close 
 
28 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 belilncl you ! No. 2, to be on the back of a first-rate 
 and manageable horse, such as Taymouth was, and 
 to ride over the wild prairies in America after an old 
 savage bison bull, and to press him enough to make 
 him turn to bay on that immeasurable grassy plain, 
 with all his limbs free from any wound, and then 
 to evade his charge and kill him. The ^^vieux 
 sanglier,'' or old solitary wild boar in the French 
 forests, when he turns to bay in the most dense 
 thicket he can find in the woods, would be grand 
 and sublime if you could see liim in the attitude he 
 has assumed — unseen he is dangerous enough ; but 
 the beauty of this sylvan combat is lost, because 
 you only Imoiv the boar is there and ready to 
 charge, but you can't get a full sight of his fury 
 till he does charge, and then you either kill or 
 wound him ; or, if you are not quick enough to 
 stejD on one side the arrow-like speed of his blind 
 and headlong assault, you are killed or maimed 
 yourself, and thus in a few moments it is over, one 
 way or other. The next thing to the boar is the 
 bay of the stag or royal hart, but then when he 
 turns to bay, he is generally run almost to death 
 or wounded; and then comes the bay of a full- 
 antlercd buck. The next perfection of sport is the 
 
HtFNTiNG, And riding to hounds. 29 
 
 rise and tlic first dash of the large sahiion, fresh 
 run, wlien first he feels the hook. Lots of delightful 
 manoeuvring comes after this, but no sport comes up 
 to the bison and the fox. Never having Imnted the 
 lion, tiger, or elephant, hijDpopotamiis or rhinoceros, 
 I knoAV nothing of the chase of them. The wolf I 
 do know, and he is no more than a cowardly cur. 
 
 As to man's seat on the saddle, I have seen the 
 look of it vary so much, and men go well over a 
 country, as far as the saddle is concerned, almost in 
 any sort of j)osition. It is impossible to lay down 
 any law regarding the form man's figure may 
 assume, although we all knoAV which in our eyes is 
 the most graceful — long stirrups or short, hands 
 high or low, bolt upright or stooping forward. I 
 have seen every attitude under the sun, and many 
 a brute to look at a '^ devil to go." The term may 
 apply, perhaps, to horse and rider, very hard to 
 miseat, very hard to pound, and almost imi^ossible 
 to beat» 
 
 In looking at a horseman, we kliow what pleases 
 the eye ; he should be uj)right as a dart, unless 
 going at some pace which necessitates his rising in 
 the stirrups, and then, of course, he would lean a 
 little forward. The rider should seem a part of his 
 
;30 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 horsOj not a petty tyrant on a pigskin tlirone, 
 mounted on a willing or unwilling slave. Each 
 motion of the rider's steed should incline the rider's 
 figure this way or that, and there should be no 
 stiffness nor rigidity. To the light hand the 
 horse should arch his neck and play Avitli the bit 
 as if he held it in his mouth as a toy for pleasure. 
 The length of the stirrup had best be rather 
 long — it has a more graceful look ; and less weight 
 being on the iron than when the leather is short, 
 if the stirrup breaks and the iron falls, the rider 
 feels it less than if he had put more weight in his 
 foot and less grasji with the thigh and knee. The 
 rider ought never to lose his temper (excellent 
 advice that, but where is the man who ever 
 followed it I), for it is temjDcr or nervousness, they 
 are much the same, that makes the horse to rush ; 
 that makes him, in nine cases out of ten, pull ; that 
 causes him madly to fall into his fences, or to 
 shut up and to refuse to jump in any ^vsiJ what- 
 ever. I have seen a friend of mine, a clergyman, 
 by his own nervousness, cause his horse to rush 
 and run away with liim at every grip in a field ; so 
 that, from this inculcated insanity in the horse, 
 it was not safe to let the parson ride l)y the 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. JU 
 
 liimtsman's side among the hoimcls, or even among 
 the momitecl men, for fear of the repeated charges 
 made by the Chm^h on .what were at times only 
 little marks between the ridge and fmTow made 
 by his rm^al parishioners, or, perhaps, by sinners. 
 
 In a previous page I have noticed the fact of a 
 cm^b chain in a horse's mouth, where it could have 
 no purchase, utterly frustrating a determined 
 puller. I thought I was aware of most plans by 
 which a puller or a dead mouth could be avoided; 
 but on this, the 27th of December, 1870, Lord 
 Suffolk came to me and afforded me another 
 lesson. He drove in his carriage what I call a 
 Galloway, not a pony, very clever, and the pony 
 was very free. Over the nose of the pony, attached 
 to the bridle, was a neat, strong net, made of 
 string ; nothing unsightly about it ; it looked as if 
 it was only made to keep away the flies. So, on 
 seeing this light kind of network on, I asked my 
 noble friend if he had ^^ so sealed up his pony's 
 mouth to save the corn ? " The net is after the 
 fashion of the kiss-preventing muzzles the ladies 
 ride with in Bournemouth, but it really was to 
 prevent pulling ; it gave room to open the lips and 
 mouth enough for any useful pui'pose of breathing, 
 
3'2 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 but it closed with its meslies so well up to the 
 lips that the pony could not loll out his tonf^^uc, 
 or 2)rcvent its being subject to the action of the 
 bit. The '' tongue was always within the teeth," 
 — I wish some people wore the same preventioiij — 
 and, therefore, the mouth was kept alive and 
 never permitted to get dry ; it could not deaden ; 
 and the pony, so netted, could not pull in any 
 unpleasant degree whatever. 
 
 I remember, when sporting writers were fewer, a 
 man, who adopted the name of ^'Nimrod," assumed 
 an authority to which he was in no way entitled, 
 and in his lucubrations ventured to dictate to men 
 how they Avere always to put their horse at the 
 different kinds of fences. One was to be guided 
 this way, another that; l)ut at a brook the double 
 thong was to be applied at every stroke of the 
 horse's gallop down the shoulder. 
 
 I have seen this writer out with my staghounds, 
 and, as we say, ^' he never went a yard." 
 
 Now the worst thing that a man in hunting can 
 possibly do is, to take his horse's attention from the 
 work that horse has immediately before him. A horse 
 needs to have his mind at ease and his senses about 
 him just as much as a sporting dog of any kind; and 
 
HUNTING, AND lilDlNG TO iiOtJNDS. 33 
 
 SO liad tlic sapient pig, or lie would have Ijeen 
 alpliabetically puzzled. If, while the pig was look- 
 ing for the letter, you had caned him, he would, 
 in all probability, have been bored or angered into 
 mistake ; and in a similar way, if }^oli flourish your 
 whip or cram in the sj)urs when the poor dear steed 
 is timing his stride so as not to take off too soon, 
 and looking whereabouts to land his feet on the off- 
 side of the fence in his way, why ten to one but 
 he takes off, 2)erhaps, a full length too soon, and 
 so diminishes his power of clearing space, or you 
 drive him frightened not to take off at all, but to 
 over-stride himself, and to land you in the next 
 field on your head, with his weight and your saddle 
 on your own back instead of on his own. 
 
 In going across country, never frighten your 
 horse, — let him keep his wits about liim as much as 
 you keep yours. A sensible hunter, not ^'bullied" 
 out of his wits by a nervous tyrant on his back, will 
 depend upon his rider's hand and voice to assist 
 him under difficulties, or when, in taking a fence, he 
 comes on some blind ^' Squire Trap," that requires 
 human insight as well as mere surface view to 
 avoid. My horse Brutus was one of these even- 
 tempered, sagacious hunters ; and it has occasionally 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 happened to me that I have imagined that I saw 
 misafe ground on the contrary side of a fence; and 
 while in the air, in taking the S2)ring to clear what 
 was ojoen and evident, I have caused my horse, by 
 the 2^Tessure of my knee, not the spiir^ a slight lift 
 of the rein, and a monosyllable, or Avhispcred Avord, 
 which can only be spelt '' whist," uttered sharph', 
 to .spread out his shoulders and clear a yard or 
 more of the suspected ground. At times it might 
 be necessary, at times not. 
 
 Brutus and Jack o'Lantern both understood 
 how to meet a fence they could not cover, 
 and so, of course, do thousands of other hunters 
 when in good hands. At a double post and rail, 
 Brutus, if there was no going in and out, and it 
 was too wide to comjoass in a stroke, would land in 
 the firmest way imaginable Avith his feet under the 
 off-rail, and bring his splendid fore-arms witli sucli 
 a shock against the u])per bar as to start it out, 
 either broken or unbroken, into the field beyond, 
 and so get over without a fall. 
 
 Many of the men hunting with the staghounds 
 near London in the jn-esent day will have seen a very 
 wide '' haha," dry^ l)ut steep in its banks^ divide 
 ing the land whicli was olice known as liar- 
 
HUNTING, AND HIDING TO HOUNDS. 35 
 
 lliigton Field, — but I do not know what changes 
 may have taken place since, — from tlie Farm at 
 Dawley Wall. We had enlarged the stag near 
 Ilarlington, and Jack ^vas in one of his flying 
 humours — he always was, in fact ; so, having 
 cleared the few fences in our way, finding that he 
 was going splendidly within himself, I set him 
 straight at this haha. My OAvn opinion Avas and 
 is, that had not a rider a little a-head of me, and 
 to the left, have shirked the haha, — it was as 
 much in his line as mine, — and at three-parts speed 
 have pulled his horse to the right, coasting the 
 halia and crossing me. Jack would have 
 cleared it, for he really could clear almost any- 
 thing ; h\it as it was, the sudden apparition of this 
 wild horseman crossino- close in front threv/ him 
 out of his welhtimed striding stroke, when the dear 
 sensible creature, aware that his must be a baffled 
 attempt if he tried to clear it, ending perhaps in a 
 serious fall, not being able to stop himself, he 
 jumped right into the haha, his head and neck 
 in the opposite field, and his chest against the side 
 of the haha, and landed me in all safety over 
 his head, unliarmed and unruffled, save as to some 
 
 stormy expressions, the running fire of which had 
 
 D 2 
 
36 I'ACt AGAINST HCTION. 
 
 commenced at the wild rider who caused tlie 
 misliap, and Avas not quite shot off even when the 
 fall, if it could be called a fall, took place. A very 
 useful friend of mine, a coal and timber merchantj 
 saw this — a Mr. Norton, who lived at Uxbridge, 
 but who, I regret to say, is dead ; and I am 
 not certain but that ni}' friend Mr. Norman, of 
 Uxbridge, who may be alive now, did not see 
 the same thing. There was then no getting out 
 the right side ; so with Mr. Norton's help, and I 
 think a labourer or two Avith spades, we trenched 
 one side of the haha the way I wished to go, 
 and led my horse out of his difficulty. 
 
 It only mattered for a time ; the hounds needed 
 no assistance from the huntsman, and the S2)lendid 
 hunter arched his neck, and knew very well how to 
 overtake the field and o-et to the head a^rain. After 
 one of the hardest and best runs, at the close of 
 it Jack was dead lame. A horse-dealer, named 
 Robbinson, there and then, lame as he icaSj 
 offered me three hundred and fifty guineas for him 
 on the spot, which I at once refused. 
 
 There are many fine riders, who, if they would, 
 could back me uji in tales of the intelligence of 
 their hunters — such as Lord AYilton, for no better 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO II0UND8. 37 
 
 rider over a country ever existed than himself, 
 tlioiigh there have been many men as hard ; and I 
 say this because in everything I have ever written, 
 thougli I have been ^^ a traveller" in foreign wilds, 
 I never vary from the truth, nor deal Avith any- 
 thing not within my own personal experience. 
 
 Colonel Paget, then in the Royal Horse Artillery, 
 in the New Forest once mounted me on what must 
 have been a splendid hunter. Colonel Paget drove 
 him in harness, and to look at, the dear old horse's 
 legs were marvels of strange and complicated marks. 
 It did not signify — when Level's hounds began to 
 run the doe or buck, I forget which, all remem- 
 brance of stumped-up legs was speedily forgotten, 
 as much or more by the horse than by me, and a 
 finer hunter I scarce ever sat on. I mention the 
 followino^ instance to show the sense and docility of 
 the horse. The bough of an oak tree, while going 
 at full speed, knocked my hat off; almost before I 
 coidd pull the rein the steed of himself stood stock 
 still, and turned his head to look hack for the! tat. 
 There coidd be no sort of doubt that he stopped of 
 himself on the hloiv and fall of the hat, when, as the 
 hounds and Mr. Lovell were just a-head of me, too, 
 there was no one else there then, and the horse 
 
38 FACT AGAINST nCTlOX. 
 
 turned liis licacl to look back before I ^Yixs well out 
 of the saddle to recover my loss ; he could only 
 have east an inquiring gaze in that direction on 
 account of the mischance that had occurred. This 
 old horse must have gone pretty well, because a 
 Captain Bull, then resident at Lyndhurst, came up 
 to me after the run, and remarked that '' I must 
 have had that favourite horse some time, we seemed 
 to be so well acquainted ; " and that, if ever to be 
 parted with, he should ^' like the refusal." I replied, 
 that I had never seen him before that day, and 
 referred him to his owner at Christchurch Barracks 
 for particulars as to any sale. We were innnensely 
 amused, for the next day the Captain, in company 
 with the then Master of the Ncav Forest Hounds, 
 came over to Christchurch with a view to purchase, 
 and went into Colonel Paget's stable at the bar- 
 racks. What amused us still more was, that the 
 two would-be purchasers were not a minute in tlie 
 stable, but came bustling out faster than they went 
 in, muttering something of having been deceived. 
 Tlie darling old horse, wlio on the previous day 
 had forgotten all about his legs, save in taking care 
 to put them in tlie right place, in his stall tlic next 
 day was reminded of all liis honoui'able wounds, 
 
HUNTING, AND HIDING TO HOUNDS. 39 
 
 and wlioii lils inspectors came in he was standing 
 to ease his poor dear legs in all imaginary impos- 
 sible or dancing-master positions, and it was a 
 mystery to know whereabouts his knees or '^2)as- 
 terns" were, they were so rigidly in conformity 
 with the j)ost-like a^^pearance of his forelegs. Of 
 course no Lid was made for what had once been a 
 horse worth any money. 
 
 ^' With the permission of the reader," — it is an 
 author's phrase, and I adopt it, — I will now sa}' 
 something of what the little girl, in correcting her 
 father's queer pronunciation, said must be the 
 jDroper way to term the er/uestrian exercise when 
 ladies were in the saddle. The child, in correct- 
 ing her astonished parent, said, ^' Hequestrian, 
 papa, don't ye see it's a lady? It an't a he — slie- 
 questrian hexercise; if it an't, then ask ma!" I did 
 not make this joke, it belongs to the memory of 
 the late Mr. Mathews, but my readers will forgive 
 the passing digression. 
 
 In the female method of riding, as well as in 
 the horsemanship of the men, there exists the most 
 marked difference possible. A lady of a nice figure, 
 in a well-made habit, seated upright, and well to 
 her front, and gracefully swaying with every motion 
 
40 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 of lier horse, without any rigidity whatever from 
 foot to hand and head, to my mind, is the prettiest 
 thing imaginable ! 
 
 Now, let lis look at it the other way. A lady, 
 seated all on one side, as if she was about to slip 
 off, or as if she had been hung like a clothes-bag 
 on the crutch of her saddle, as though it was a peg 
 to hang beautiful things on, or, for that purpose, 
 even if slie is pretty, is not, in that equestrian 
 position, an admirable sight to longing eyes. A 
 badly made habit is a bad thing, an ill-chosen hat 
 is bad ; and here, again, I am bound to declare my 
 real opinion — the ugliest thing in the world is 
 tlie '^ chimney-pot hat." I would far sooner see a 
 graceful hat and a little feather, of any kind, but 
 the chimney-pot sliape and make is my detes- 
 tation, however much I may love and admire the 
 face beneath it. The only ^^l^ce I can tolerate it 
 in is the hunting field. It ought never to appear 
 in Hyde Park. 
 
 In alluding to the equestrianship of ladies, I 
 remember writing the following lines to one whose 
 apj)earance came suddenly upon me ; so as they 
 yet may be interesting to her by whom tliey were 
 suggested, though, perhaps, to no very great 
 
IIUXTINO, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 41 
 
 extent, tliey arc thus placed before the genei'al 
 reader : — 
 
 '' She rode ! but not as many others ride, 
 
 Flung to the saddle, hanging on a crutch, 
 With face aslant, and seated all aside, 
 
 Turned to the left ungracefully too much. 
 Well to her front, she sat erect and still, 
 
 Swaying, but simply, as her black steed moved, 
 As if commanding motion at her will. 
 
 Her horse obeying but because he loved ! 
 I sketch not now her figure nor her face, 
 
 Her lips that seemed to speak without a word 
 Straight to the heart, and there implanted grace, 
 
 The moment the sweet record had been heard ! 
 " Grace ! " It is " grace " to worship when the shrine 
 
 Is bright — unsullied — taintless and divine ! 
 If compliment is sooth it don't deceive, 
 
 No deed can make the baser metal gold. 
 I only utter that which I believe, 
 
 And, hating falsehood, thus the truth is told ; 
 But now to others, looking but at one. 
 
 To park and hill where many often go. 
 Where none e'er ride for riding sake alone, 
 
 But all are fain in graceful guise to show. 
 Oh, ladies dear, when seated in the selle. 
 
 On trotting steeds with action high in air, 
 Please do not let the ear your boundings tell. 
 
 But sit as mute as in your boudoir chair. 
 No noise should vex us with a sense of pain. 
 
 From face to foot there should be perfect rest. 
 Well o'er your steed a blithe command retain. 
 
 But let him feel as if each touch caressed. 
 A lady riding to the hounds — indeed 1 
 
 No valid reason for her not being there ! 
 
43 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 No cause to move her motlier's heart to bleed, 
 
 Nor need for lamentation nor for care. 
 Her gentle presence, as the oil on wave, 
 
 Is there to keep the rude declaimer down, 
 She comes so softly with a smile to save, 
 
 Each angry lip from harshness not its own. 
 Men never are so bright as when they steal, • 
 
 The laughing sunlight that her eyes reveal. 
 
 In the quiet oiit-cloor life which it is my lot to 
 lead now, I have not much time to read anything 
 but the newspapers, for the book of my ever-ruling 
 teacheress — dear, sublime, and all-mysterious Nature 
 — lies before me, and therein still exists a mine 
 of ever-opening wealth, that bids research and 
 takes up all my time. In the few books that thus 
 occasionally reach me I met but the other day 
 with one by my friend Whyte Melville. Having 
 read '^ Digby Grand," and ^' Kate Coventry," 
 of course, on seeing '^ Contraband ; or, a Losing- 
 Hazard," it met with my immediate attention, and 
 in it I was much gratified by the following 
 passages. In its narrative. Sir Henry Hallaton 
 asks Mrs. Lascelles if she had ever read my 
 book, '' The Reminiscences of a Huntsman," as 
 published by Longman, in Paternoster Row; and 
 Whyte Melville makes Sir Henry Hallaton 
 recommend her to read it, if she ^' wants to find 
 
HUNTING, AND HIDING TO HOUNDS. 43 
 
 poetry in sport." He pays mo, too, the compli- 
 ment of saying' that '' I seem to entertain a g'cntle, 
 kindly feeling for every living creatm-e, wild or 
 tame ; " and then he quotes, in -page 77 of his work, 
 the tale, as told by mo in my ^' Heminiscences," 
 of my foxliomid Harrogate, not ''Champion" nor 
 '' Challenger," as he thought the name might be, 
 and the curious affection and sagacity shown to a 
 lady and her carriage, after Harrogate had been 
 transferred from Harrold Hall to the Grafton 
 Kennels. 
 
 To me it has ever seemed that there is poetry 
 in every action of life if rightlu X^^^TSited, To 
 people who only see one side of everything, and 
 tliat from their own peculiar narrow-minded point 
 of view, there is always a dark spot on which to 
 pinch with their lo1jstcr-like claw (like to the limb 
 of that excellent fish solely in pinching pro- 
 clivities), and nothing can escajDe their blundering 
 bite. Thus an old idiot, who prefaced his bad 
 stylo with the cognomen of ''Doctor," in order 
 to depict the sportsman or master of hounds, wrote, 
 that " so profane and cruel were we all, that in 
 the names of our sporting dogs and hounds we 
 selected devilish appellations, — heathenish, hellish, 
 
44 FACT AGAINST FICTION.' 
 
 bloodthirsty , murderous, and cruel," — in order ^^to 
 keej) up feelings so derived during the prosecution 
 of our sylvan pursuits." This he did in attempting 
 to gain a prize in his essay ^' On the Duties of 
 Man to Animals." My late friend, Judge Talfourd, 
 being one of those appointed to decide on which 
 essay deserved the prize, agreed to give it to this 
 Doctor. Wlien, on meeting Talfourd in the House 
 of Commons one night, I asked him how so sensible 
 a man as he was could assign a reivard to such 
 arrant nonsense, he replied, ^^ My dear friend, you 
 mistake our" (the judges) '^labour. We had not 
 to decide which was the hest essay, but as we had 
 to award tlie victory for the money in hand, all 
 we could do was to make uj) our minds which 
 was the least objectionable of the things put before 
 us, and hence the decision we came to." The 
 despicable Doctor, claiming to l)e a ^^ naturalist " as 
 well as a commentator on the duties of men to 
 animals, spoke not only of the ^' nomenclature of the 
 huntsman to his hounds," but also depicted the 
 hen birds, nightingales, and others, as singing their 
 plaintive melodies on the bereavement, by the 
 hand of a schoolboy, of their little eggs from their 
 nests in tlie depths of Choristral grief, whereas it 
 
HUNTING, AND mDING TO liOU:^DS. 45 
 
 is really the truth that the male bird is the onhj 
 cliovlster who sings, the female pr/vy^a donna on the 
 Opera stage being the only licu^ as in the case of 
 '^ Desdemona," who sings on the very eve of 
 personal demise or nimxler. 
 
 To me there is a poetic side of the question in all 
 the strife and contention of life, in the battles of 
 game-cocks, the boxing encounters of the athlete, 
 the accomplishments of adversaries in war, and the 
 use of weapons. The game-cock, that knows no 
 surrender but in death, and Avho fights of his own 
 free will and for the love of battle, so long as an 
 adversary is before him, but who, in his moments of 
 peace, will receive under the feathers of his broad 
 and heroic breast the tiny newly -hat died chickens, 
 and, however hungry himself, will call to his hens 
 and gracefully step back from the last barleycorn 
 left in the yard to their general acceptance. Even 
 in the boxing-match there is poetry. It is poetic 
 to see the comparatively slender form of the gentle- 
 man reduce the coarse and monstrous ruffian by 
 tact and skill to a mere harmless animal, and 
 that by the use of appliances usually assigned alone 
 to brute or muscular force. Wherever genius 
 triumphs, the poetic power is not fiir off. Thank 
 
46 FACT AGAIXST FICTION. 
 
 Heaveiij the S2)irit imbued by Nature lias enabled 
 me to deliQ,'lit more in the association with and 
 in the love of animals and birds tlian in their 
 violent pursuit and noisy destruction ; and though 
 blows and battle at times may lead man away, and 
 ma}^ have disturbed me, still one sunny hour of 
 peaceful love and gentleness is worth an age of 
 loud success. 
 
 In this, the year of grace 1871', when so many 
 more ladies are accomplished horsewomen than 
 were so wdien I first kept foxhounds, there are a 
 great number of ladies to be seen with hounds at 
 Melton and in other hunting countries than there 
 were in years long gone by ; and, wluit is more, they 
 ride so gracefully and wxll, that the hunt, which 
 once was deemed a scrambling, bruising, rash 
 pursuit, becomes, through their method, grace, and 
 joresence, a study of admirable perfection. Many 
 years ago a }'oung lady at Cheltenham used to ride 
 so well, and safely too, that timid male riders would 
 purposely lose the hounds rather than see her go so 
 nuich better over the Cheltenham stone walls than 
 they did. She afforded to the looker-on in those 
 days a novelty. The accomplishment is no novelty 
 tiow, for go where you will, in any shire, you 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 47 
 
 will see tlic female habit very frequently with tlie 
 hounds. 
 
 The difficulty that lies in a young lady's way of 
 being with hounds is the fact that she can't always 
 get a lady chaperon who Avill had her to the front. 
 Unfortunately, some of the most approved chaperons 
 grow quite out of their hunting form, and, however 
 well practised they may have been in earlier years, 
 increasing weight and softened down ambition 
 tend in no way now to a lead with hounds. A 
 young lady may be a most graceful rider, she may 
 have the best, the safest, and the fastest horses, 
 yet, unless some one pilots the way for her across 
 country, selects the lightest ground and the most 
 practicable parts of the fences, she is at a loss for 
 the line that tends best to safety and success. To 
 find a pilot then is a most difficult thing; for, if 
 a gentleman, he should be one tluxt, in piloting a 
 lady, should forget his own interests, if necessary, 
 in his attention to hers; he should Ijo quiet, un- 
 obtrusive, unostentatious, and unassuming ; but 
 these virtues, I regret to say, are very rare, and 
 nothing is to be regretted more than seeing 
 a lady riding after a noisy, screeching, harum- 
 scarum leader, who wishes the world to see 
 
48 FACT AGAl^^ST FICTION. 
 
 the temporary hero that accident has made 
 him. 
 
 I never like to see a lady out in a public field 
 miless attended by her groom , when, if she means 
 to be with homids, she had better have a groom to 
 ride before her, and pilot the line across the 
 country, than after her, because the groom, if 
 behind her, is very apt to keep too near ; the horse 
 he is on, the stable companion of her own, becomes 
 hot and anxious not to be left behind, rushes at 
 his fences, and presses her too close ; and, if she 
 meets with a fall or temporary delay by a stumble, 
 may become the cause of the most terrible accident 
 by jumping upon her, ere her horse and herself 
 have time to right themselves. The difficulty, how- 
 ever, is to find a groom who is capable of taking 
 a straight and temj^erate line to hounds to pilot the 
 lady's equestrian way. You may find many gentle- 
 men who could do so, even to the occasional loss 
 of their place with the hounds ; but there are many 
 more things to be considered than are '^dreamed 
 of in the philosophy " of most people, and not 
 one man in a thousand is staid and reflective 
 enough to guide a lady even in the saddle. Of 
 this, however, I am perfectly certain, that there is 
 
HUNTING, AND 'RIDING TO HOUNDS. 49 
 
 no earthly reason why a perfect horse-woman should 
 not ride to hounds on a perfect horse gracefully 
 and well, without diminishing the esteem of all who 
 have the hajDpinoss of her acquaintance, and without 
 dimming the lustre that should ever attend her 
 presence, but in going to hounds some one must 
 lead to the best and safest line. 
 
 Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well, 
 and it is not enough for a lady to sit her horse 
 with steadiness and ease; but as the tempers of 
 horses vary as much as the tempers of men, and 
 the horse, perhaps, is more prone to panic or 
 sudden terror than the human race, why, if a 
 lady rides a handsome, showy steed, she should 
 be able to meet all emergencies that miglit occur 
 through the dangerous phases of the animal com- 
 position. On the Downs at Ashdown Park, at a 
 coursing meeting, I saw a lady's horse bolt with 
 her at speed, and run away with, for the time, 
 ungovernable fury. It alarmed me not for the 
 result, although it annoyed me much to see her 
 forced to do anything against her own immediate 
 pleasure, for there were no obstacles in iho way 
 of the horse in the shape of gate, wall, or fence 
 of any kind to cause a fall by contact ; at the 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 same time, however, there was a hill perfectly 
 well fitted to take the rmming out of a racehorse, 
 and of this Lady N. was as well aw^are as I was. 
 Of com^se, I did not attempt to race at her horse's 
 head to seize the rein, for my horse was slower 
 than hers, and the clatter of my horse's feet would 
 liave been but as fuel to the fire; all I did was 
 to follow, and admire her riding, and her coolness 
 mider difficulties. With her usual grace, she kept 
 her saddle, and, with her usual tact, she took an 
 occasional jmll at the rein, guiding her steed, and 
 steadily reminding him, too, that though for the 
 moment he seemed to have it all his own way, 
 there was yet a hand over him that, if mastered 
 for a while, still kept an unshaken power, gradually 
 increasing, as his wdld wish for headlong speed 
 declined. His speed did decline on the ascent of 
 an o2:)posing hill, the gallop became a trot, his 
 graceful mistress on his back scarce reined him 
 in, but, wheeling round, cantered back to the 
 scene of the coursing, a perfect mistress of the 
 animal she rode. 
 
 This was not the only trial which this j^erfection 
 of female equestrianism had. She was, at ia later 
 date, run away with by her horse in an enclosed 
 
HUNTING, AND KIDING TO HOUNDS. 51 
 
 country, and, if I remember rightly (I was not 
 tliere to see), the horse took a line of private road, 
 interspersed with high five-barred gates. At full 
 speed he took them all without stirring his lady 
 in the saddle, and without causing her to lose her 
 discretion or her determination to exert her power 
 at the right time, whenever that might arrive. 
 The right time came, and the horse at last knew 
 his lady as '^the water knew its lord," and found 
 that, wild as he had been, even his temper coidd 
 be tamed by an unshaken and unruffled gentleness, 
 that, while it caressed, subdued all coarser ebul- 
 litions of violence. She rode her horse Avithout 
 reproach or fear. If, then, ladies arc to ride, and 
 ride in 2)erfcct safety, they must have practice 
 other than is to be found in a humdrum ridina*- 
 school or in Rotten Row ; and they cannot have a 
 better field day in Avhieli to drill themselves to 
 efficiency in horsemanship than the hunting field 
 affords. 
 
 As long as ladies do not forget themselves, no 
 man alive, be he vulgar, forward, well-educated or 
 refined, will cease to remember what is so justly 
 due to them; and time- wide as my experience has 
 been, I have never seen cause to regret a lady's 
 
 E 
 
 o 
 
52 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 presence by tlie cover side or with the joyous 
 hounds. 
 
 It is possible for horses, under ahnost any cir- 
 cumstances of action, to go to a certain extent, if 
 not well with, still in the wake of hounds when 
 running ; but a vast difference exists in their way 
 of accomplishing this, not always understood 
 by all men clothed in red, and as varied as the 
 colour of the skins in which 'the horses were 
 foaled. 
 
 The really clever and first-class hunter flies 
 smoothly beneath his rider, as if his joints were 
 fed witli oil ; he stretches in his sj^lendid stride 
 as if he felt no cumbrous weight upon his back, 
 and had, at the same time, not only each leg at 
 his command, but his brains and both his eyes, 
 timing himself so as safely to span everj^ gi'ip? 
 drain, or deep furrow that succeeded suddenly on 
 each other, and then, with a few strides of lessened 
 velocity, bringing his fore feet dose up to tlie fence, 
 if hedge, ditch, or brook, so as to lose nothing 
 of his innate purpose and power to compass it if 
 largely evident, or whatever may be the propor- 
 tions of the disguised or blind part of it on the 
 contrary side. Whether the fence at first si^rht, 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 53 
 
 or as the horse approaches, seems large or small, 
 the really splendid hmiter should always, in the 
 first place, prepare himself for the greatest exertion 
 he is gifted with, if the obstacle is evidently large. 
 In the second place, if it looks small, to be ready 
 for anything he may not sec on the other side ; and 
 if there is not much there, not to throAV away his 
 powers. If the place is small and he takes off too 
 soon, to clear it he must exert a considerable stretch 
 of power ; if, liowever, there is a good deal that it is 
 incumbent on him to clear, by taking off only when 
 it is necessary, he keeps within him a remedy for all 
 that may be required of his emergencies. He can 
 either, while in the air, stretch out his ever available 
 shoulders and fore legs, or, while in the air, if there 
 should be an additional purchase to be gained, he 
 can drop his hind legs and strike a bank or wall, or 
 even rail, to send him further afield beyond all 
 danger. 
 
 Men often follow hounds without any other idea 
 but that they are hunting, and sit on a machine 
 governed, or pulled at, by leathern strings from tlie 
 head, and pricked into further exertion under all 
 circumstances by the application of si)ur< to the 
 sides. 
 
54 FACT AGAIXST FICTION. 
 
 They, the men, see a fence to which they are 
 ajiproachiug ; they desire to get over it, without a 
 thought of there being two ways to do so, or a single 
 idea that the horse they are on needs his own mental 
 consideration, with not much time for it, as greatly 
 as they do. As people swallow a noxious dose of 
 medicine with all the haste they can make, a species 
 of nervous energy, not cool determination, urges the 
 rider to face the danger as he would the doctor, well 
 knowing that the more he looks at it the less he will 
 like it ; kicking his heels, therefore, and shutting his 
 eyes, he hurries the horse, disturbs animal calcula- 
 tion, feels a maddened rush, hears a crash, and finds 
 himself either safely over the dreaded obstacle, or 
 on liis nose, with the possible fact of the position of 
 steed and rider being reversed, and the latter the 
 beast of burden. 
 
 If a young horse falls, in the first instance, into 
 good hands, no matter whether he is in colour white 
 or black, chestnut, bay or grey, he scarcely ever be- 
 comes unpleasantly hot or too nervously excitable* 
 A chestnut horse is not always hasty ; I have had 
 as many ^' slugs" of that colour as I have had tliem 
 otherwise ; it is the man that makes the steed to go, 
 well or ill, as the case may be; and on tlic temper of 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 55 
 
 the man, — on the lightness of his hand, his coohiess, 
 his judgment, and unswerving determination of pur- 
 pose, — depend the future life and action and the 
 leaping of the hunting horse. 
 
 Horses, as I have previously remarked, have 
 tempers . as well as men, and if put out of temper 
 by bad or injudicious riders, vice may be inculcated 
 in their dispositions, and confirmed thereafter, so 
 as to become a complete obstacle to any happi- 
 ness with hounds. A good and judicious horse- 
 man may ride a horse of this description several 
 times without the horse's temper being ruffled, sup- 
 posing that horseman to be simply one of the field, 
 who can sit still among the rest of the horses at a 
 check ; but if a horse of this description is called on 
 to do anything he dislikes, the cloven hoof is shown 
 directly. 
 
 The action of horses in their gallop, trot, and 
 walk is very varied, not only in the pace arrived at, 
 but in their method of progression. The action of 
 some horses is so smooth that it really is as if their 
 joints were oiled, while the muscular movements of 
 others are just the reverse, and in their rough and 
 shaky or rolling gallop it seems to the rider as if 
 one of their fore legs was shorter than the other* 
 
^6 FACT AGAIXST FICTION. 
 
 This action, lumbering, short and rough, attaches to 
 the under-bred slow horse ; the splendid, smooth- 
 going, oily, far-striding use of the limbs are gifts 
 generally assigned to the well-born or thorough- 
 bred horse, and cannot be too highly prized. 
 
 It is true, that you very often find more good 
 jumpers among what are called cocktails than you 
 do among a similar number of thorough-breds ; but 
 if you can teach or induce a racehorse to take to 
 fencing, and to coujdIc the w^illingness to jump with 
 his inborn powers of wind and speed, then you 
 arrive at perfection ; and hunters of this kind are to 
 ladies, or to hunting men, worth almost any price 
 that can be imagined, and they are the steeds that 
 ought to carry ladies when they grace an assembly, 
 ever the better for their presence. 
 
 In concluding this chapter on Riding to Hounds, 
 it will not be deemed amiss for me to speak of the 
 manner and method of putting the horse at a fence* 
 
 iVll the worst falls I have seen in my life 
 have been at small places, so small and evident 
 or fair, that the rider has regarded them with 
 contempt, and kept no vigilance over his horse. 
 Among the worst falls are those at blind small 
 places, when the horse has been an intemperate 
 
HUNTING, AND HIDING TO HOUNDS. /)7 
 
 one, or a ^^ruslicr," angered at the sight of a 
 fence, however small, and determined to bolt at 
 it full galloj:). 
 
 When horses rush, or are put to rush, Avhich 
 is the rider's mistake, at these small places, 
 however small the place, or even little and evident 
 the grip or ditch, over-haste and carelessness, 
 when the place is small, may bring the ditch 
 within the horse's stride, instead' of the stride 
 brhiging the horse's feet just to the spot where 
 he should spring over the impediment. In a 
 case of this kind, the horse not being timed by 
 the rider's hand, or not timing himself, he is 
 sure to fall precisely as if, when at sjoeed, he 
 had jmt his fore feet into an uncovered or broken 
 through a covered drcwi ; and this mischance, when 
 at full speed, or even half speed, induces a violent, 
 and, perhaps, a dangerous fall. 
 
 On the other hand, if j^ermitted to fly at these 
 really contemptible little places, the sensible horse, 
 urged by his rider at a senseless speed, may 
 see that if he does not take off some twelve 
 feet before he really had any need to do, the 
 compass of his next stride must bring his 
 fore feet into the perhaps deep little ditch. 
 
58 FACl? AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 and so necessitate a comj^lete turn over. Of 
 course, when hounds are going at tip-top pace, 
 open grips, blind drains, and ridge and furrow 
 must be taken in the, as it ought to be, well- 
 timed stroke ; but if a man in his idler hours 
 crams his hunter, for the sake of a lark, at every 
 little ditch he sees, rousing him, 23erhaps, with 
 the spur, rely on it, when such small things 
 come in his way, instead of being cool and careful, 
 he will" expect the sjom- again, and take a vast 
 deal out of himself that had better have been 
 kejDt in, and assign considerable danger to the 
 mistaken tyrant on his back. Very few men 
 should ride in spurs, but at the same time very 
 few horses should go without the extreme j)os- 
 sibility of feeling them ; but this is a difficulty 
 hardly to be avoided. 
 
 In going too fast at small and, perhaps, boggy 
 grips or little ditches, and a horse is over-paced 
 by himself or his rider, and thus made to rusli 
 absolutely at nothing, suj)posing him to be unable 
 to spring befoi'e his hind legs are in it, if the 
 hind legs sink deeply into a soft place, that may 
 Lning his fore legs to the ground before the feet 
 are in a position to take it. This induces a 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 59 
 
 stumble on liis nose, the liindcr legs, lacing 
 thwarted by the heavy ground in their momentary 
 action, don't come to the assistance to relieve 
 the fore legs as quickly as they should, the over- 
 paced impetus cannot be corrected, the blunder 
 continues on the very toes of the fore legs, and 
 j^robably from ^^ace ends in a heavy fall ; for 
 unless the fore legs again get Avithin the horse's 
 command, all the pulling at the rein of an 
 accomplished rider will never save the difficulty. 
 It is nonsense to lay down any rule, free from 
 variation, as to the pace of riding at fences. You 
 may check or pull your horse into a fall, or 
 by too much haste you may urge or galloj^ him 
 into one. Do all you can to teach and use your 
 horse to he steady^ and if he makes a stumble 
 or passing error, on no account give him the 
 whip or spur. If you do, the next time he 
 makes a fault, from which die would have freed 
 himself on his own discretion, he no longer thinks 
 of how to escape a fall, but, losing his senses 
 from terror of punishment, he gets into a blind 
 or maddened scramble, w^hicli is almost certain 
 to end in grief 
 
 As to hoiu a horse vvdll do his fences Jjest, if 
 
60 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 a lunitcr of some period, that must depend on 
 himself, and how he has been taught ; hut as 
 a broad basis for direction, never hurry your 
 horse, never punish him for an accidental mistake, 
 and by kindness and practice in and out of the 
 stable render him as docile as you can. I alwaj^s 
 bear in mind the question asked by that splendid 
 horseman, the late Lord Jersey, of the dealer 
 Milton, when the latter was puffing the speed 
 of a horse, his jumping, and his paces. Lord 
 Jersey listened to all ^^the encomiums misapplied," 
 and cut the dealer short with the words, — ''' I dare 
 say he will do all this, Mr. Milton, but ivill he 
 stand stillV 
 
 On this subject of riding to hounds, as there 
 are many more ladies in the hunting saddle than 
 there used to be, and as far as I can judge, 
 from the retirement of my ^'hut,^^ the number 
 of huntresses seems still to be increasing, I fear 
 I have scarce sufficiently defined the mischief 
 that may arise from badly trained horses. When 
 I say '' badly trained," I do not refer to condition 
 so miich as I do to method of taking their 
 fences. 
 
 Tliere is a vulgar phrase, very often in men's 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 61 
 
 mouths, which means ramming at anything of 
 any sort called ^^ a leap," that is, in erroneous 
 estimation, '^ i^utting a horse at a fence." The 
 word ^^ putting" really means showing a horse a 
 fence when the horse is a trained hunter, and 
 letting him time his canter, trot, or stride to cover 
 it at his own discretion. He must be a better 
 judge than a man on his back of what he can do, 
 and how it is best to do it, for there is very little 
 brains in spurs, but a vast deal of brains in a horse's 
 head. This may be laid down as an incontrovert- 
 ible rule : the smaller the place or fence, the slower 
 should be the pace to get over it; for in my experi- 
 ence all the worst falls I have ever seen have been 
 at little blind places, that a donkey could have 
 walked safely over. I liave elsewhere said that a 
 clergyman of my acquaintance, through nervous- 
 ness and spm\s, always taught his horses to rush 
 at every grip they saw, and therefore in a bad 
 scenting day it was utterly useless for me to cry 
 to hold hard from overriding my hounds in an open 
 field, as long as there were grips to the ridge and 
 furrow, for the horse flew at all indentations of the 
 ground, and only could be pulled up when he came 
 to the real fence on the other side the field, over 
 
62 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 wliich it was not his habit to be much ridden. 
 These horses used to put me in mind of frogs with 
 a duck behind them, for they crossed considerable 
 enclosures in a wild succession of frantic hops, and 
 then stood still. 
 
 To set a horse at a full or half gallop at a mere 
 ditch or grip is madness ; it teaches him to rush at 
 all other fences, it courts violent and very bad falls, 
 and endangers the life of man, horse, or hound that 
 chances to be unhappily in the way. 
 
 At double fences, a rotten bank perhaps, and a 
 ditch on cither side, if a horse is sent or ^^ put " at 
 full sj)eed at such places, he can only get over them 
 by one of three ways: he must either cover a 
 wide space at random as far as the second ditch, 
 which he cannot see, is concerned, or he must clear 
 the first ditch and land on the k)p of the bank, and 
 tlien jump the other ditch, wliich, be it wide or 
 small, is fully within the power of a second spring. 
 The third way of getting over the second ditch, if 
 the horse sees it in time, is to stretch out his 
 shoulders and fore logs, and to drop his hinder ones 
 to catcli the bank, and send him on. Now these 
 three ways are, in very many instances, completely 
 successful, but in some instances they are not so. 
 
HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 63 
 
 If the bank between the two wide ditches is rotten, 
 
 landing on it or kicking it will not save a fall, and 
 then if the horse is over-paced and comes to grief 
 for want of steadying power, in all probability he 
 rolls completely over, a very dangerous ^^ grief" to a 
 man, but more particularly so to a lady, who has to 
 risk the contact of the crutches on her saddle. To 
 s]3ur or strike a horse once, if his rider is quite sure 
 that the error arose from carelessness below the 
 saddle, is quite punishment enough for the time 
 being; to keep on sjDurring or whipping, is to make 
 a horse forget his fault if he committed one, and to 
 banish all remembrance of what the punishment is 
 for. When men lose their tempers they lose their 
 heads, and also they seldom recollect that if they 
 have spurred and beaten their horses at other times 
 for making blunders of whatever kind, when the 
 horse, without any fault or carelessness of his own, 
 comes suddenly into a blind or blundering difficulty, 
 instead of coolly extricating himself by reasoning 
 powers and well-governed activity, he ^' ducks his 
 head," shuts his eyes, and loses his senses and the 
 government of his legs, through nervous exjoecta- 
 tion of the punishment he has too often and much 
 too erroneously received. 
 
64 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 I have dwelt long on tliis theme, for while the 
 '^ crutched saddle " is occupied as it is, I would do 
 all I could for the safety of its graceful occupants, 
 avoiding the possibility of any hereafter ^^ crutch," 
 which, instead of sustaining a beautiful figure on 
 the saddle in healthful elasticity, might only aid 
 her to look on at the well-remembered meeting, and 
 at the jovial, dear delightful pack, from a basket 
 pony-carriage behind a sleepy cob. 
 
BKEEDiXG And hunting of foxhounds. (j5 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 breeding and hunting of foxhounds. 
 
 Points to be remembered in Breeding — Faults to be Avoided — 
 The "Oakley Pack" — Value of Young Hounds — How the 
 Puppies should be Managed — Steady Huntsman, steady Hounds 
 — On the Death of the Fox and a Good Eun, Go Home — ■ 
 Keward your Hounds — Be Judicious and Moderate in the 
 Punishment of Faults — Inspire Confidence in your Hounds — A 
 Check depends on Circumstances — George Carter — Incident in. 
 the " Oakley Country" — Dog Language — Condition of Hounds 
 — Incident at Knuston Spinney ; the Fox and the Flock of Sheep 
 — Folly of Tooting the Horn continually — The Huntsmen, Harry 
 Ayris and Tom Oldacre. 
 
 In breeding" and educating this splendid species of 
 the canine race, standing out so prominently as the 
 offspring of the British Isles, the same tenderness 
 and method In teaching, and the same attention 
 as to nose and power, legs and feet, should rule 
 as regards the foxhound even more than In all 
 other kinds of the canine race. Those foolish 
 '^ dog shows," wdilcli have of late years Ijecome the 
 fashion, in cases Avhere the owner of a pack of 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
()0 ■ FACT AGAINST FICTIOK. 
 
 foxlioimcLs does not himself attend to the breeding 
 department of his kennel, liave occasioned more 
 mischief than years on years will serve to eradicate. 
 The same indeed to all other breeds of dogs, save 
 those only to be looked at. Thus the huntsman 
 having permission to comjoete for public prizes at 
 these shows — a prize Avhicli can only be awarded 
 by the eye — breeds with a view to external appear- 
 ances and to win the prize, rather than to kill his 
 future fox, and puts together the handsomest sire 
 and dam he can select as to shape and colour, 
 and passes over some finer-nosed creature, whose 
 gifted perfections are innate^ to be known only in 
 action, and not percej^tible to the eye. 
 
 You may breed for personal beauty, legs and 
 feet ; but in doing so it is possible that the breeder 
 tshould omit to remember that the finest loins, the 
 power for muscular speed, and leg and foot are 
 utterly subservient in these cases to the gift of 
 scent. The speed of a foxhound does not depend 
 upon the shape and beauty of his legs ; for unless 
 liis nose serves liini with a scent on which to run, 
 legs, tliewsj and sinews must be idle, for it is the 
 nose that makes tliem all to go. Thus a cross- 
 grown, ugly, ill-shaped foxhound Avith a (jnud none 
 
liKKKDING AND JIUXTIXG OF FOXHOUNDS. 07 
 
 would run away from a foxhound witli a IkuI one. 
 
 Therefore, the very first idea that should take root 
 
 in a huntsman's head would be to breed for nose, 
 
 and not for shape alone. If you can find hounds 
 
 who possess nose and shape combined, then make 
 
 the largest use you can of the lucky fact ; but 
 
 always remeniber that it is scoit that kills the fox, 
 
 that the tender nose enables the hound to feel the 
 
 scent and run upon it, and according as the scent 
 
 serves so will the pace he. Without a nose, the best 
 
 legs and feet are rmll and void. 
 
 Perhaps the most unaccountable thing of all the 
 
 many wondrous items of the world is the fact of 
 
 scent — Avhat it is, or what it is not. What makes it 
 
 good or bad, what weather governs it the most, 
 
 whence it arises, why it fails or holds, and what 
 
 it is that so mysteriously taints the ground with 
 
 a line of scent from the flying ^nimal, that holds 
 
 for miles the pursuing foe to his continuous and 
 
 utmost speed, ^^ stern down and head up," as if 
 
 hound and fox were running in the same groove. 
 
 " Scent," in regard to hounds, has nothing to do 
 
 with the more vulgar appellation '' smell." Unless 
 
 an occult something in the air serves Inm, the best 
 
 of legs and feet ever known to hound must either 
 
 F 2 
 
68 iPACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 stand still, or race away in riot, skirting and con- 
 fusion. Without the hound can run the line the 
 fox has gone, and that he can alone 'do by his nose, 
 and stick to the line in all its changeful and difficult 
 phases, variety of ground, foil, &c., however 
 beautiful his shape and colour may be, he fails his 
 huntsman at a pinch, and is utterly useless in the 
 open fields and in cover. 
 
 Thei^e is another species of foxhound that rivals 
 in* useless mischief the hound without a nose, and 
 that is the jealous hound Avithout temper, who is 
 chary of his tongue, and who, if he makes a hit in 
 cover, or on the other side of a fence from that on 
 which the pack chance to be, will j)ut his ears back 
 and his stern down, and race away in silent and in 
 jealous pertinacity. The hound loitJwut a nose 
 and the hound thus of his own purpose unthoiU a 
 tone/ lie should similarly be avoided ; for, however 
 beautiful the forms of each may be, and however 
 good the nose of the silent hound may be, both 
 these animals will serve to lose more foxes in one 
 half a season than they would help to kill in ten. 
 
 In breeding, then, a strain comprising either of 
 these faults should be eradicated from the kenneh 
 If one .silent and jealous liound thus slips away with 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 09 
 
 a scent, getting- by a solitary whim a long way 
 ahead of his companions, and between them and 
 the fox, it is impossible for them to catch him, 
 unless, from some inability to carry on, he comes 
 back to them, for he serves as a foil to the fox's line. 
 A silent fast homid of this descrij)tion, if he gets 
 away, has much the same effect as that of a shep- 
 herd's dog or a greyhound chasing the fox. In 
 some mysterious way his preceding foot, 'twixt 
 pack and fox, utterly ruins the line of scent, and 
 occasions enormous trouble to the honest, pains- 
 taking, truthful pack to recover and hold on the 
 line before them. 
 
 A silent hound of this sort should bo drafted 
 directly the fault is apparent, for in cover and out 
 of cover he often gives the pack the slip, when, as 
 he cannot catch the fox by himself, and will not, by 
 flinging his tongue, call on the others to help him, 
 the sooner he is got rid of the better. 
 
 There is another faulty hound that does infinite 
 mischief if not drafted, and that is a confirmed 
 ''skirter.-' The silent hound and the skirting hound 
 adopt their dishonest proceedings from the same 
 source — that of jealousy. They have an over- 
 weening wish always to be at the head of affairs, 
 
70 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 no matter liow tliey get tlierc, and by running wide, 
 cutting off corners, • and other cunning and dis- 
 honest tricks, they take up the attention of the pack, 
 and more often lead away from the fox than at him, 
 and they cannot be trusted out of sight. It is 
 very curious, but in all my practice the false skirt- 
 ing hounds were by speed of foot always very fast, 
 and the jealous silent ones the same, though the 
 latter were not always skirters. 
 
 A hound may be too free with his tongue, to an 
 extent only that he cannot always be relied on; 
 l)ut a liound may also be ho free as to ''• babble," 
 that is, to fling his tongue on no scent at all, and 
 then this ^' liar" should at once be scouted. 
 
 It is curious to see how soon the pack detects a 
 liar ; and if a babbler is permitted to remain among 
 them, they Avill be down on him, and treat his 
 tongue with the most ineffable contempt. Tims, if 
 by chance the false hound sliould find a fox, and 
 for once by accident tell the truth, not a liound 
 will make up to his assistance, because they cannot 
 l^elieve what their comrade says. 
 
 When commencing my first season in the 
 ^' Oakley country" (Bedfordshire), I l)egan with, I 
 think, under twenty couples of foxhounds from the 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 71 
 
 Berkeley Castle kennels, with whom I had hunted 
 stag. I liad drafted them very closely, and well knew 
 that, could I but get a fox on foot and cheer them 
 on, to them, the new chase, they would stick to it and 
 work it as well as if tliey had been entered at it 
 all their lives. To these splendid hounds, all of 
 whom seemed to know all I said or Avished them to 
 do, I added, not a lot of able villains drafted from 
 other packs of foxhounds for their faults , but some 
 old steady hounds that were simply p)<^^rted with for 
 not being able to run at the head of their packs ; 
 and to these Avere added, by friendly masters of 
 hounds from one country or the other, a few useful 
 ones, that, at all events, would help me to find a 
 fox and maintain the line, however much my too 
 large and wild body of young hounds, that I was 
 obliged to enter, might overrun it. 
 
 I had inspected all drafts announced for sale, 
 and picked out very old, but still, to some extent, 
 able, honest hounds, avoiding those tliat by my 
 eye I could see no reason for their being parted with, 
 deeming that their dishonest tricks alone must 
 account for their discarded situation. Among tliose 
 old hounds so selected from drafts hj me wore 
 Stamford and Proctor, and each had Sir 
 
72 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 Richard Sutton's brand upon liim. Such hounds 
 to draw and find a fox, and to mark him in an 
 earth or drain, I scarcely ever saw. Stamford 
 had a very peculiar long-drawn, mellow tongue. 
 In length and mellowness it resembled a single 
 note of the hunting-horn; and in a short time, 
 whenever that tongue was heard in those heavy 
 woodlands, every hound flew to it as to a pro- 
 clamation to which no sort of doubt attached. 
 Proctor's Avas a shorter tongue, and not pecu- 
 liarly remarkable ; and it was this old hound 
 Proctor that knocked over the first cub I 
 killed in the Melchbourne woods. After some 
 very hard work, a cub attempted to break, and 
 Proctor rolled him over. 
 
 A grey-pied hound. Voucher, given me by 
 Colonel AVyndliam, from Sussex, would never draw. 
 He used to stick his liead between the hocks of 
 my horse, and never enter the cover till a fox was 
 found. Before long we understood each other, 
 and lie knew the worth of the tongues of the pack 
 in a much shorter time than I did, and thus early 
 lie recognized the hounds that could be trusted 
 from those that, in the exuberance of youth and 
 ignorance, would run riot ; and whenever I heard 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 73 
 
 the crash of any tongues, I used to turn my head 
 to watch the effect on Voucher. He would at tunes 
 stand still behind my horse and listen attentively, 
 turnino; his sa^racious head from side to side, and 
 after making up his mind what the row was about, 
 he would act accordingly. If he disliked the cry 
 he heard, he would scratch back with his hinder 
 legs and growl, accomjDanying the action with a 
 most unmitigated mark of contempt ; but if he 
 heard a tongue in that cry whose truth he knew 
 he could trust, he was off like a shot to give his 
 best assistance. Occasionally, just at first, I have 
 seen him deceived, but not for long ; for in a very 
 few minutes, on finding that there was riot on foot, 
 he would return to his post of observation at the 
 heels of my horse. If he remained in cover even a 
 little while, it was safe for me to cheer to the cry 
 and to get my hounds together. 
 
 In breediiag, never, if you can avoid it, breed from 
 faults on either side, but stick as closely as you can 
 to ])erfecti on. If faults are in sire or dam, rely on 
 it they will re-appear ; for though you may try to 
 meet a difhculty by putting a hound very free of 
 tongue to one too chary of it, or a hound a little 
 wide in his work to one if anything apt to dwell on 
 
74: FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 a line of scent too mueli, tlieir offspring are more 
 apt to per2:)Gtuato errors than tlioy are to illicit any 
 benefit from the meeting of two extremes, and 
 therefore the chances are certainly against the man 
 who hoj^es to Ijcnefit his pack hj the experiment. 
 The largest litter I ever Lrecl was from Jeopardy, 
 a bitch given to me by the late Sir John Cope. 
 She gave birth to eighteen full-sized whelps. They 
 were all reared and put out to walk, and they all 
 came to the kennel again with the entry of young 
 hounds. Out of this large lot of puppies, there was not 
 one among tliem clever enough in shape and make 
 to be chosen and put forward for the season's entry. 
 The following fact will show the value of a young 
 hound when able, handsome, sizeable, and selected ; 
 and it was on this fact, and on the current cost to a 
 master of hounds in breeding year by year, that, to the 
 then Sergeant Talfourd's surprise, I fixed as a witness 
 the value of thirty pounds, if I remember correctly, 
 on a first-class puppy of this description, who was 
 foully murdered while at walk by a neighbouring 
 farmer, and buried in the farm-yard mixen. Mr. 
 Ilorlock's whipper-in found the body of the hound, 
 and swore to it by the '^litter mark" in the ear, 
 and the owner of the hound recovered heavy 
 
BHKEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXIIOUND.S. T-J 
 
 clamagos and costs. Tlio trial took placo at Glou- 
 cester, and may be remembered by many as well 
 as myself from the amusement created by the late 
 Duke of Beaufort's huntsman, Bill Long, whom 
 nothing could induce to say what ha himself hicw 
 of Ms own knoivled(jG of the value of a murdered 
 puppy of the sort. Long would only say what 
 Sir William Codrington said to him ; and as he, 
 Long, could be got to tell no other tale, of course 
 his hearsay evidence could not legally be received. 
 Long retired from the witness-box without liaAdng 
 thrown a ray of light on the value he was called to 
 prove. Talfourd, who was for the defence, asked 
 me to explain ^^ why I put so high a value on a 
 puppy that had never hunted," and I ex|)lained 
 ^' my reason for it arose through my personal 
 knowledge of the cost of breeding a hound full-sized 
 and handsome, and clever enough to be put for- 
 ward," and Talfourd sat do^vn. 
 
 At this moment I forget the numl)er of hounds 
 bred from, in a given season, by the first Lord 
 Fitzliardinge in the Berkeley Castle kennels ; but 
 I know that on one occasion seventy-five couples 
 were put out to walk. The walks around the 
 Castle were, for the most part, on dairy farms, and 
 
76 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 the farmer liacl to take one or a coiii^le of puppies, 
 regulated according to tlie size of his hokling. 
 These puppies were constantly watched by the 
 game - keepers on whose manor or beat they 
 happened to be ; and they (the keepers) would 
 have lost their places if they had not at once 
 reported ill health or ill condition in the puppies, 
 or that the farmer kept them shut up or confined. 
 
 If puppies at walk have not their full liberty, 
 they will not grow up into useful hounds; and 
 the more hares there are on the farms when they 
 walk, tlie better for the puppies, for then they 
 will teach themselves to hunt, which is the best 
 education of all ; and with a full knowledge of the 
 way to trace an animal they are to follow, they 
 only need to be taught the kind of animal tliey 
 are to stick to. Rated from the hare, and cheered 
 and hallooed to the fox, they soon learn right from 
 wrong; and the l^est hare-hunters while at walk 
 become the best and the steadiest foxhounds in the 
 kennel. The nonsense I have read in the sporting- 
 works of some of the old milestones left on tlie road 
 to knowledge, as to entering ^^ young foxhounds 
 at cats," is too preposterous to deserve further 
 notice. 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF TOXIIOUNDS. 77 
 
 Now, in offering advice to younger men than 
 myself, and to show to them tliat I know more 
 about my sylvan sermon than many a jDarson 
 does of what he essays to jDreach from his pulpit 
 to his congregation, in proof of my intimate 
 acquaintance with the attributes of birds and 
 animals, I give the following facts, witnessed now 
 at Alderney manor by many of my friends. I 
 have struck up an acquaintance with one of the 
 wildest birds that fly, an old blackcock, a bird not 
 reared by hand, but so tamed while at large by 
 me, that he came to my lawn every day to within 
 ten yards of my dining and breakfast room window, 
 and on the smooth grass ^'curled-' to his own 
 delight, to the wonder of the hen j^heasants and 
 angry dismay of the cocks, who all feared his 
 grimaces and warlike tail exalted over his shoulders* 
 To see an old blackcock in this action, and to hear 
 him ''curl" in his notes of defiance and love, and 
 drive the cock pheasants, so erroneously fabled as 
 to their j^ugnacity, became an amusement to my 
 friends and many visitors. Among them. Sir 
 Edward Greathed came to see a novel and 
 ornithological sight so very unusual. 
 
 With pheasants, that I had paid no attention to 
 
78 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 save in iny walks in tlio wilderness^ the same 
 frienclsliip lias sprung* up, and they Avill follow me 
 about ; and if I put down my gun, and leave my 
 large black retriever to sit by it till I return, by 
 him and the gun in my absence I shall find 
 pheasants, and very often wild ducks, exiDCctiiig 
 my return, assembled without fear around him. 
 While I write thus on the hound and dog, I am 
 in the habit of feeding the wild ducks and the 
 liome decoy. There are three wild ducks among the 
 surrounding flock, who always sit by my side on 
 the little seat on which I invariably make room 
 for them, — the seat is about three feet long, — and if 
 I do not feed them out of my hand as fast as they 
 wisli, they will pull at the sleeve of my shooting- 
 jacket to gain the required attention. That 
 beautiful bird, the pintailed drake, will come to 
 the report of my gun, away from the decoy, Avhen 
 shooting rabbits in the summer; and a widgeon, 
 fresh from a decoy this Avinter, 1872, will feed 
 at my foot as confidently as if he had been tame 
 all his life. As I have previously said, these things 
 cannot be attained 1)y everybody, and they sliow 
 that I am well versed in animal instinct. 
 
 The gifted foxhound, then, in reality^ requires as 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. /9 
 
 miicli care and knowledge of liis instincts and reason 
 at Ills huntsman's hands as the wikl things alhided 
 to do from me. Nay, more, because the hound 
 being possessed of greater reasoning qualities than 
 the birdj his best nature may be thwarted, and 
 faults in his expected ser\dces may be inculcated by 
 neglect, by ignorance of his best qualities, or by 
 harsh treatment, which the thing, the soul, '' denied 
 to the dog," invariably resents. 
 
 It is thoroughly known to me that a wild hunts- 
 man makes a wild hound. A slack huntsman will 
 make a slack hound ; and when slow in his own 
 movements, his hounds will also learn to take tJieir 
 leisure. The steadiest hounds from hare can be 
 induced to be unsteady, and run hare, by a wild 
 huntsman. I saw a particularly marked instance 
 of it when I sold my foxhounds from the Oakley 
 country to Mr. Wilkins, for him to hunt Northamp- 
 tonshire with, Jack Stejjhens being their hunts- 
 man ; and a wilder man than he was for a huntsman 
 I never saw in the whole course of my life. I saw 
 the whole body of the young hounds who were out 
 on the day I allude to, with many of the hitherto 
 steady old liounds, thrashed into runnimj hare. A 
 few of the young liounds, wild froiii wild treatment, 
 
so FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 and not relying on their huntsman, spoke to a hare 
 in a small spinney. StejAens cheered them, in the 
 the Ii02)c of a fox. The old homids went to ascertain 
 whether it was riot or not, and on finding it was 
 a hare, the master, huntsman, and whij)pers-in all 
 went into the cover to cut at and flog every hound 
 they could get near. To my great misery, I had 
 been foolish enough to be out to look at my loved 
 hounds ; and the consequence of the foolishly insane 
 conduct of their new masters was, that the hounds 
 came out of the cover to join me and sit by my 
 horse, while the insane men in pink were whipping 
 and battering, at last, at nothing ; so they then 
 struck at anything round about my horse. I need 
 not say that / nevei^ went out loith them again. 
 
 If a huntsman begins to Jight with his hounds^ or 
 to let his whippers-in commence a conflict and essay 
 to rate in a rough and excited tone, to a certainty 
 the hounds will be uj) in resistance, and, in return, 
 disobey and fight with him. Some huntsmen can- 
 not pass covers tliat the hounds on some other day 
 had drawn, because the hounds will break away. I 
 never let a hound be struck for an attempt to break 
 away. In a gentle, ratlier contemptuous, soothing 
 voice, I told them to be quiet ; and this steadiness 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 81 
 
 from mv kennel at Hurrold llall was tlio more 
 necessary, because I had often to go through covers 
 hokling foxes, by the rides, to reach the place of 
 the fixture. 
 
 It is far easier to make hounds steady when there 
 is a large amount of riot in the covers than when 
 hares are very few. And it is a mistake in a master 
 or huntsman of hounds to avoid woods where there 
 are many hares, — in short, to show himself to be 
 afraid of them, in the mistaken and erroneous idea 
 that the hares lure the hounds away from the foxes, 
 that is a very silly error. 
 
 There is a golden maxim, that all masters of 
 hounds would do well never to lose sight of, and 
 that is, always to leave off on blood, when at the 
 end of fair work you have got it; or, in other 
 words, if they have run a fox and killed him, in 
 length of time suflicient, and in pace enough to 
 suffice for those who really rode the run, then on 
 the death of tJiaf fox go liome. The duty of a 
 master of hounds is not merely to show the best 
 sport he can to the gentlemen of the country, but 
 he has also a duty to perform to liimself and his 
 liounds, to his horses and his men. He must con- 
 sider those interests, those apparently private but 
 
 VOL. I.' G 
 
82 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 really and essentially public interests, for tlie good 
 of all, 
 
 I have known gentlemen in the field not satisfied 
 because the master after a good long run, with the 
 death of a fox at the end of it, selected to go home 
 in the best interest of his pack. I have seen such 
 gentlemen very often be the first to knock off and go 
 liome, not remaining out to see the end of it, after 
 the master had found a second fox at their solicita- 
 tion. They should reflect that they can go home at 
 any time when they wish to do so, and that they 
 have but one or two horses out, while the master 
 may have four or five ; and if he finds a second fox, 
 if he values his hounds, he must not whip off as long 
 as the hounds can run. To whip off from a fox is a 
 very bad lesson to hounds : resolute perseverance, as 
 long as the line will serve, should be in the heart of 
 the huntsman, and from him the hounds will take 
 their cue,. 
 
 After the hounds have killed their fox, a good 
 deal may be done by the way in which they receive 
 their fox as their reward, and in the manner they 
 receive the fox they will copy a similar spirit from 
 their huntsman. There should be no sort of sloven- 
 liness, nor sliould a particle of the ceremony be 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. S3 
 
 neglected. Their eagerness to receive the dead fox 
 should be sedulously aroused, and if some of them 
 snatched at the fox, and tried to take it from be- 
 neath the foot of the huntsman while the whips 
 were padding and cutting off the brush, those 
 hounds should not receive the ivhip severely ^ and 
 particularly not he Jdchecl ivith the footj as I regret 
 to say I have sometimes seen done while out with 
 i^acks other than my own. To strike or kick a 
 hound severely for being eager to get his fox is 
 utterly wrong: the whip and voice should only 
 threaten ; a tap or two is of just as much effect as 
 a heavy blow, and while revelling in the triumph of 
 blood not a symptom of harshness to a hound should 
 ever be manifested. The plan I recommend to bo 
 pursued on such occasions is as follows. 
 
 Wlien the huntsman has possession of the fox, 
 let him take the fox to a large tree, or to a fence 
 of any kind, and, setting his foot on the fox, set his 
 own back against the fence or tree. He will then get 
 all his hounds in front of him, and there will be 
 no snatching at the fox from the rear, and less 
 need of the threatening whip. AVhen the fox has 
 been brushed and padded, then let the huntsman 
 j)ick him up by the neck and shake him eagerly 
 
 G 
 
 9! 
 
84 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 in the face of the hounds, keeping the baying pack 
 back with his whip for a second or two, view- 
 halloaing all the time to cheer them at the fox. 
 Then toss the fox in visible delight to the expectant 
 pack. I have seen a whipper-in permitted by his 
 huntsman to plunge his knife into the fox and slash 
 him different ways, I suppose from the vulgar idea 
 that as sheep were cut uj), foxes should be 
 similiarly dealt with ; but this is an unsportsman- 
 like error. 
 
 I always used to scalp the head, never permitting 
 
 it to be severed from the body. The scalps look 
 
 well on the kennel-doors, and the hounds like the 
 
 head very much, and to take it from them is a 
 
 pity. Generally speaking, one hound will always 
 
 possess himself of the head, and, when a second 
 
 fox is not drawn for, carry it home with him all 
 
 the way to the kennel in triumph. Great judgment 
 
 is required from a master of hounds, as well as 
 
 unflinching decision in regard to the work done 
 
 by his pack and horses. On some days both 
 
 hounds and horses do a hard day's work in killing 
 
 a fox, while the ^^ gentlemen sportsmen" do little 
 
 else than sit still, talk, and smoke cigars. In an 
 
 instance such as this the master of liounds must, 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 85 
 
 liowever unwillingly, disappoint liis field of their 
 gallop, his sole solace being that by their forced 
 disappointment, and his judicious consideration of 
 his hounds, he will be in better trim to kill two 
 foxes if required on the following fixture. 
 
 Frenchmen treat their hounds as if they were 
 wooden images, made to run for their insane 
 owner's amusement, without reference to condition, 
 weariness, or scent; and so slack and cunning 
 have I seen their hounds in the forests of France 
 become from this senseless usage, that the moment 
 their liomids were put into cover and had got a 
 few yards out of sight, keeping to a foot's pace, ~ 
 they burst out in full cry, without a line of scent, 
 and with no animal of chase within a mile of them, 
 and this simply to amuse their masters, and to 
 save them from the trouble of the ^^draw" or the 
 dangers of a wolf or boar. 
 
 It did amuse their masters, precisely as these 
 spoiled and crafty hounds imagined that it would 
 do ; for the moment this false and babbling cry 
 woke up, excited Frenchmen, Avitli ecstatic eyes 
 staring from their sockets, in every quarter of the 
 wood, commenced playing tunes on their enormous 
 horns, each tune chronicling a different animal 
 
86 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 of cliase, according to the supposition of its 
 musician. 
 
 If you cxjDCct to have a first-rate pack of fox- 
 hounds, you must consider the nature of the 
 animal, and every proclivity he possesses. You 
 must not overtax the spirit and power of limb in 
 your hounds, for if you do you will at last make 
 them so slack that they will refuse to ivorh under 
 difficulties^ and always fail to make a fair or goodj 
 day out of what bids fair, from surrounding circum- 
 stances, at starting to he a had one. To make a 
 good day's sjoort, with a fox at the end of it, out 
 of a very indifferent beginning, I hold to be the 
 greatest feather in a huntsman's cap. To find a 
 flying fox with a very bad scent, yet to hold his 
 line till lie heats himself hj his own swift pace and 
 his fears, and gradually makes the scent better by 
 falling hack into greater proximity to his j^ursuers, 
 is to a huntsman, or it ought to be, the greatest 
 possible gratification. I have killed a fox on a day 
 of this sort, when for miles the hounds could only 
 speak to the line at the hedges. On other 
 occasions, I have ^^ guessed a fox to death," by 
 liolding on and hitting him here and there, till I 
 have come up with Inm wearied out with his own 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 87 
 
 speed, and waiting to be killed. Such results as 
 these cannot be accomplished with hounds made 
 slack by overwork, nor by a want of consideration 
 from their master. The huntsman mitst persevere 
 when once his fox is on foot, be that fox inclined to 
 hang in cover or not. Hounds should, like the 
 British soldier, '^ never know when they are 
 beaten," and from never having been trifled with, 
 neglected, nor deceived, they should have, and 
 they will have, the fullest confidence in and love 
 for their huntsman, under all the circumstances of 
 weather, scent, or over-riding. 
 
 It has fallen to my lot to see a fox killed after 
 a run long enough and fast enough to satisfy 
 any man who rode it; and then, instead of the 
 hounds being taken home on blood from a well- 
 deserved fox, I have known them made to draw 
 again in some very uncertain covers, and when 
 there was not more than an hour's daylight left 
 to run a fox, if found. I have seen some of 
 the young hounds out on such occasions run riot, 
 and instead of leaving off triumpliantly on the 
 blood of a fox, as they might have done, they 
 then had to be rated and struck, and in the 
 end taken home with a hare in their minds, 
 
88 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 and perhaps in their stomachs, instead of a 
 fox. 
 
 Osbaldiston used to say, when he had had a 
 good nm and killed a fox, and was asked by 
 some of his field ^^ if he was going to draw 
 again,'' ^^ Damme, yes. Go home, indeed! Avhat 
 should I do till dark ? " and on he woidd go, 
 dragging his unfortmiate hounds over the country 
 till night set in, without the slightest reference to 
 the best interests of the pack. 
 
 Men would do well to remember that hounds, 
 as well as dogs of other kinds, have a limit to 
 their powers of endurance, and that they liaA^e 
 sense enough to know when their huntsman over- 
 taxes their strength ; and if he gets careless of 
 their best interests, sending them foolishly into 
 cover when they are more fit to seek their 
 straw on the kennel benches, they will get as 
 slack as the useless things called hoimds with 
 Avliich I was doomed to go out when sojourning 
 for a month in the forests of France. 
 
 If it is the wi«li to attain perfection in any- 
 thing, tlie straight road to reach it must not 
 1)0 forsaken ; and when man has to consider that 
 in hunting the tools lie works with are neitlicr 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 89 
 
 iron, stone, nor wood, but living things, so far, 
 like himself, })Ossessed of affection and the most 
 careful study of their master's character as well, 
 he must give in to some of their peculiarities, 
 and cherish those points which tend to perfect 
 sport and brilliant running. Very few men have 
 brains or patience enough to make clever hunts- 
 men to hounds, and very few masters have firm- 
 ness enough, resolution, and patience, to rule their 
 field, protect their hounds, and keep their servants 
 in order. 
 
 When I first began hunting, the words, ^^ Always 
 cast forward for a fox when the hounds check, 
 but behind you for a hare," were rung into my 
 ears by my elder brethren of the chase ; but a 
 change very soon came over that dream j and I 
 learned that a check depended on circumstances 
 — circumstances^ perhaps, no longer seen when the 
 hounds threw their heads up, but which, though 
 no lt)nger visible, might be in some way accounted 
 for by a careful huntsman who threw his mind 
 before his hounds, as it is sometimes said a man 
 should do by his heart, if he wanted to get the 
 other side of a ^ ^rasper.'' 
 
 A clever huntsman's eye should not only always 
 
90 ^ACT AGAINST HCTIO^. 
 
 be on his hounds, but while he kept one eye on 
 them, the other, like those sj^jlendid Uhlans in 
 the late German war, should be scouring the 
 country far ahead, to guard against the surprise 
 of his hounds, Avith a good scent, checking. 
 
 If the hounds have a scent to serve them 
 well, if they check, rely on it, one of two things 
 has happened — eitlier something has headed the 
 fox, and he has not kept his line, or he is down 
 behind you. The choice of these two facts are 
 often offered to the himtsman. Let, then, the 
 huntsman sit still and watch the spread of the 
 pack, that may indicate something; if the hounds 
 cannot serve themselves, then the huntsman should 
 lay hold of them, and make his cast at a 2)acc 
 which should depend on the sort of scent he had 
 been having. If the scent was bad, let the cast 
 be slow ; if middling, let the cast be the same ; 
 if good, then let the cast be at a hand-gallop, or 
 even faster, if 3"ou like. 
 
 Though I do not wish to chronicle my own 
 deeds, my readers, jDcrhaps, will pardon me for the 
 following illustration. 
 
 While in Bedfordshire, the meet had been for 
 Wollaston Gorse, on the borders of the country 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF F05iH0UNDS. 91 
 
 where Bedfordshire and Nortliamptonshire join. 
 I put the hounds in with the comfortable assurance 
 from the clergyman, my friend, the late Mr. 
 Dickens, who looked after the cover, that '' I 
 should find nothing in it'' but a ^'shoemaker," 
 that trade being rife in the vicinity, and all its 
 members poaching rabbits. I do not think that 
 I had ever drawn it before, for its character was 
 always far from good ; however, on this day into 
 the gorse I put my hounds. 
 
 George Carter, afterwards huntsman to the Duke 
 of Grafton, and then to Mr. Asliton Smith, was my 
 first whipper-in, and Tom Skinner was my second 
 aid in that capacity. I had just remarked to 
 myself tliat the hounds ^' feathered " as if a fox were 
 not far off, when, on the contrary side from me, I 
 saw George Carter hold up his cap and sit motion- 
 less in his saddle. / hnew he saw a fox right in 
 the midst of the hounds, ancl between me and him ; 
 and that he abstained from a halloo, lest he should 
 startle the fox out of his cunning pro^Driety, and 
 make him lose his head, and get himself chapped^ 
 Of course I said not a word, but watched George 
 Carter's head turn very slowly towards the open 
 fields on his side, and then there came a wave of 
 
92 FACT AGAINST FICTION.- 
 
 his cap and a lusty ^Wiew" of ^^ gone away," and 
 off we set at the fox's brush over grass, and with a 
 rattling scent, in the direction of a large cover then 
 hunted by Mr. Osbaldiston. We really raced for 
 about three-and-twenty minutes, and then the 
 hounds threw up as if they themselves were aston- 
 ished, and without any indication of the way they 
 thought the fox might have gone, and then they 
 looked at me. With but a moment's hesitation, 
 not being able to see in front of us any reason 
 for the check, I laid hold of them, and at a hand 
 gallop cast them from where they threw up in 
 a very narrow l)ut complete circle, when on 
 returning to the very point on Avhich the check 
 connnenced and my cast began, and where all pre- 
 vious scent had so abruptly ceased, up heads and 
 down stern, and with a vehement cry away went 
 the hounds again. The first twenty minutes had 
 stopped my first horse ; my second came up just in 
 time ; and we never lost sight of the view of the fox 
 after crossing the first field until the hounds ran 
 from scent to view and rolled him over, near 
 Siwell wood, in the Pytchly country. In point 
 of '^untold gold" it was rather a dear ^^ forty 
 minutes " to me ; for George Carter's horse, for 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS, 93 
 
 whom I had but lately given the late Duke of 
 Manchester eighty guineas, buried the piece of an 
 oaken stump so deeply into the frog of a hinder foot 
 that he never recovered, and never left his stables 
 again, and was obliged to be destroyed. I' believe 
 that when the check in question commenced, the 
 fox, finding himself so closely pressed, had lain 
 down among us. Had I rushed wildly on, in a 
 forward cast, we should never have got on terms 
 with him again. The instant the fox became 
 aware that the hounds were held hacic, he iue7it on ; 
 and from the spot whence he started, and whence I 
 had started too to make the cast, there the hounds on 
 their return hit him, and ran him to a brilliant end. 
 As has been elsewhere remarked, the two animals 
 that never lose their presence of mind, let the sur- 
 rounding danger be ever so imminent, are the fox 
 and the rat. The fox will run if he can, and 
 so will the rat ; but if the former finds he cannot 
 outstrip his pursuers, he will adopt some unex- 
 pected dodge to throw them out, and gain him a 
 better start. I have known a fox in a last extre- 
 mity of danger to leap into an open horse-trougli 
 in the middle of a farmyard, with the sunbeams 
 shining full upon it, and lie in the bottom of it 
 
94 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 (which was dry) during the time that the whippers- 
 in searched every barn, stable, pigsty e, and cow- 
 house for him in vain. The hounds marked him at 
 full speed up to the farm, flung round it with open 
 eyes, and into the yard, and then, with noses 
 down, — they had been nearly viewing him after a 
 very good run, — they afforded the indisputable fact 
 that the fox had gone no further than the huildings 
 in question. No one thought of the great open 
 stone trough under the pump in the middle of the 
 farmyard — it was too evident to evoke suspicion ; 
 so in it lay the beaten fox till huntsmen, hounds, 
 and field retired, when a carter, bringing in his 
 horses, went to the pump-handle, and at its first 
 swing seemed to have pumped out a fox before the 
 Avater came ; for out of the trough jumped the fox, 
 and, with a swing of his brush and a cunningly 
 smiling face, with his ears laid back, away the 
 splendid ^^ villain" flew, to beat his pursuers, 
 perhaps, another day. This happened in Harry 
 Ayris's time, in the Cheltenham country. 
 
 The first thing a huntsman ought to do is to 
 make his hounds as fond of him as, but mucli more 
 trustingly than, any lady's lap-dog. He should 
 have a good store of '' dog-language," and i^lay at 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 95 
 
 times, particularly with any young hounds who 
 may be inclined to be shy, with every individual 
 in the pack. ^' Dog-language," which none of the wliip- 
 pers-in comj^rehend, — small nonsensical verbiage, 
 which, not being used by any one but himself, 
 becomes the more endearing to the hounds, though, 
 as wise or wiser bystanders may say, as my poor 
 dear friend, the late Mr. Castleman, of Beech 
 House, did of me, when hearing me talk to my 
 blood-hound, and other dogs, in a sort of reverie to 
 liimself, ^^Well! of all the men supposed to have 
 some sense, I never heard any one talk such non- 
 sense as Mr. Berkeley." 
 
 To attain perfection in this art, huntsmen in the 
 field and kennel huntsmen should be combined, for 
 the man who watches the work of each individual 
 hound, and how that work lasts out the day, will 
 be the best and only real judge of what flesh, little 
 or none, each hound ought to carry, the best to 
 befit him for hard work. 
 
 How often men, mere superficial observers, on 
 going to look at a kennel of hounds, may be heard 
 to say, wishing, perhaps, to be complimentary to 
 master or man, ^' What even condition; they are 
 all alike ! " 
 
96 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 Now, it is a fact long and well known to me, that 
 ^^ even condition" during tlie hunting season, if all 
 liounds may be fit to run, is nonsense. One hound 
 will be the better for being drawn as fine as pos- 
 sible ; another the better for carrying a little flesh ; 
 many retain the medium of condition, their con- 
 stitutions varying as much as those of men and 
 horses. 
 
 * 
 
 At the commencement of cub-hunting, always take 
 young hounds for entry to some spot where you 
 can directlij put them on the chase for which they 
 are intended. Neither strike nor rate them for 
 running hare or rabbit, for at their walks, if they 
 are good walks, they have been in the habit of 
 pleasing themselves by hunting both. As soon, 
 however, as they know what a fox is, and have had 
 a good example set them by the old hounds, then 
 rate them from riot, and let them feel the lash 
 enough to know that punishment is in hand if they 
 offend again. On running to ground in drains, it is 
 also wise, if jprevioushj to running to ground you 
 have had a sufficiency ofiuorJc, to let the hounds help 
 the men with spades to dig and scratch out the fox, 
 and to ^^draw" him for themselves. This long 
 contact with the hunted animal, close at him and 
 
BREEDING AKD HUNTING OI' FOXHOUNDS. 97 
 
 under tlicir noses, impresses on the young hounds a 
 knowledge of the scent they are designed for than 
 much running, when the old hounds cut out all the 
 work. The death of a fox, after workj is as mucli 
 needful to old and young hounds as a feed of corn 
 is to a hunter, and more so, because in one instance, 
 that of tlie horse, the mere craving of the stomach 
 demands the corn, while the breaking up of a fox 
 rewards the persevering and resolute brain, the 
 bristling fury and the thirst for death in the heart 
 of the hound, which crowns his exertion and his 
 natural instinct. 
 
 A Imntsman ought always to compass the death 
 of his fox (after work) by all the means in his 
 power ; and it is better not to hunt a country at all, 
 if the foxes are so few that there are times when 
 one cannot be spared. There is no advantage 
 short of a gun that a huntsman may not take to 
 obtain his deserved fox. In. an instance that hap- 
 pened to myself in my first season in Bedfordshire, 
 when I was nearly overwhelmed by my large 
 number of young hounds, the fox really died by 
 my own hand. We had run different foxes for 
 hours in the heavy woodlands, till the ground was 
 in a state of ^' foil,'' the pack contused and 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
^8 FACT AGAINST ITCTIOX. 
 
 nearly worn out. At "lajst a fox, an old one, broke 
 awa}', and the hounds marked liim into a hole in 
 a fioldj that by the fall of the lands seemed to 
 be a drain. 
 
 It was not above twenty or thirty yards from the 
 hedge and an adjoining little spinney; so suspecting 
 where the orifice of any drain might be, I ran to 
 the ditch on the reverse side, and was in tlie act of 
 looking into the drain, when the fox, not liking the 
 roar and scratching at the other end, jumped into 
 my face, and I knocked him down with the iron 
 hammer of my whip, and before life was extinct 
 swung him into the field among the hounds. 
 
 There was another fact, for wdiich I remember 
 some booted ignoramuses blaming me at the time, 
 — masters of hounds and huntsmen, perhaps because 
 they wear red coats, but that I did not do, and 
 look like raw meat for daws to peck at, are always 
 blamed for accident, wind, or weather. I might 
 have escaped this sort of blame, as my hunting- 
 coat was of the ^^tawney plush," as worn by thirty 
 of my ancestor's men, Avhen the kennel stood in 
 London, at Charing Cross. 
 
 The incident was this. A fox broke over a field 
 close to my horse, from Knuston Spinney, and went 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 99 
 
 direct for a very large field, in wliicli was a very 
 
 large flock of sheep, Avliose position I had already 
 
 observed. With a touch of my horn and a view, — 
 
 for the hounds had not exactly found the fox, he 
 
 ]iad found himself, — the pack were at my heels in 
 
 an instant, while I, starting from the spinney on a 
 
 fast horse, was before them and between them and 
 
 the fox, for I had resolved not to lose sight of that 
 
 fox imtil I had seen him safely through the sheep^ 
 
 and put my hounds upon his unf oiled line. 
 
 As I expected, the moment the fox came into the 
 
 field where the sheep were, the whole flock closed 
 
 in upon his wake from every side of the field and 
 
 followed him over the ground ; keeping however on 
 
 the flank of the foolish flock, the fox never succeeded 
 
 in getting out of my sight till he went through the 
 
 hedge and shut out the sheep, and was going over 
 
 ridge and furrow on the other side ; then with a 
 
 swing I cast the hounds, who struck the line most 
 
 joyously, and after a fine run, slow at first, the 
 
 fox was theirs. 
 
 Now, these two instances may be regarded as 
 
 circiunstantially required ; had their huntsman, in 
 
 the last instance, have sat still by the spinney and 
 
 waited for the hounds to run the scent for one field 
 
 h2 
 
100 FACT AGAINST FICTIOK. 
 
 onlij^ it might have lost the fox tliTougli tlie slieep, 
 and no run been obtained. As it was, foTcsiglit had 
 fore warned, and a brilliant day with a '^kill" was 
 the consequence. 
 
 There is a great fault observable in many hunts- 
 men and masters of hounds, and this is, the 
 constant desire to play on their horns, as if in- 
 struments for music alone, whereas the horn ought 
 only to be used to hounds when the instantaneous 
 attendance of the pack upon their huntsman was 
 urgently required. Also, there should be two calls 
 upon the hunting-horn, kept perfectly distinct from 
 each other J the one a single note to call the hounds, 
 the other the doubled and trebled note for the 
 field — to tell gentlemen, servants, and all who may 
 be interested, that the fox was ^^ gone away," or 
 that he had changed quarters in the cover. The 
 first Lord Fitzhardinge used to set every fox in 
 the Berkeley Vale on foot, to the detriment of a 
 second find, by tooting continually on his horn. 
 This tooting behind, while the huntsman with his 
 horn and halloa was getting the hounds together 
 before, did infinite mischief; and many a time had 
 the gamekeepers asked me ^Ho ask his Lordship 
 not to blow so much," because liis liorn throughout 
 
BREEDING AND HUNTING OF FOXHOUNDS. 101 
 
 the covers in the Vale of Berkeley, disturbing all 
 foxes within liearing, got them (the keepers) 
 '^ blown Tip" if their covers did not hold a second 
 fox. Osbaldiston was famed for this operatic or 
 musical ^^ropensity, which made the fast Pytchly 
 wits of his day compose the following couplet : — 
 
 " This is the man just come from ^ Qiiorn,' 
 Who lost the fox by blowing his horn." 
 
 And he and that over-rated man, his huntsman, 
 Jack Stephens, the latter told me so in the woods 
 '' tvhere the best echoes ^t;ere," that those were the 
 places where he and his old master used to try the 
 tones of their horns in going home, while the poor, 
 dear hounds, who had been running all day, were 
 trotting contemptuously at their heels, and getting 
 tired of their music. 
 
 As to whippers-in, there are many of them that 
 I have seen not fit to be trusted with a whip, for 
 they seem to do little else than ride behind their 
 huntsman and cut at every hound who is unfor- 
 tunately put, by necessity or accident, within their 
 reach. 
 
 I remember one day overhearing George Carter, 
 then my first whii3per-in, say to one of his men 
 who had struck a hound, — 
 
102 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 ^' What did you do that for? You'd better have 
 brought out a bone in your pocket, and given it to 
 him, than have struck him for notJiing. 'Twould 
 have done the hound much more good." 
 
 The two best whippers-in, and then the two best 
 huntsmen, / ever knew, were Harry Ayris, so long 
 in the service of Berkeley Castle, and George 
 Carter, who closed his hunting career with Mr. 
 Ashton Smith. I have been told that thq most 
 wonderful man of his day was Tom Oldacre, my 
 father's huntsman, and from my very earliest pony 
 hour through him I learned the rudiments and 
 realities of fox-hunting. 
 
ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 103 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 
 
 Startling Announcement in the Times— 'Dmhn.m Hounds — Mis- 
 takes made between Hydrophobia and Distemper — Marked 
 Difference between Distemper, Insanity, and Hydrophobic 
 Madness — Young Hound from Berkeley Castle attacked with 
 Hydrophobia — Extraordinary Disease which prevailed among 
 my Staghounds — Treatment for Distemper — Dr. Jenner's Letter 
 to the late Sir Mathew Tierney— Vaccination— Experiments — 
 Important Note. 
 
 On the 29tli of November, 1871, the hunting-world, 
 and among the conclave no man more so than 
 myself, was startled and horrified — I know that I 
 was shocked — by the following announcement in 
 
 the Times : — 
 
 •^ Dumb-Madness among Foxhounds. 
 
 ^^ A meeting of county gentlemen interested in 
 the Durham County Foxhounds was lield in the 
 County Hotel, in the city of Durham, on ]\[onday, 
 to hear a statement from the masters as to the 
 
10^ FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 state of tlio pack; Mr. John Henderson, M.P., 
 occupied the chair, and tliere was a nume- 
 rous attendance of the subscribers. Two vete- 
 rinary surgeons, Mr. Farrow, of Durham, and Mr. 
 Clement Stephenson, of Newcastle, were also pre- 
 sent, in readiness to give a professional o^^inion, if 
 required, on the state of the pack. From the state- 
 ment of the Chairman, it appears that a short time 
 ago a species of dumb-madness, which assimilates 
 both to diphtheria and hydrophobia, and also the 
 latter disease itself, broke out in the kennels, and 
 after some twelve couples of the hounds had been 
 sacrificed, Messrs. Harvers and Henderson, the 
 masters of the pack, came to the conclusion that to 
 keep the hounds was to incur serious danger to 
 human life. The hounds were therefore ordered 
 to be destroyed." 
 
 The moment the foregoing terrible announce- 
 ment was seen by me in the TinieSj I addressed 
 my brother sportsmen on the subject through the 
 same medium, because, in the description of the 
 malady assailing this unhappy kennel, a portion 
 of the supposed to be fatal disease was called by 
 a name I had never known before as correctly 
 attached to hounds or dogs of any sort, viz., ^' dumb- 
 
ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 105 
 
 madness. '^ ^^ DLiinb-iiiadness" and ^Maydrophobia" 
 combined. 
 
 Of course it is impossible for me at a distance 
 to judge of the internal management of that kennel, 
 but for the life of me I cannot understand how 
 insanity of any sort or kind could break out in a 
 well-cared-for kennel without its being inmiediately 
 noticed through premonitory symptoms, and cut at 
 or stamped out at the beginning by removing 
 the hounds that first showed an approach even to 
 constitutional discomfort. 
 
 That portion of a disease alluded to, ^^ diphtheria," 
 in hounds and dogs of all kinds, though not exactly 
 ^'diphtheria," I am jDcrfectly well acquainted with, 
 but it is neither allied to nor has it anything to 
 do with '^ hydrophobia." 
 
 When it assails a kennel of foxhounds, it usually 
 comes in with the season's entry of pupjDies, and it 
 first appears in the form of the common and in- 
 evitable '^ distemper." The attack, in its severest 
 form, is, in nine cases out of ten, attended witli a 
 morose and savage aberration of intellect^ with a 
 ^'madness" that in its intensity and inclination to 
 bite, as well as in some of its appearances, is closely 
 allied to '^ hydrophobia." Thus the poor animals 
 
lOG FACT AGAINST FICTION . 
 
 SO suffering will l3ite each other, or their huntsman 
 or kennel-mauj if he chances to come in contact 
 with their wild and staggering gait, or touches 
 them when they are lying down. They are for 
 the time, or when the disease is at its height, com- 
 pletely ^' mad," hut their insanity is not contagious 
 in a hite, and it would have no more danger to 
 human life than the bite of a healthful dog would 
 have when given under other circumstances. 
 
 When severely suffering from this acute form of 
 distemper, fits very often supervene, and if such is 
 the case, a young hound so suffering, in ninety- 
 nine cases out of one hundred, dies. 
 
 Any casual observer looking on a malady of 
 insanity such as this arising from ^^ distemper," 
 might at once mistake it for the ever fatal disease 
 of '^ hydrophobia." 
 
 In my kennel of greyhounds at Beacon Lodge, 
 many years age, a servant of mine, now head 
 keeper at Hinton Admiral, near Christchurch, in 
 Hampshire, luider Sir George Jervis, John Dewey, 
 having a scratch on his hand in administering 
 medicine to these poor insane things, got the foam 
 from their jaws into this cut on his hand, and 
 instantly imagined that he was likely to go mad. 
 
ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 107 
 
 in conjunction witli the young dog's under his care, 
 but shook off the dread or monomania on a most 
 confident assurance from me, tliat as long- as he 
 could drink his beer, and continued his inclination 
 for it, he would never have liydrophobia. He was 
 satisfied with my assurance, and is alive and well 
 to this day. 
 
 I never, in the long experience I have had witli 
 hounds and dogs of all descriptions, considerably 
 over half a century, always having been with stag- 
 hounds and foxhounds, huntsman in field and 
 kennel, have been bitten by hound or dog. A 
 bite of the sort should ever be avoided, as much for 
 the fact of any real danger, as the effect which it 
 might have on the mind, through nervous appre- 
 hensions. A mental ghost, that has no real or 
 tangible foundation, is the most difficult of all to 
 deal with ; and let us for a moment reflect on how 
 many people have been made nervously miserable 
 for years, because very foolish people have destroyed 
 the dog that bit them, assuming him to be hydro- 
 phobically mad, and by the death of the dog at 
 once preventing the poor creature recovering, and 
 living on in health and happiness, and, by so doing, 
 to relieve the mind from all future apprehension. 
 
108 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 Except in looks, insanity, under the most severe 
 phases of distemper, and madness from hydrO' 
 phobia, thoug'h much resembling eacli other in 
 outward semblance, have very distinctive marks, 
 when closely observed, to distinguish the one from 
 the other. 
 
 While suffering from either malady, — the one of 
 insanity from distemper, or what is sillil}^ and 
 vulgarly called dumb-madness, from which there is 
 a possible recovery, and the ever fatal madness of 
 ^^hydrophobia," from which there is no recovery, 
 — symptoms appear which greatly resemble each 
 other. In each case there is the same distressful 
 look about the eyes, the same inclination to bite, 
 and at times the same frothy saliva about the jaws, 
 and the same restlessness, to some extent, in mind 
 and frame. 
 
 The marked and decisive differences hetiveen 
 ^^ distemper insanity^'' and ^'liydropho'bic madness,^^ 
 however, are, wlien carefully observed, as wide [in 
 their nature from each other as the appearances 
 previously mentioned are closely allied. 
 
 The young or old hound, insane from ^^dis- 
 temper," has no intermittent relief, that is to say, 
 there are no j^hases between fits of insanity in 
 
ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 109 
 
 wliicli lie will recognize liis liiintsiniin or master, 
 save just as the attack begins to mitigate, and 
 symptoms are evident that he is going to recover. 
 Whereas the clog mad fronl hydrophobia often 
 has occasional returns to reason, and during 
 these moments of natural sagacity he will recognize 
 Iiis master or huntsman, wag the stern when he 
 a2)proaches, and rise from his bed to receive him, 
 coming to the length of his precautionary chain. I 
 speak from personal experience in the matter. The 
 following fact, which I now give, is the never-failing 
 division between the tivo madnesses. The dog 
 insane from '' distemper " will greedily lap water, 
 and continue to lap the cold fluid for a length of 
 time without intermission, coveting relief from 
 the thirst the fever on the brain and throughout 
 the entire internal system has occasioned. He, 
 so far from ^^lating water," courts it in every 
 degree, and, by constant lapping and endeavours 
 to drink, I have seen the patient fill the pan of 
 water with quantities of foam. The '^diphtherian" 
 affection, if it can be so called, is a nervous 
 action in the throaty at times precluding the pos- 
 sibility to swallow. 
 
 The sight of fluid, the noise made by the 
 
110 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 splasliing of water, or tlie contact of water on 
 his skin, has no horror for him ; he would drink 
 it, if he could, or even bathe in it. 
 
 Let us noAv turn to the effect of water on the 
 hound or dog really mad from hydrophobia, and 
 this gathered from my own personal observation. 
 
 Between the paroxysms of his madness, if the 
 creature is lying on his bed for the time and in 
 his senses, but exhausted from previous suffering, 
 — during which remission, as I have said before, 
 lie can and will recognize his huntsman, — should 
 water be offered to him, at its approach a terrible 
 excitement and evident horror of it assails him ; 
 he will seize his chain, and would bite the hand 
 which but a moment before he had invited to 
 caress him. Remove the water, and the excite- 
 ment will again subside. If he is not shown the 
 water, but water from a sponge concealed in the 
 hand is sprinkled on him, he will be convulsed; 
 and if the water is not brought near him, but 
 kept out of sight, a noise of splashing the fluid 
 will put him into convulsions. 
 
 Luckily for the human race, cases of real 
 hydrophobia are extremely rare, when it is con- 
 sidered that the poison from the teeth of a thus 
 
ox DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. Ill 
 
 rabid clog, is almost sure to follow tlic bite. It 
 must be evident to every thinking man that were 
 not the real cases very few indeed, this terrible 
 and fatal disease Avould very soon devastate a 
 land, for there is no living animal under the sun 
 that could not take, and would not then spread, 
 the deadly poison inoculated into the system. 
 
 Mad dogs are often heard of, and mad dogs they 
 ]nay be; but though they are decidedly out of 
 their senses, or insane, they are not svfferimj from 
 liijdropliohia. 
 
 I have heard of luad dogs swimming a river, 
 and of mad dogs greedily lapping at water ; and 
 have seen it written by men who knew nothing 
 about it, that the olden name given to the disease 
 in the Greek language was an error, as the 
 swimming a river and drinking water proved it 
 to be so. 
 
 It w^as not and is not a misnomer in Greek, for 
 those mad dogs, if they were insane, were not 
 suffering from the deadly disease in question, but 
 they Avere labouring under some other aberration 
 of intellect, when, if they bit any living creature, 
 the bite need not, of necessity, be attended with 
 any fatal result. 
 
112 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 Among country people tliere Is an absurd idea 
 that if any dog bit anybody, mad or not mad, if 
 ever tltat dog in future years went mad, those 
 whom he had bitten would follow suit and go mad 
 too. This is a most absurd fallacy, and for the 
 sake of humanity to man and dog, I pray the 
 reader to remember this. 
 
 If a dog said to be mad bites any one, on no 
 account let that dog he destroyed. Let the dog, 
 if 2)ossible, be caught and confined under lock and 
 key, witli all needful appliances of bed, food, air, 
 and water, so that he shall have every chance to 
 recover from his malady. If he recovers, then 
 the mind of the j^erson bitten is at once relieved 
 of all nervous apprehension ; if the dog dies, the 
 person bitten is no worse off than he would have 
 been had the life of the suspected dog been taken 
 on the first moment. 
 
 In my letter to the Times, of the 7tli of 
 December 1871, consequent on the horrible, and 
 too hasty destruction of tlie Durham Fox- 
 Jiounds, I have therein stated that in over fifty 
 years of personal experience, I never knew but 
 one instance of hydrophobic madness, and that 
 was in a young dog-hound sent me with my 
 
ox DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 113 
 
 usual entry of puppies from Berkeley Castle. 
 This puppy had been knocked over while at 
 walk by a decidedly hydrophobic mad dog, Ijut. 
 not an abrasion on the skin nor the mark of a 
 tootli could be discovered throughout the neck, 
 head, body, or limbs of the puppy in question. 
 However, Colonel Berkeley, afterwards Lord 
 Segrave, who used always to send me my entry 
 of young hounds, noticed the fact to me as a 
 Avarning, leaving it to me to destroy the splendid 
 young hound, or to risk his retention. This 
 P^PPy ^^^^ ^^^ active and fast, that the '^ entry" of 
 his young fellows always selected him to be their 
 object of racing pursuit, for, cut off corners as 
 they might, in ^'greenyard" or field, they had 
 the utmost difficulty in catching him. I have 
 observed that young hounds always do this, and 
 that they never select a playmate for this especial 
 purpose unless his speed and activity surpasses 
 that of all others. 
 
 After feeding my entry, it was my custom, in 
 a long frock or kennel di^ess, to seat myself on a 
 stone in the middle of tlie greenyard, to watch 
 the gambols of the hoped-to-be companions of 
 many a leisure hour, and to observe those in 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
114 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 whom might appear the seeds of distemper or 
 any other ilhiess, so as instantly to care for their 
 •removal. The entry were all jolly and well on 
 the preceding day ; but on the next day I re- 
 marked that when the other yomig homids went 
 lip to their usual speedy playmate to coax him 
 to set off at speed, he turned a deaf ear to the 
 suggestion, not sulkily nor angrily, hut as if 
 their suggestion to be gay was distasteful to him. 
 The hint was enough for me, and going to the 
 boiling house, where some couples were kept, with 
 my own hand I took that poor unhappy young 
 hound to an empty stable, where I chained him 
 u}), and kept him under lock and key. The 
 hydrophobia soon showed symptoms of its fatal 
 presence, and the third day he died. He died 
 in the night of the third day, and on the following 
 morning I found him curled up in his straw, 
 showing no symptoms of having died in bodily 
 agony, and never having howled (another vulgar 
 delusion of tlie people, that mad dogs always 
 howl). From the symptoms which beset tliis dog, 
 and the dread of water I elicited from him, I 
 have drawn my foregone conclusions respecting 
 the disease. 
 
ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. llo 
 
 If tlio kcnnel-liuntsman of foxlioimtls (the double 
 capacity of kennel-liiintsman and Imntsman in tlic 
 field had ever best be filled by one man) is 
 quick, intelligent, and observant, the slightest 
 change in the manners or looks of any individual 
 hound must catch his eye. 
 
 When the whole pack — sixty or eighty couples, 
 as the case may be— are together, the young 
 hounds ''put forward" and in their work, and 
 they all assemble round the door of the feeding- 
 house, to answer to their names and be called 
 in one by one to dinner, every hound will be 
 standing in or seated in the same place he has 
 ap2)ropriated to himself from the A^ery first, just 
 as people at a public dinner might do when their 
 names are attached to plates. On more than one 
 occasion, on casting my eye round for a hound 
 to be let in from his accustomed seat, I have seen 
 that he has not been in his usual place, that fact 
 was always quite enough to arouse my furtlier 
 attention to him, for it showed me that he was 
 not quite himself. Thus, my quick apprehension 
 in regard to the hydrophobic young dog, and the 
 fact of my removing him at once from the kennel, 
 
 saved my large pack of foxhounds^ — numerous enough 
 
 I 2 
 
116 FACT AGAIN^ST FICTION. 
 
 for severe woodlands and four days a week — 
 from the greatest curse that coukl befall a kennel, 
 and from tlio dano^er that mio'ht have accrued to 
 myself and to my men. 
 
 I cannot lielp feeling sad at the cruel fate, as 
 set before me in the Times, of the Durham Fox- 
 hounds. In the first place, there must have 
 been some mismanagement and inattention to 
 allow a ^'complicated madness" — it is so described 
 — to seize upon the entire pack, or, at least, upon 
 so many of them that it could not be known how 
 far the curse extended. If the account in the 
 Times was true, it is quite evident to me that the 
 madness in the Durham kennel had no more to 
 do with hydro2)hobia than it had to do with the 
 moon. The '^ diphtheria" suggestion most cer- 
 tainly proves to me that, whether there was 
 hydrophobia in the kennel or not, there most 
 assuredly ^vas an insanity, not always fatal, arising 
 in the worst phases of common distemper; and 
 until some further explanation reaches me, I must 
 feel assured that there has been a cruel and 
 ruinous mistake made in regard to a large number 
 of valuable hounds. I cannot picture to myself 
 anything more horrible than the idea of looking 
 
ON DiSTEMrER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 117 
 
 througli the kennel window — for I suppose the 
 people were afraid to enter — for the purpose of 
 destroying in one way or other the handsome, 
 generous creatures, who directed their bright, 
 affectionate, unsusj)ecting eyes to the hand that 
 was at the moment planning their thankless and 
 miserable destruction. I can imagine the horrors 
 of it, but, thank Heaven! I was not there to 
 see it; nor can I call to mind anything in my 
 sporting career that has ever equalled it in 
 ignorance, misai^prehension, or cruelty. 
 
 "Wlien I kept staghounds at Cranford, my kennel 
 there (it was my father's old foxhound kennel when 
 he hunted a country from Kensington Gardens, by 
 Cranford and Gerrand's Cross, to Nettlebed, and 
 the Cotswolds down to Berkeley Castle and its 
 vale of the Severn) was once visited by a disease 
 which carried off quite half my pack. The hounds 
 never seemed to be ill in the day, there was nothing 
 to forewarn of aj^proaching illness and death, l)ut 
 they all died in the night time, and were found 
 placidly curled up on their straw on their bedstead 
 in the morning, as if life had left them without 
 a struggle. 
 
 So extraordinary was their manner of death, that 
 
118 TACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 I had tlic l)est veterinary advice that London coukl 
 afford, and post-mortem examinations made in the 
 case of every homid. Their oatmeal was changed, 
 and tlie meal tliey had been eating was given to 
 other tilings, as well as being tested for any latent 
 poison ; but no research that we could make gave 
 any elucidation to the matter. My hounds kept 
 dving, from one to two to three or four in a week, 
 and not a remedy of any kind could be found. 
 After a time no more deaths occurred, and all went 
 Avell as usual, nothing of the sort ever happening in 
 a kennel of mine again. 
 
 The worst visitation that a kennel of foxliounds 
 can have, or, indeed, any other kennel, is from the 
 distemper. This devastating curse comes into all 
 kennels in the spring with the year's entry of 
 young hounds. It must come, and they are sure 
 to have it once in their lives ; and they may have 
 it again by contact a second time, but generally not 
 so severe. After having had it, and they are 
 recovered from its multitudinous effects, those that 
 have had it are safe from it again, unless from 
 inocidation by the discharge that emanates from 
 the noses of others. In cases of such contact, which 
 a careful huntsman ought never to permit, the 
 
ON DISTEMPEK AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 110 
 
 disease may affect a lioimcl of any age, Liit usually 
 in a milder form. I have studied this ruinous 
 contagion all my life, and tried various remedies, 
 listened to the nonsense put forth by others in 
 regard to certain cures, such as ^^red herrings," 
 and other strangely conceived and certainly in- 
 noxious, though useless, remedies; but there is no 
 certain cure for the distemper: it must visit your 
 kennel with the young hounds; it irill have its 
 way, in a more or less mild form, when so varied 
 are its modes of attack, and so different are the 
 effects that attend on it, that I have found it im- 
 possible till the disease appears to lay down any 
 specific rule for its immediate treatment. All that 
 I found it possible and best to do was carefully 
 to study its varied mode of attack ; and when the 
 ailments of the constitution tended to show where 
 and in what manner nature needed assistance, 
 then to step in with such, appliances as the case 
 seemed to demand. The attack, like the coffin of 
 Mahomet was sujoposed to do ])etween Heaven and 
 earth, is very apt to suspend itself between im- 
 mense inflammatory action and the lower grades 
 of constitutional debility. A change, too, from 
 one of these phases to the other is oftentimes so 
 
120 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 sudden, tliat it is a very dangerous thing to let the 
 patient l)lood. In short, a huntsman never knows, 
 till the moment his services are required, in what 
 direction they can best be applied. The pre- 
 monitory symptoms of the disease are loss of spirits, 
 heavy or dull expression in the eyes, and a short 
 ^Miusking" cough, with a disinclination to food. 
 These symptoms are then usually followed by a 
 discliarge from the nose, of more or less virulence. 
 
 To meet the approach of this always-advancing 
 foe, the young hounds should be put in a nice clean 
 and comfortable airy kennel, separated, of course, 
 from the old hounds. Their stone troughs for 
 drinking should be always full of fresh water, with 
 a little nitre dissolved in it : it is cooling, and 
 can do no harm to an}^ phase the disease may 
 assume. Liquid blister, setons, grey-poAvder, and 
 calomel, should be kept at hand. Calomel is a sure 
 remedy for the ^^ yellows " or ''jaundice " in hounds 
 when given in sufficient and repeated doses, and it 
 is the best medicine to give in the common dis- 
 temper, for the yellows often accompany it when 
 the liver is affected. 
 
 To a bloodhound I have given as much as 
 15 grains, or even 20 grains, of calomel at a time. 
 
ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 121 
 
 Calomel is an alterative with a hound, and has 
 not the same violent effect that it often has with 
 man. In all cases where there is a discharge from 
 the nose, the nose should be continually kept clean, 
 and sponged with vinegar. Wlien the disease 
 evidently tends to the brain, and insanity shows 
 an inclination to supervene, then put a seton in 
 the back of the neck, blister on the head and at 
 the back of the ears, and on each side the chest be- 
 hind the elbows, and reduce, if possible, the terrible 
 inflammatory action that is continually going on 
 throughout the internal system, as I have often 
 proved by post-mortem examination. In the case 
 of this insanity and inflammatory action, the only 
 chance of recovery is where Nature makes an effort 
 ofheroivn, and throws out sores upon the skin in 
 an attempt at cutaneous relief. On seeing this 
 symptom, then aid the natural effort in every 
 possible way with setons and blisters, and if fits 
 do not come on, the hound so suffering jjKuj re- 
 cover. A succession of fits are fatal, and fits 
 perpetually attend on distemper madness, when, 
 if the hound recovers, they often leave palsy in the 
 limbs. 
 
 Since writing the above, the post has brought 
 
123 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 mo a jirinted circular from Mr. George Jesse, in 
 respect to ^'Hydropliobia/' and a projected new Bill 
 for its j^revention, as his circular says, ^^now before 
 Parliament." There are many opinions promiil- 
 g*ated in Mr. Jesse's letter which are strictly 
 correct, but some of those professional gentlemen 
 whom ho (juotes have propagated many errors 
 respecting the canine race, and Mr. Jesse himself 
 talks about educating the people as an assistant 
 remedy for the bettor care of and estimation of 
 dogs ! This is a fashionable fallacy, for I suppose 
 Mr. Jesse would deem the late Charles Dickens 
 an educated man — in that particular far above many 
 of his fellows ; but the late Mr. Dickens in his 
 writings always used the name of that most faithful 
 animal as a term of reproach^ and when he wished 
 to paint tlie abominably hideous features of his 
 frightful dwarf Quilp, frightful in mind and body, 
 the illustration used by that educated man, Mr. 
 Dickens, was to liken the expression of his beastly 
 hero's face to that of ^^ a panting dog." 
 
 The fate of the Durham hounds ought to tend 
 to the most serious explanations ; and the preven- 
 tion of future mistakes, without mixing the 
 matter up with any fashionable folly wliieli now 
 
ON DISTEMPEll AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 123 
 
 exists for introcliicing a little dangerous learn- 
 ing' among- the lower classes, while '^ education," 
 if it is to be called so, has already increased the 
 list of the most revolting and serious crimes, as a 
 reference to the police statistics will most unmis- 
 takably show. 
 
 When my kennel of greyhounds at Beacon Lodge 
 was suffering from the worst and most fatal attack 
 of distemper madness I ever saw, that did not pre- 
 vent me from close and personal attendance ; the 
 young greyhounds were all mad, as mad as com- 
 plete aberration of intellect could make them, and 
 not only exchanged snappish hites with each other, 
 but they bit at anything tliat came near them, or 
 the wood-work of their kennel, if they staggered 
 into sudden contact with it. 
 
 Well knowing what their ailment was — contagious 
 onadness, or hydrophobia, from their teeth, I knew 
 to be out of the question — I ordered such remedies 
 as I deemed necessary to be given to them by 
 my servant, and stood by w^ith a pitchfork in my 
 hand, the prong of which, on cither side of the 
 poor insane neck, afforded a sufficient shield to 
 keep them off, or if forced to use it, to prevent 
 more serious attacks, a necessity not likely to 
 
124 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 happen, and wliicli never happened. It shn- 
 ply enabled me to keep myself 'or my servant 
 from the natural discomfort attending the bite of 
 a dog under any circumstances whatever. The 
 majority of my young greyhounds died ; all of 
 them under symptoms which the ignorant and 
 uninitiated would at once have pronounced as 
 ^' hydrophobia." Some of them completely re- 
 covered, having exchanged bites with those that 
 died, and for a time been quite as insane, — the 
 latter a proof incontestable of what the disease 
 really was. 
 
 As I have remarked before, every animal in 
 existence, as well as man, carnivorous or gra- 
 nivorous, is susceptible of taking the poison from 
 the bite of a really hydrophobic dog ; and as all 
 the living race, who are thus prone to this terrible 
 infliction, are capable of transmitting it to others, 
 v'here. can we find a fjreater j)roof of the extreme 
 rarity of the disease ? 
 
 Among the remedies sought to ameliorate or 
 counteract the '' distem2)er," there is one that in my 
 mind stands pronunent in its effects, and which is 
 an effectual prevention of the disease itself. At the 
 death of the late Sir Matthew Ticrncyj the eminent 
 
ox DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG IIOUNDH. 1 2d 
 
 })liysiciaii, tlio present Lady Tierney was kind 
 enougli and tlioi*glitful enough to place in my pos- 
 session a letter Sir Matthew Tierney had received 
 from his hrother physician the late celebrated 
 Dr. Jenner. 
 
 Tliat autograph letter was to inform Tierney that 
 Doctor Jenner himself had tried vaccination on 
 the dog, and unmistakably discovered it to be a-s* 
 j^owerful a prevention against the distemper in dogs 
 as it had proved to be against the small-pox in 
 man. Prevention^ be it remembered, not cure. 
 Dr. Jenner had tried it at his residence in the 
 town of Berkeley, on dogs in his own possession, 
 witli the most ' complete success, and thus the fact 
 came from him to Sir Matthew Tierney, and 
 through the latter, as I have described, to me. 
 Many years ago I promulgated this fact as widely 
 as I could, and in many cases vaccinated Avith my 
 own hands my young hounds and dogs, teaching, 
 to the best of my ability, all men who desired to 
 be taught ; but, as usual in similar cases, there was 
 a vast amount of vulgar disbelief in a remedy so 
 curious and unknown. 
 
 There were two facts that greatly militated 
 against a wide and established, or generally 
 
126 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 adoj^ted^ j^lan of vaccinating dogs, Lotli calculated 
 to bring disbelief in the success of Mie remedy. 
 
 One of these facts was the extreme nicety and 
 difficulty of a successful operation. 
 
 The other was, as in the case of the small-pox 
 and vaccination, that if the seeds of the distemper 
 Avere occult, but at the same time in the system of 
 the dog to be operated on, the j)i'e-occupation of 
 the j)oison in the one instance prevented or annulled 
 the operation in the other. 
 
 Distemper, if present , how eyev remote it micjht he, 
 held the fortress against all assaults of its enemy, 
 — a fact, in my opinion, perfectly similar to the 
 known antagonism of the virus in the small-pox and 
 the cow-pox. 
 
 This, of course, led to the belief in many servants^ 
 minds, first, that because theij went through the son- 
 Licence of vaccination, u:ithout perfecti}i(j it, the dog 
 subsequently taking the distemper, that fact in 
 their minds proved that vaccination was of no use. 
 
 The second contretemps was, in the face of their 
 attempting vaccination on a dog whose system had 
 been previously taken possession of h/j the distemper^ 
 which had not, but which was yet to appear, and 
 then if they really had succeeded in the mere 
 
ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 127 
 
 o^jenitioii of vaccination, the distemper having 
 occiuTccl, the fact of its appearance proved to 
 their not over-inquiring' minds that the suggested 
 remedy was incompetent to the object in view. 
 
 It is far more difficult to vaccinate a hound or 
 dog than to vaccinate a man, woman, or child. The 
 reasons which militate against the operation, and 
 which nmst be guarded against, are as follows : — 
 The operation has to be performed on some portion 
 of the dog's figure which he can neither get at to 
 scratch nor lick. If he can attain either of these 
 actions, he is sure to destroy the virus, and render 
 the attempted operation vain. If puppies are kept 
 together, they Avill find out and lick the places for 
 each other; to make a fair experiment, therefore, 
 the young hound, for three or four days only, 
 should be kept by himself. 
 
 There are only two places in the dog's frame 
 that I particularly suggest for vaccination ; the one 
 is high ujj on the inside the ear, the other is on the 
 chest near the fore-arm, and slightly before and a 
 little above the elbow. This latter place the hind 
 foot of the dog cannot reach, and when well selected 
 he cannot touch it with his tongue. 
 
 To these two places there attach two cutaneous 
 
128 TACT AGAINST FICTIOK. 
 
 difficulties, one to each, and tlie lancet should be of 
 the first class, and the hand attempting to operate 
 should be very light, because the skin of the inside 
 the ear is very thin, and replete with the smaller 
 veins, and, therefore, prone to shed quite enough 
 blood to weaken the virus or to wash it away. 
 
 The skin in front of the shoulder-blade, or at the 
 s2)ot previously described, is very thick, and there 
 is very great difficulty in applying the virus deep 
 enough for it to be taken up, and yet not to draw 
 much blood. 
 
 These facts often mar the ruder attempts at vacci- 
 nation, and get a verdict given against the remedy, 
 which in such instances has never been applied. 
 
 When vaccination has been successfully accom- 
 plished, the spot should be narroivly ivatclied clay 
 hy day. If a slight festering, or if a small pustule 
 does not arise the vaccination has not taken, however 
 carefully done, and the suggested remedy has not 
 been tested. 
 
 The fact of the successful result is discoverable in 
 the third or fourtli day, generally speaking ; and if 
 the vaccination is of a rather severe character, it 
 varies much according to the strength of the 
 virus and the strength of the constitution, the 
 
ON DLSTE^^IPER AND MADNESS AMONG ItOUNDS. 129 
 
 puppy Avill be dull, and decline its food to some little 
 extent for twenty-four hours. On other occasions 
 there may be no observable effect on the stomach, 
 or on the spirits, although a slight scab on the 
 puncture and a little festering in or beneath it will 
 testify to the operation having sufficiently succeeded. 
 Puppies cannot be vaccinated at too early an age 
 
 , after heing taken from their mother^ or after being 
 weaned. Her tongue then will not lick the places, 
 nor are the seeds of distemper likely to be in their 
 systems. Besides this, they can be held quietly in 
 a man's arms ; there will be no anger, biting, nor 
 struggling, no increased circulation of the blood, 
 but the operation will be given ample opportunity 
 
 for success. 
 
 My two last patients under vaccination have been 
 three times operated on by my friend Dr. Philpots, 
 of Poole. In the two first instances I was dubious 
 of the result, but on the third Dr. Philpots himself, 
 on inspection at the right time, pronounced that 
 vaccination lutd been complete. The puppies are a 
 setter of the old Irish red sort, and a spaniel by 
 my famous old liver- and- white dog, '^ Bruce." We 
 shall now see if they remain free from the dis- 
 temper ; but in thus referring to them as incidental 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
130 FACT AGAINST FICTION". 
 
 to tlic illustration of tlic trutli, I feel bound to say 
 that tliougli my friend Dr. Pliilpots, who took the 
 most kind and attentive interest in the matter, enter- 
 tains no doubt of the success of the operation, neither 
 myself nor my head-keeper, Harry Toovey, ever saw, 
 when success had been accomplished, slighter indi- 
 cations of a raised pustule making its appearance 
 than on the ears of either of these puppies. How- 
 ever, Dr. Philpots must be a better judge than we 
 are of the success or otherwise of the operation, 
 and he has no doubt whatever in the matter. 
 
 If the foregoing chapter jDroves in its sugges- 
 tions to be useful to my brother sportsmen, — they 
 are the suggestions of, at least, a carefid and obser- 
 vant sportsman, arising in a very lengthened 
 experience of years, — it will, in the winter of my 
 life, afford me the deepest satisfaction. The eager, 
 joyous, and resolutely determined and vehement 
 cry of my loved foxhounds long gathered to the 
 ground, of many of whom I still dream, still seem, 
 in their heart-stirring, tlmndering tones, to be ring- 
 ing in my ears, as they run for their short turning 
 and dying fox in the severe and tangled black 
 thorn and briar woods of Bedfordshire. My 
 favomite hunter standing still in all j^jatience 
 
ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 131 
 
 after his hour and twenty minutes over the open, 
 knowing what is happening as well as I do, or 
 quietly bearing me at a trot or canter up or down 
 the rides to meet the surging cry, and to be ready 
 to let me dismount and pick up the fox from his, 
 I am happy to say, speedy death assigned to him 
 by the furious grasp of forty jaws. 
 
 These were ^^ merry days in the good green 
 wood," and I am thankful for having enjoyed so 
 many, and to have been continued even to the 
 present hour in sufficient health and strength, dis- 
 crimination and gratitude, to love the horse and 
 hound, and to write, if I cannot ride as I used to 
 do, in the service of those creatures . through whom 
 and with whom I have passed the happiest portion 
 of my sportsman's life ! 
 
 As this chapter commenced with an allusion to 
 the uncalled-for destruction of the hounds in the 
 Durham Kennels, arrived at as their destruction 
 was under very timid and erroneous advice, I find 
 that it will be absolutely necessary for me to dedi- 
 cate a future chapter to what is vulgarly called 
 ^^ rabies," classed by those who really know nothing 
 of the matter as having to do with, or being the 
 
 commencement of, hydrophobia. 
 
 k2 
 
132 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 Nothing can be more nnscliievous, or, for that 
 matter, more ignorant, than chissifying what is 
 called ^^rable.s" with the fearful and always fatal 
 malady of hydrophobia, for it is impossible to 
 miderstand Avhat ^^ rabies" means, descanted on as 
 it has been of late by erring and blatant individuals. 
 ^' Rabies " is the first step to certain death, and 
 therefore every dog insane from any cause other 
 than confirmed h^^drophobia should be put to 
 death. I have just seen, September, 1872, the 
 account of ^^a mad dog at large at Grloucester," 
 who made his way from the neighbourhood of 
 Hartpuiy, and after he was supposed to have bitten 
 several dogs, luas captured alive b/j two policemen^ 
 and taken to Mr. Ploltham, a veterinary surgeon, 
 who pronounced the animal to be suffering imder 
 the most severe form of '' rabies," and the dog was 
 destroyed. 
 
 Then, let me ask, why destroy the dog when 
 you have him in safe custody? Why not chain 
 him up where notliing could get access to him, 
 and watch the course of the disease ? If the insane 
 dog recovers, supposing Inm to have bitten any 
 human creature, the mind of tlie bitten individual 
 is relieved from the horrible apprehension of 
 
ON DISTEMPKlv AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 13o 
 
 certain death. If the clog dies, tlioso Avho arc 
 bitten are no worse than they were before, because 
 dogs often die ^iiiad from mere distemper ; and 
 while suffering from a painful insanity, thougli 
 madj tliey are not hydrophobic dogs, and their 
 bite, as I haye often seen, bears no infection in it 
 whatever. I do not hesitate to assure those two 
 police constables who captured a mad dog alive, 
 that even if they had not their gloves on, they 
 need be under no apprehension, for if tlie dog they 
 caught was only suffering from what is called 
 ''rabies," a bite from him would be as innocent as 
 the bite of any sane creature that exists. It is a 
 sad pity that ignorant people should deem every 
 mad dog a hydrophobic dog. The canine race are 
 subject to as many delusions of the brain almost, 
 not quite^ as men and women are; and if the 
 ruling powers should order all mad persons insane 
 from Communism to be destroyed from fear of 
 infection, we, the Conservatives, would very soon 
 be in a still more powerful majority. 
 
 Note, — At the conclusion of this chapter, for 
 the use of the Profession, I append a very clear 
 definition of the two insanities, compiled, with 
 
13^ 
 
 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 my full conciuTGnce, by my friend, E. Philpots, 
 Esq., M.D., &c., of Poole, Dorsetshire: — 
 
 HYDPtOPHOBIA. 
 
 Definition — A fatal form of mad- 
 ness, communicable from the 
 lower animals to man : charac- 
 terized (as the name denotes) 
 by an intense dread of water. 
 
 Synonyms — None. 
 
 Premonitory Symptoms — Begin 
 two days before-hand, loss of 
 spirits, loss of appetite, general 
 depression. 
 
 General appearance during the 
 Attack — When let alone the 
 dog lies sullenly as if "out of 
 sorts " and depressed, notices 
 little, but recognizes his master 
 by wagging his tail. Violently 
 insane only on the approxima- 
 tion of water. 
 
 Fits — Absent. 
 
 Foam at the Lips -^Absent. 
 
 Water — Sprinkled over, or near 
 him, causes violent convulsions. 
 Thirst — Absent. 
 
 Desire for Water — Absent on 
 account of dread. 
 
 Appearance of Eyes — Dull or 
 heavy. 
 
 Howling and Barking — Absent. 
 
 ^Muscular affection of the Throat, 
 causing inability to swallow 
 anything — Absent, or not ob- 
 servable. 
 
 DISTEMPER MADNESS. 
 
 Definition — X form of rabid 
 madness, non-communicable to 
 man, characterized by foaming 
 at the mouth, impairment of 
 deglutition, and a desire to 
 vomit. 
 
 Synonyms — Rabies. 
 
 Premonitory Symptoms — Loss of 
 appetite, and slight husking in 
 the throat. 
 
 General appearance during the 
 Attack — He will bite at any 
 of his fellows, gnaws at his 
 bed or the wall, eats straw, 
 snaps at his attendant. 
 
 Fits — Present in a marked 
 degree, in most cases. 
 
 Foam at the Lips — Very much, 
 he leaves it on the surface of 
 the water he vainly tries to 
 drink (the foam is caused by 
 futile efforts to drink or 
 swallow). 
 
 Water — Has no effect upon him. 
 
 Thirst — Intense, insatiable. 
 Desire for Water — Very great. 
 
 Appearance of Eyes — Dull and 
 green in their reflection. 
 
 Howling and Barking — Present. 
 
 Muscular affection of the Throat, 
 causing inability to swallow 
 anything — Well marked. 
 
ON DISTEMPER AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 135 
 
 Causes — None. Causes — Inflammatory action in- 
 
 ternally pervading the system. 
 
 Prognosis — Very bad, always Prognosis — Good or bad, accord- 
 fatal, no chance of recovery. ing to the severity of the fits. 
 
 Terminations — The symptoms do Terminations — A fit. 
 not vary to any great extent 
 towards the termination. 
 
 Pathology — Intense inflamma- Pathology — Inflammation of the 
 tion of the brain, extending to brain, often extending to the 
 the throat and lungs. throat, the lungs, and often 
 
 the intestines. 
 
 Prophylactic Treatment — None. Prophylactic Treatment-Vaccina- 
 tion is a certain preventative. 
 
 To this definition of the two insanities, we may 
 add, that the term ^^ rabies" should never "be used. 
 ''Hydrophobia" and ''distemper madness" are 
 amply sufficient to indicate the two insanities, and 
 to keep them distinct, the term "rabies" has been 
 foolishly made to cover every sort of madness to 
 which the brain of the dog is subject, including the 
 always fatal one of hydrophobia. It has induced 
 in humanity death arising from nervous apprehen- 
 sion, and to the canine race the most cruel and 
 needless destruction. 
 
 The "common distemper" is essentially an 
 
 "epidemic"; it is in the air, and will affect a 
 
 whole kennel of young hoimds at the same time; 
 
 whence it comes or in what it arises, I have never 
 
 been able to discover. 
 
loG FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 
 
 Distemper and its Treatment continued — Hydrophobia — How to 
 distinguish Distemper Madness from the Madness of Hydro- 
 phobia — Vaccination a Remedy against Distemper — How to 
 Operate ; Causes of Failure, and points essential to Success — 
 Dangerous consequences of giving a Dog a bad name, and a 
 True Story in illustration — Soup and the Kennel Boiler- 
 Kennel Lameness. 
 
 The following is a list of the more important 
 diseases to which hounds are liable : — 
 
 The common distemper, its effects and attendant 
 insanity, and its inevitable presence. 
 
 The hydrophobia, the rarest of all diseases to 
 which a kennel may be liable. Totally different 
 from the insanity of the brain caused by distemper, 
 and only to be communicated through the bite of 
 the dying dog. 
 
 The kennel lameness. 
 
 Tlio yellows or jaundice. 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 137 
 
 Those are the heads of the diseases that assail 
 kennels of hounds and kennels of other dogs ; but 
 very often the symptoms arising from '' common 
 distemper" are so complicated and so strange at 
 times, so undefined, so varied, and so intermittent, 
 that, as narrated in a previous chapter, no hunts- 
 man can lay down a rule of specific treatment ; his 
 wisest plan is to watch the indications for relief 
 pointed out by nature, and to profit by them accord- 
 ingly, and assist her. 
 
 There are two phases of the common distemper. 
 The one assails the lungs, exhibiting itself in 
 ^^Imsking" and cough, with a discharge from the 
 mucous membrane at the nose ; the other breaks 
 more suddenly out in inflammatory action of 
 tlie brain, which inflammation often extends 
 throughout the inward and entire structure of 
 the animal. 
 
 We will treat of the common phase of the 
 inevitable distemper first, which so assuredly 
 comes into the kennel with the entry of young 
 hounds. It may not appear openly confessed in 
 the first few days; but an experienced judge 
 will suspect its advent by the eyes, the ailing 
 look of the young hounds, and the varied and 
 
138 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 disarranged state of their stomachs and action of 
 the liver. 
 
 At their walks, particularly in a dairy country, 
 OS well as on large sheep farms, much offal is 
 picked u]) by the puppies. They must be left to 
 run about the fields and to enjoy a hunt after a 
 hare or rabbit, or their ^'walks'' would not be 
 worth having, nor their limbs straight and full 
 grown; so the first thing to attend to on their 
 arrival in the kennel is their general health and 
 any indication of a disordered stomach. The 
 stomach can very soon be set to rights by the 
 administration of from six to seven grains of grey- 
 powder, and in severe cases repeated doses of 
 calomel, beginning with five grains and ranging 
 up to ten. To a large bloodhound in France, who 
 had been most severely attacked by the yellows, 
 and then, in a French kennel of course^, neglected, 
 I have given as much as fifteen grains, and cured 
 him when his flanks, his gums, his ears, his sides, 
 and the ell)ows were as yellow as gold. 
 
 But to proceed with the distemper. The first 
 thing to be administered to a puppy at all ailing 
 is a vomit. It is the natural and often referred to 
 remedy of the canine race, as proved when in general 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 189 
 
 good health, and ajDparently not in the least ill, by 
 their eating grass. 
 
 When mad, in the worst phases of common dis- 
 temper, the desire of relief by vomit is manifested 
 by the poor insane creature swallowing bits of 
 straw and chips of wood, the latter gnawed from 
 the bench on which he lies. Man should, therefore, 
 make in with the natural remedy the wandering 
 brain of the patient even thinks of up to the verge 
 of death ; and hnoiving that the hound is not suffer- 
 ing from the fatal contagion of '•'• hydrophobia," 
 instead of ordering the destruction of the poor 
 sufferer, he should at least attempt a rescue, even 
 at the not very great risk of being, so to speak, 
 harmlessly bitten. 
 
 If it could be at once determined which of the 
 two phases of the distemjDcr the attack was going 
 to assume, in the event of its being the worst of 
 the two comprising aberration of intellect through 
 inflammation of the brain, then bleeding might bo 
 useful ; or if the young hounds had not been 
 rounded, to round them, and thus to let them 
 blood, might be attended with favourable conse- 
 quences. Setons at the back of the head, in the 
 neck and throat, on the sides, liquid blister in 
 
no FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 any available spot, as before alluded to, should be 
 persisted in ; for in the long career of my personal 
 experience as huntsman in and out of the kennel, 
 I have observed that if upon the bodies of the 
 young hounds attacked with inflammation and 
 temporary insanity, the disease takes an external 
 turn and ])reaks out cutaneously all over the body, 
 then in that case the young hound gains relief, 
 returns to his senses, and is almost sure to recover. 
 
 It was this observation in resj)ect to the eruption 
 on the skin that suggested to me to encourage the 
 object of nature in every possible way. 
 
 In regard to the less severe phases of the common 
 distemper, when the brain is not affected to insanity, 
 on no account let the system be lowered. On the 
 contrary, abstain from letting blood, and support the 
 frame by every choice in food ; keep the patient 
 warm, and repeatedly sponge his nose with vinegar 
 during the course of the day. If you observe that 
 the body needs internal relief, then give small doses 
 of the grey-powder — I prefer it to aloes — and keep 
 in each kennel of distemper a little nitre in the stone 
 at which the hounds drink. The hound mad from 
 what is so erroneously called ^^ rabies" or ^'dumb- 
 madness " will try to drink, but in nine cases out 
 
DISEASES TO WIIICII HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 141 
 
 of ten lie cannot swallow. His brother in affliction 
 Avlio suffers not in so great a degree^ and from a 
 totally different disease, will not only lap, but lie 
 will, when not too severely attacked, swallow the 
 water, and be refreshed by the cooling nature of 
 the ingredient it contains. The almost always fatal 
 sign of death in cases of the common distemper, 
 and insanity arising from it, is when a succession of 
 fits supervene ; recovery is very hopeless on the 
 first appearance of that frightful struggle for life. 
 
 Many of the hounds and greyhounds that I have 
 w^atched through the insanity of distem2)er, and 
 treated as I describe, have recovered, to aid me in 
 the death of many a fox and hare, and some of the 
 greyhounds have run for stakes at the coursing 
 meetings. Some hounds will completely recover 
 their health; but at times the distemper will leave 
 behind it a paralytic shaking or dodging of the 
 forehand of the .hound; and if this species of 
 paralysis is so manifested, the hound or greyhound 
 so suffering can never recover from it, nor be of 
 any use in the field. 
 
 Now, as to the contagion of distemper being given 
 from one hound to the other. Contact will com- 
 municate it from young hounds to old, though the 
 
142 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 latter may have had It before; but in ninety-nine 
 cases out of the hundred the old hound, who in his 
 youth has had the distemper, will take it but very 
 slightly. 
 
 The young hounds, for that reason, should 
 always have a kennel to themselves, from which 
 the contact of even a nose with the nose of an old 
 hound should be impossible. Biting, of course, 
 would be out of the question; but a bite would 
 carry with it no more than the simple contact or 
 inoculation from the nose. The bite of a mad 
 dog, mad only from distemj^er, or what is called 
 ^^ rabies," is harmless as to any fatal infection, and 
 a person said to have been bitten by that dreaded 
 thing, a ^^mad dog," need have no horrible fore- 
 bodings of after consequences, if the owner of the 
 hound or dog has sense enough to ascertain the 
 true cause of the insanity. A dog reported mad 
 should never he destroyed; he should be taken up 
 and securely confined. If he recovers, then the 
 mind of whoever he has bitten is at once relieved 
 of dread ; if the hound or dog laj)s water and dies, 
 the person who has been bitten is no worse off 
 than he was before, and if the dog lapped water, 
 then there is no cause for dread. 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUI^DS AKE LIABLE. 143 
 
 If liydropliolbia was not tlic rarest disease known 
 among hounds and dogs, — the hydrophobia bite 
 being, if the virus is communicated, ever fatal, 
 and dogs and all animals transmitting the infection 
 to each other, — half the world w^ould by this time 
 have been depopulated, whereas, in ninety -nine 
 cases out of a hundred, the frightful term of ^^mad 
 dog" applies in no ivay ivhatever to '^hydrophobia." 
 To casual observers and timid people it holes like it, 
 the test — the visible, plain, undoubted test — being, 
 that the dog insane from distemper will lap water ^ 
 while the hydrophobic dog goes into convulsions 
 at the toucJij the sight, or even the sound of it, and 
 will not drink j^au^ of any kind. 
 
 A common distemper bite from an insane dog 
 will never give '^ hydrophobia to man," but the 
 tooth of a hydrophobic dog never fails to do so to 
 any living thing that he lays sufficient hold of, and 
 to man he inculcates the irrevocable hatred and 
 horror of ivater. In my youth and through life I 
 have often been told that the tooth of a really 
 hydrophobic dog, if passing through elastic or 
 thick clothes, would be cleared of its venom, and 
 might prove innocuous. Those who made these 
 assertions no doubt had been aware of persons 
 
14-4 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 being bitten by ^^macl clogs;" but the doubt is, ivere 
 they mad fronn hydropliohia^ or only insane from 
 other causes. The mistake is very easily made by 
 superficial observers, and I am sorry to say by 
 veterinary practitioners, who really know little, if 
 anything, about the matter. 
 
 There is nothing calculated to do more mischief 
 than for men who have been educated under the 
 sanction of a Veterinary College to write on the 
 diseases of animals, of whom in life they have not 
 had, nor can they have had, an intimate knowledge. 
 
 They are usually called in to prescribe in isolated 
 instances for animals, when owners of them are 
 baffled in their knowledge of how they had best 
 be treated, and when very likely there is a com- 
 plication of diseases, no one being able to say as 
 to how the patient was first afi'ected, or by what 
 antecedents diseases might have reached him. 
 Thus they are, perhaps, sent for to see a ^^mad 
 dog*" In those two words there is terror enough 
 to bewilder their nerves, and to induce them to 
 shun all contact with the creature whose pulses 
 they ought to study, and to whom they should 
 give remedies witli lancet, physic, hand, or seton. 
 It certainly is not only the shortest way, but it is^ 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 145 
 
 nevertlieless, an inlmman way, to doom to death all 
 dear affectionate and valuable hounds or dogs, 
 shnply because they happen for the time to he 
 " insane, ^^ and there is a dread of meddling Avith 
 them ; but when men assume a duty, and qualify 
 themselves to do it under the sanction of a College, 
 it ill beseems them to shrink from any possible 
 investigation, or to save themselves trouble to 
 endeavour to impress on all other men that relief 
 to the poor suffering hounds or dogs is im^DOSsible, 
 and ought not, under any circumstances, to be 
 attempted. 
 
 The fact, then, is perfectly established, — it is a 
 fact that I have known and studied all my life, — 
 that though there are two utterly distinct madnesses 
 at times affecting the dog, common custom has 
 coupled them both under one name, that of ^^ the 
 mad dog." 
 
 Several circumstances attending each insanity 
 have induced this mischievous monomania in man. 
 Thus, in the first place, the dog under the effects 
 of distemper is certainly ^^mad.'' 
 
 The dog under distemper bites at everything 
 that comes near him, recognizes not his master, 
 and at times not always foams at the mouth; 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
14G 
 
 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 liis lii^s are covered, from an attempt to drink, 
 witli saliva. He refuses his food, is restless, 
 and certainly is, for the time, an essentially 
 ^^mad dog." If he dies, as he sometimes^ not 
 alivai/s, does J a 2)ost-mortem examination shows 
 that his brain is inflamed, the intestines generally 
 disordered, and the stomach in a state of irritation, 
 containing bits of straw, and at times chips from 
 wood that he has been gnawing. 
 
 In the case of homids or dogs thus ^^ mad from 
 distemper," a careful master or huntsman has plenty 
 of time to be aware of the approach of the disease 
 to know whence it rises, and, therefore, to be per- 
 fectly certain that it is )iot ^^hydrophohia.'" The 
 ^^ madness" or disease from which the hounds under 
 ^^ distemper" suffer, is not transferable to any living 
 thing, save to creatures of their own kind. If they 
 inoculate others with it, it is not of necessity that 
 thoj^e hounds or do^rs who take it should oo mad. 
 On the contrary, tliey inay have the attack in a 
 milder form ; some of them may become, for a time, 
 insane, but others may simply have the usual signs 
 of the common })hase of distem2)er, and have the 
 cough or huskiness, and the discliarge from i\\Q 
 nose. If by some hi<jJdi/ culjmhle iicujlcct a Imnts- 
 
DISEASES TO WITICIT HOUNDS ARE LTAI^LE. 14? 
 
 man permits yoimg liomicls so suffering to come 
 in contact Avitli the old liounds, some of tlie old 
 liomidsj wlio have even had in their yomiger days 
 the distemper, may take it by inoculation from 
 nose to nose a second time ; but if they do so 
 take it a second time, as I have before remarked, 
 it is usually in a reduced or much milder form. 
 
 Some few instances have been brought to my 
 notice where old hounds, deemed to have had a 
 previous attack of the distemper, have taken it a 
 second time and died ; but those instances are very 
 rare, and may be looked on as exceptions to prove 
 a rule. 
 
 Having described the symptoms of the hound 
 when suffering under madness caused by distemper, 
 — a madness by which mem cannot be affected, 
 and which, _/9ei' se, cannot be transmitted by the 
 sufferer in an insane form to any other creature, — 
 I will now return to that mare terrible, and always 
 fatal malady, ^^hydrophobia,'' and point out the 
 distinction between the two. 
 
 This disease can only be transmitted by a bite ; 
 
 at least we know of no other way by which it 
 
 can be originated, save that by inoculation. 
 
 Whence it comes, where it arises, or what has 
 
 L 2 
 
l-i8 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 caused it, we cannot tell. No case of real hydro- 
 phobia has ever been known to commence otherwise 
 than from tlie bite of a hydrophobic mad dog ; or, 
 in one instance, as in the case of the Duke of 
 Eichmond, from a tame fox. Dogs have become 
 hydrophobic who have not been knotvn to he hitten ; 
 but in instances such as those, the '' hydrophobic 
 dog" has not all his time been under his owner's 
 notice, and therefore his owner cannot tell with 
 w^liat dogs he may or may not have come in 
 contact. There is an obsolete vulgarism, that of 
 calling the hottest weather in summer the ^^ dog- 
 days," a supposition being existent that heat 
 engendered ^' hydrophobia" in the canine race. 
 It does not engender '^ lnjdrophohiaj' but great 
 heat will severely bring on, in dogs affected with 
 ^' distemper ^''^ its* most severe phases, and at times 
 make them mad. The tame fox that caused the 
 lamented death in Canada of the Duke of Rich- 
 mond ivas accessible to every cur and dog in his 
 vicinitf/ ; and that fox, to my mind, liad been 
 thus made the channel of the most horrible and 
 fatal disease, through his being accessible to some 
 creature who was at the time suffering from it. 
 Very much the same sym^jtoms surround the 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 149 
 
 hydrophobic hound as in the case of the hound 
 insane from distemper ; and post-mortem examina- 
 tion shows the terrible inflammatory action existing 
 in the brain, in that particular the same as in the 
 case of the other. When insane, neither patient 
 at all times recognizes a master, or save in a few 
 lucid intervals ; both will bite at anything that 
 comes near them ; alike they refuse their food ; the 
 same heaviness in their eyes and look of de23ression 
 exists ; and were you to put two hounds together, 
 the one mad from distemper, the other mad from 
 hydrophohla, at a glance I could not attempt to 
 distinguish between them ; that is to say, if no 
 water was in or near the place of their confinement. 
 
 Supposing the two sufferers were thus together, 
 the key to speedy elucidation is a dish of water. 
 A dish of water put down before them, the hound 
 mad from distemper would greedily laj) at it, and 
 so would lie long for the cooling draught, that, 
 finding from the spasm in his throat that he could 
 not swallow to slake his thirst, he would plunge 
 his nose in the liquid even to his eyes, and cover 
 the water, and the dish that contained it, with the 
 saliva from his jaws. 
 
 Not so the dog mad from '' hydrophohiay He 
 
150 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 would remain sulky and sullen in a corner, or if 
 in a stable, beneath the manger. Let the dish of 
 water be offered to him, at its approach there would 
 be a convulsive up-twitching of the head and upper - 
 lip. Put the water close to him, and he would 
 become violently agitated. Sprinkle some of the 
 water on him, let him see it splashed, or even hear 
 its aqueous sound, and he would be convulsed and 
 furious. Kemove the water, and he w^ould relapse 
 into a sullen moodiness, and very likely remain 
 quiet till he died. 
 
 Judging by the young hound in my own kennel, 
 the only hydrophobic certainty that ever came 
 under my observation in the course of over half a 
 century, the symptoms of the dreadful malady were 
 not so violent, so restlessly agitated, as those ex- 
 isting in hounds when arising simply from the 
 effects of common distemper. If a '' dog gets a 
 bad name," we all know what hapjDcns ; and if a 
 poor distempered cur in a street should chance to 
 look unwell or wild, a cry is got up directly, by a 
 cruel crowd fond of any excitement, of ^' mad dog," 
 and he is run after by every ragged ruffian, and 
 at once driven frantic, when, if suffering from 
 connnon '^ distemper," he is pursued and harassed 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 151 
 
 into the biting phase of it, and, under the 
 erroneously applied name, lie is seen to swim 
 througli a river to escape his pursuers : hence 
 the delusion that the ^^'mad dog," alias the 
 ^'hydrophobic dog," has not the dread or hatred 
 of the element from which his malady takes 
 its name. 
 
 Having described the difference between the hound 
 insane from the effects of common distemper, from 
 which he may recover, and the hound irrecover- 
 ably and fatally mad from hydrophobia, I again 
 suggest to my brother sportsmen, and to all masters 
 of hounds, that precautionary measure for tlie pre- 
 vention of distemper which I have described a few 
 pages back— I mean vaccination^ as practised by 
 Dr. Jenner on liis own dogs with the most complete 
 success, and by him communicated to his brother 
 physician, Sir Matthew Tierney. My own suc- 
 cessful experience among my own dogs has fully 
 confirmed the opinion of these eminent men ; but 
 I must again reiterate that care in performing the 
 operation, and constant personal suj)ervision, are 
 indispensable elements of success. 
 
 When I commenced this practice with my own 
 hounds, several circumstances prevented my giving 
 
152 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 the requisite personal attention which the experi- 
 ment clemanded ; and this, with a want of attention 
 on the part of those employed to minute details, 
 caused some apparent failures, and induced a belief 
 among' many that the operation was unavailing — 
 a belief which arose from many circumstances 
 combined: the two chief of which were, first, a 
 want of success in the operation itself through want 
 of skill in the operator, or inattention to the purity 
 of the lymph used ; secondly, the neglect of a point 
 arrived at by me, namely, that if the seeds of an out- 
 break of distemper were constitutionally or system- 
 atically scaled in the internal organs of the young 
 hound, vaccination, however carefully performed, 
 would refuse to exist at one and the same time 
 with the distemper') the poison of that disease and 
 the power of the remedy being directly, if brought 
 togetlier, antagonistic, so much so, as totally to 
 prevent the frame, at the same time, from acknow- 
 ledging both the one and the other. If a young 
 hound has taken tlie cow-pox, he will not take the 
 distemper; or if hereafter by contact he suffered 
 slightly from tlie distemjDcr, it would be in so mild 
 a form that no danger whatever would arise to his 
 existence. The few attempts that were made at 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS AKE LIABLE. 153 
 
 the time to vaccinate hounds and dogs were not 
 persisted in, from the trouble they gave to servants, 
 as well as from the failures arising from the clumsy, 
 careless way in which the undertaking was treated, 
 and the impossibility of procuring lymph. 
 
 When the lot of young hounds come into kennel 
 from walk, at their then age, that the seeds of 
 the kennel curse, the distemper, among them are 
 latent, does not admit of the shadow of a doubt ; 
 and, therefore, to attempt to vaccinate may be 
 utterli/ useless. Success can only be arrived at as 
 follows; and here I solemnly offer to masters of 
 hounds, not the cure of what is vulgarly termed 
 ^'rabies" or '' dumb -madness," hut its effectual 
 2orevention, The whelps should all and each l3e 
 vaccinated previously to being sent to '' walk," 
 when of an age to have their mothers removed 
 from them. 
 
 Each whelp, on being vaccinated, should be 
 confined for three or four days in a separate 
 space by liimself, and the punctuation made by 
 the lancet, and the action or otherwise of the 
 lymph, should be watched continuously, for the 
 second, third^ or fourth day. 
 
 If the operation has taken, a slight inflammation, 
 
154 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 or an evident pustule, will arise, and on some 
 occasions the wlielp ma}^ be out of sorts for a 
 couple of days and refuse his food; but though 
 I would rather see the ^'pustule" and observe 
 tliat health tuas sliglitly affected^ than merely 
 notice nothing more than an inflamed circle, 
 in my belief, inflannnation or festering without 
 an evident pustule is sufficient. If the whelps 
 are not thus ke2)t in solitude for the period 
 mentioned, they Avill detect the puncture of the 
 lancet^ and lick the places for each other. The 
 spots for the operation should be selected so as 
 to be out of reach of the tongue or the hinder 
 toes, to annul as much as possible the patient's 
 licking or scratching himself. The inside of the 
 car, liigli up, is one place, beneath the j^oint of 
 the shoulder, sliglitly in front and close to the 
 breast is another, and the rump, immediately 
 above the stern or tail, may also be selected 
 for the operation. 
 
 Anybody who owns a dog, wliose coat is infested 
 with those active and sagacious little insects known 
 as fleas, will, on examination, see that just above 
 the stern or tail tlie fleas do congregate for sleep 
 and rest, because there, in that self-appropriated 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 155 
 
 ^^park,"* neither teeth nor hinder toe-nails can 
 attain for their discomfort or destruction ; and 
 herein the natural instincts even of fleas may 
 be held to have led to safer conclusions than 
 one of the heads in a Veterinary College. 
 
 This last place, on the loin above the stern, 
 in my opinion, is not the one for choice. The 
 skin there is thick, the integuments coarse, and 
 the facilities for taking up the lymph are not so 
 2:)rone to receive it as in other places. The car, 
 or both ears, and on the breast below the point 
 of each shoulder, those are the places most fitted 
 for the operation. 
 
 If vaccination is attempted on. the full-sized 
 young hound or dog, there is a chance of the 
 blood being pre-occupied by the disease Avhich 
 is sought to be prevented. The distemper may 
 have, as previously noticed, the first hold, and 
 tlms exclude the remedy, and men be led to 
 wrong conclusions. In addition to this, the inner 
 
 "" I borrow that definition of a sleeping place for those insects, 
 from an old and intoxicated woman's vocabulary, in the City of 
 London, who being brought up for offences before the Lord Mayor, 
 on receiving her sentence, threatened, " on regaining her liberty, to 
 visit the bed of that powerful functionary, and pull him out of it," 
 at the same time giving his resting-place that lively appellation. 
 
156 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 side of the ear is full of small veins, and a 
 puncture there may occasion a flow of blood 
 enough to wash the vaccine lymph away ; each 
 of these things should be considered. 
 
 When a hound or dog is full grown, an opposi- 
 tion to the lancet frequently occurs in the hound 
 himself, and violent struggles may take place, 
 necessitating force to keep him quiet. This force, 
 these struggles, and this excitement, then will 
 increase the circulation of the blood everywhere, 
 and so to the smaller veins, and. thus militate 
 against the safe introduction l3eneath the skin of 
 the matter. 
 
 Not so when the operation is directed to the 
 dear silky-coated, softer, and more delicate skins 
 of the docile whelps. They are pleased to Ije 
 taken up and held like a child in their feeder's or 
 huntsman's arms; they have known, as yet, no 
 ill-usage from man or boy ; and they lie against 
 his breast, smiling up in his face and trying to 
 kiss him, and remain quiet in whatsoever j^osition 
 they are placed. Here, then, the operating hand 
 has it all its own way, and a successful vaccination 
 is almost certain. Under all circumstances, how- 
 ever, the success or otherwise of the operation 
 
DISEiVSES TO WHICH HOUNDS AIIE LIABLE. 157 
 
 must be carefully watclied, and if it lias not visibly 
 taken, it nmst be repeated until it does do so, 
 every wlielp being separately confined for a few 
 da}'s, as before stated. 
 
 A retriever puppy of mine lived in a kennel 
 with my setters when they were all attacked 
 with distemj^er, which, in the case of a magni- 
 ficent dog, named '' Chalk," resolved itself into 
 violent insanity^ or what would vulgarly be called 
 ^'rabies." When the kennel was entered, on 
 approaching Chalk, my head -keeper, Toovey, 
 had to provide himself with a sack doubled up 
 to receive the bites which poor, dear Chalk, in 
 his insanity, directed at him. The others were 
 sullen under this most severe attack, but not 
 violently mad. The setters all died, but the 
 retriever, who had lived with them, been in 
 constant contact with them, and been bitten by 
 Chalk, survived it all. She had been vaccinated. 
 When site was vaccinated in the ear, a very con- 
 siderable pustule arose, and she was unwell and off 
 her feed for two days. Alas ! I had deemed that 
 the setters were free from danger of distemj)er, and 
 that they had had it very mildly in their younger 
 days, and to them the vaccinating operation was 
 
158 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 only administered tlic moment I apprehended an 
 attack. It was too late ; tlie disease I wished to 
 frustrate had got the first hold, and no amomit of 
 attempted vaccination was of any avail. My three 
 setters died, only one of them having been insane. 
 
 In concluding this chapter, and in order to 
 show on what slight grounds a poor and a2:)parently 
 friendless dog may get ^' an ill name to hang him," 
 the following fact, at a very early age, was offered 
 to ni}^ eyes, susceptible as my eyes then were to 
 all impressions. 
 
 When Berkeley House and its garden formed 
 the right-hand side of Spring Gardens Passage, on 
 the right-hand side as paced from Cocksj^ur Street 
 into St. James's Park, my favourite point of 
 observance, in regard to human life, coavs, dogs, 
 and a sentinel, Avas from a raised walk above the 
 spot where the passage entered the park, over the 
 
 low fence of which my head and shoulders, at that 
 period, were tall enough to a])pear. 
 
 It was from this post of observation that I used 
 to watch the exit, from the door on the other side 
 the passage, of the grandfatlier of the present Lord 
 j\Ialmcsbury, who, at the same hour every day, used 
 to sally forth into the park in his ^^ spencer," a 
 
iDISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS AKE LIABLE. 159 
 
 garment much used in that clay^ the garment 
 looking very much like a coat deprived of its 
 tail. 
 
 He had been often pointed out to me as a 
 celebrated man by my imrses, and hence his 
 appearance had become interesting to me. He 
 Avas, in my childish eyes, a '^lion/' and his den 
 formed the opposite side of the passage. 
 
 Occasionally a sentinel would overstep his duty 
 by ordering me down from my stronghold, and once, 
 to intimidate me, he rattled his bayonet against my 
 breastwork, eliciting from me no further retreat 
 than just sufficient to avoid the point of his weapon, 
 and then a shower of pebbles from the fine gravel 
 of the walk. These he seemed to regard with con- 
 tempt, but a slight handful of mould always had a 
 more triumphant effect. I saw a report of my 
 exalted position now and then made by the 
 sentinel to ^' the relief," but the non-commissioned 
 officer always deemed me to be in legal possession, 
 and ordered no interference with me whatever. 
 Had the worst come to the worst, and war with the 
 guards been proclaimed, the keyhole in our large 
 carriage entrance gate into the j^ai'k? i-^p ^nd down 
 before which the sentinel's measured tread could 
 
160 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 always be heard, was kept in my mind as admir- 
 ably placed for tlie play of a syringe in the way 
 of artillery, to the utter confusion of all regulated 
 smartness on parade. I little thought, in those 
 hours of childhood, that, at some future day, I 
 should mount ^Hhe Tilt-yard Guard," and the sen- 
 tinels then, whose predecessors had at times dis- 
 turbed my contemplation of the outer world, 
 should all be imder my command. Well, I was 
 but young in those days, and before I proceed to 
 descend from my awful contemplation of the then 
 Lord Malmesbury, to the consideration of a poor 
 and, for a time, friendless little dog, I must also, 
 as in duty bound to the larger animal, speak of my 
 impressions in regard to one of the most prolific 
 cows that, first or last, has ever come under my 
 observation ! 
 
 Opposite the end of Berkeley House garden 
 and the Carlton House stables, in the park 
 under the elm trees, there was, at the time I men- 
 tion, a red cow, she was fastened by a halter to a 
 post, and there was a sort of large bin of wood close 
 to her, with some seats around ; it and this bin 
 or box seemed, in my thoughts, to be very strangely 
 and closely and intimately implicated with the 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. IGl 
 
 poor dear cow in administering to the demand 
 for milk. 
 
 If it was a wet or cloudy day, and feAV maid- 
 servants and tlieir charges walking about the 
 park, tlie cow stood, with her beautifully placid 
 eyes, munching her bit of hay and chewing the 
 cud of contentment as if she cared nothing about 
 the contents of her udder, which Iliad observed was 
 never very large. However, she supplied of a surety 
 the few calls that were made in bad weather on the 
 ^^ milky way," and no doubt those few women who 
 were so served answered the purposes of advertise- 
 ment of the sweet '' fresh warm milk " that could at 
 a moment be had under the trees in St. James's 
 Park. Then came the extraordinary circumstance 
 that induced me to connect the wooden box and 
 the cow together. ^' By jingo!" — I had caught that 
 expressive ejaculation from the man-servant attend- 
 ing my brothers, — '^ they milk the box on some days 
 more often than they do the dear cow!" This 
 audible assertion of mine arose from my seeing, 
 on days when the guns were fired in the park, or 
 on any fine gala days, that thousands of jDCople, 
 women and children, came for a draught of new 
 milk to this wonderfully capacious udder, and 
 VOL. h M 
 
162 FACT AGxiiXST FICTIOX\ 
 
 wlictlicr twenty came or two thousand all were 
 amply and contentedly refreshed. 
 
 It was not a first edition of the Irish story of 
 the housekeeper, in a gentleman's family, scolding 
 the itinerant dairy -woman for the Aveakness of her 
 blue-tinted milk of the morning, \Ailien she came 
 with something better in the evening. ^' Your milk, 
 my good woman, was so bad this morning, we had 
 a mind to leave you off." 
 
 '^ Lave me off is it? shure it only happened this 
 turn, an' all from milkin' the wrong cow." 
 
 ^'Ay, in me eye I 'twas the cow with the iron 
 tail," rejDlied the housekeeper, as she retired, having 
 inflicted a telling blow on her offending adversary. 
 
 In this case of lactean study, to which my atten- 
 tion at this early age had been so constantly called, 
 I certainly made out, with some bevv^ilderment at 
 first, that the cupboard beat the cow in the refresh- 
 ment required. But to return to the sup^DOsed 
 ^^ mad dog." • 
 
 One day, as the sentry paced up and down 
 beneath my post of observation, and in front of his 
 box, a small red, half-terrier cur dog, looking very 
 wild and woe-begone, ran into his box and ensconced 
 himself in a corner. The soldier briefly but 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. l63 
 
 empliatically ordered him out ; but the A\dld-looking 
 little dog heeded neither solicitation nor command, 
 and maintained possession of his corner. 
 
 '^Get out/' again said the sentinel, gently push- 
 ing the disobedient dog with the butt end of liis 
 musket. ^' You shan't stay there." 
 
 The action of the soldier and the contents of the 
 sentry-box had been seen by a passer-by. That 
 man stopped and stared. The contention between 
 the soldier and the dog continued, and the dog 
 showed his teeth to the butt of the musket, and 
 stoutly refused to budge an inch. Another man 
 stojDpcd and stared ; others, who were in the act of 
 passing, seeing the starers, stopped and stared too, 
 till a dense crowd of men, women, and children 
 formed a half circle round the rear of the soldier, 
 and some one or other uttered that fatal and often 
 misplaced word, as far as poor faithful dogs are 
 concerned, ^^mad." 
 
 In an instant little girls and women began hur- 
 riedly to run away, — the words, ^^ A mad dog," were 
 shouted from one to the other, — men and boys 
 crowded up in the hope of hunting or killing some- 
 thing, whether mad or not, — and a cruel cry came 
 
 from the crowd urging the sentinel ^' to use his 
 
 M 2 
 
IGJ: TACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 bayonet." At the suggestion thus made the good- 
 natured soldier presented the weapon to the dog, 
 but took care not to use the point ; he simply pushed 
 the dog with its side, who then bit at the steel blade. 
 
 This fact at once seemed to confirm the opinion 
 of the mob as to a fact of ^^ hydrophobia." Blatant 
 fools cried out that the sentinel ought to protect the 
 public, or what was he there for ; and it seemed, in 
 my horrified view, that the soldier was going to 
 commit canine murder. 
 
 There was a slight bustle then, commencing in 
 the rearmost portion of the mob. I could not dis- 
 tinguish Avliat caused it, but men, as their notice 
 was attracted to something among their legs, 
 looked down, and seemed to let whatever it was 
 make its way through. At last, from behind the 
 soldier's legs, and considerably beneath his j^ouch, 
 a poor little ill-clothed girl made her way ; under 
 her left arm was a bundle tied up in an old hand- 
 kerchief, and her object obviously was to gain the 
 inside of the sentry-box. 
 
 '^ Take care I" roared the crowd. ^^ Get away, 
 you foolish little thing; the dog is mad." 
 
 To their noisy threats and warnings this j^oor 
 little child paid no sort of attention. She was 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH IIOUNDS AKE LIABLE. 1G5 
 
 wiser than some veterinary surgeons. The soldier 
 lifted his bayonet from the level of the charge, the 
 child in silence passed imder it direct to the dog. 
 She picked up her four-footed friend, perhaps the 
 only thing that really loved her, and placing it 
 under her disengaged arm, without awordofanjr 
 sort or description, walked directly at the legs of 
 the bystanders, who, burdened as she was, skipped 
 nimbly out of her way ; and, with an apparent 
 sigh of disappointment at the sudden cessation of 
 their cruelly disjoosed excitement, the people dis- 
 persed, and the sentry paced in quietude, as in 
 duty bound. 
 
 The foregoing fact will prove to my readers on 
 what slight grounds the charge of the frightful 
 malady of ^' hydrophobia " in the hound or dog can 
 be founded ; for suppose that a brutal mob of 
 London ruffians had chased the poor little dog from 
 his sentry-box, and driven, him, wild with terror 
 only, through the lake in the park, into some 
 corner where, in desperation, he would have 
 defended himself unto death, learned veterinarians 
 and philosophers of all descriptions would have 
 quoted it as an instance that '^mad dogs had no 
 hatred of water." 
 
166 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 It used to be a very curious .sight to see the 
 farm-labourers from the various farm-houses, where 
 the foxhound j^uppies were walked in the first 
 Lord Fitzhardinge's time, bringing in tlie puppies. 
 From fifty to sixty or seventy couples, or more, 
 as the case might be, were brought in, showing 
 every possible variation of temper. Some young 
 hounds trotted on gaily in front of their peoj^le, 
 delighted in their walk from home, and not 
 knowing that they had left it for the last time, 
 and playing with each other. Others followed, 
 moodily or timidly, at the heels of the men ; 
 while, again, there were many who had stoutly 
 or timidly declined to leave their cherished home, 
 and the caresses of the farmers' wives or daughters, 
 dairy-maids, or others, and these were led struggling 
 in a leash, or, refusing on an}^ terms to walk, were 
 carried in the men's arms. No care was too ex- 
 cessive and no trouble too great for the farm- 
 labourers who brought in the young hounds; for 
 '^ the Colonel's," or, of later years, ^^my Lord's," 
 hand was very liberal to this class of men when 
 pleased ; and each labourer knew that, after 
 delivering the puppies to the huntsman at the 
 kennel, they might repair to the castle for ''a 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 1G7 
 
 skillfull of the castlo strong beer." It was ^' merry 
 in hall, for beards wagged all," in those days, 
 for the logs were kept in a gigantic blaze where 
 the servitors congregated ; and I remember to 
 have seen a pet lamb, whicli was given to me 
 by John Philimore from the Cotswolds, fenced in 
 in the servants' hall by logs until such time as 
 I claimed him, with an ample and roomy fold of 
 fuel. 
 
 After the farm-labourers had delivered their 
 puppies at the kennel, there was always a strong- 
 muster of wounded men formed in the kennel 
 Idtchcn or boiling-house around old John Curnock, 
 the boiler, for liis advice, and culinary and surgical 
 administration to their bleeding wounds. The 
 morose or ill-tempered and refractory puppies, who 
 had resisted imprisonment and induction to the 
 kennels, had bitten the hand of their captors, 
 while others, already suffering from madness 
 occasioned by common distemper, since termed 
 ^'rabies," had fastened their teeth in their legs 
 or other parts of their persons ; and old John 
 Curnock, having for many long j^ears boiled for the 
 hounds, and been bitten more or less all liis life? 
 was deemed to possess an infallible cure for 
 
168 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 woiincls occasioned by their teeth, just as the 
 illiterate blacksmith of old was supposed to bo 
 well skilled in the ailments and remedies for cow 
 or horse, because he had nailed shoes upon the 
 latter's feet. I have seen the most awful-looking 
 bites on the hands and arms of these labouring 
 men, many of them given by hounds afflicted 
 with insanity — one in particular, where the holders 
 had gone deep into the thick part of the thumb, 
 and between it and the back of the hand. To 
 this frightful-looking wound I saw Curnock apply 
 a terrific dressing of horse-grease skimmed off the 
 boiling caldron, spread on a bit of tow, and that 
 kept tight in its place by a ligature of tar twine. 
 As soon as this and other surgical appliances were 
 over, and such remedies to mitigate inflammation 
 in these strong men completed, they sped to join 
 their unwoundcd companions in the jolly castle 
 hall, and to share in their frequent libations of 
 the ^^ castle strong beer." 
 
 In all my experience, and in all the long term, 
 extending over so very . many years, during which 
 I was constantly at Berkeley Castle, as well as 
 attending to my own kennel, I never knew a 
 single serious or fatal instance to arise among 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 1G9 
 
 those labouring men from tlie bite of a foxhomid, 
 
 though several hounds were decidedly suffering from 
 
 insanity arising from distemper, now called ^^ rabies 
 
 or dumb-madness"; nor in all the time during 
 
 which I had the second choice of young hounds 
 
 from the castle kennels to take to my own kennels, 
 
 did I ever have brought within my notice more 
 
 than that one instance of real hydrophobic 
 
 madness, which existed in the young hound who 
 
 had been sent to me from Berkeley under a 
 
 caution that he had been run at and knocked 
 
 over while at walk by a decidedly hydrophobic cur. 
 
 If any huntsman or any veterinary surgeon 
 
 has had greater experience than I . have had of 
 
 the real nature of the two madnesses, and of 
 
 the fatal consequences or otherwise attendant on 
 
 the bite of quasi-mad dogs, his experience must 
 
 have extended beyond any one life, and have 
 
 reverted to some ^ limiting ground" to which the 
 
 savage has assigned an inappropriate name. 
 
 There is nothing like practical experience to 
 elucidate curious things. I very much doubt, if 
 two pails of soup from the kennel boiler were put 
 side by side for the inspection of the Veterinary 
 College (I quite put out of the question some 
 
170 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 masters of hounds and huntsmen who have 
 suddenly jumped into sporting positions), if, 
 supposing the two soups to have been inducted 
 from the limbs of a bay horse and a grey horse, 
 they could tell me at a glance to which horse the 
 particular soup belonged ! I could define at once. 
 
 There is another terrible curse on all kennels, 
 which totally bafiles all investigation as to its 
 origin, and that is known as ^^ the kennel lame- 
 ness." Whence it arises, where it comes from, or 
 why it goes or subsides, I cannot tell. The healthiest 
 hounds and dogs of all kinds are liable to it ; it will 
 begin and exist in the warmest, driest, and most 
 elaborately-cared-for kennels, and apj)ear in the 
 more damp and dingy situations as well. It has 
 nothing to do with the food the hounds eat, and 
 physic or friction has no effect upon it. Entire 
 kennels have been pulled down, and rebuilt on fresh 
 drainage, and warmed with stoves and hot air; 
 but such outlay has been in vain, — no immediately 
 visible benefit was obtained ; but in course of time 
 the kennel lameness vanished as causelessly as it 
 came on. Now, we often see that men who chance 
 to have a sick or lame dog, at a given moment 
 have assigned them some unusual thing at a time 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 171 
 
 when the dog was just about to recover — a red 
 herrmg or some other faUacy. I liave known a 
 master of liounds unbkishingly to assert that he 
 has cured the distemper by giving a red herring — 
 a difficult thing to get a dog to eat, and, if thrust 
 doAvn his throat, likely to make him sick: but no 
 matter ; and I have known other men to be similarly 
 deceived by a circumstantial chance. I have not 
 tried '^ the red herring," nor any other absurd sug- 
 gestion, but warmth, medicine, diyness of location, 
 and friction and setons in the back, I have tried. 
 I have now a little spare kennel at Alderney Manor, 
 in Avhich I have kept dogs of all sorts, and it stands 
 by the side of an open field, and under an old 
 cherry-tree. I have never had the kennel lame- 
 ness there. Lord Malmesbury, when in Scotland, 
 at Achnacarry, had a kennel for his deer dogs, 
 unpretending and damp, but that, too, was imder 
 an old cherry-tree; there in that kennel he never 
 had the kennel lameness. Then why do we not 
 fall into the common error, and assert a ^^ cherry- 
 tree " to be the preventive remedy of the disease 
 in question ? Lord Malmesbury removed his kennel, 
 and made a better one to look at, and his deer dogs 
 were at once, more or less, incapacitated. That 
 
172 FACT AGAINST FICriON. 
 
 this scourge on all speedy action haunts particular 
 sites, that I have seen proved by tlie removal of 
 greyhounds from one kennel to another, as instanced 
 in the Greenway kennel, the late Mr. W. Lawrence's, 
 when, on account of the kennel lameness, it was 
 removed from the Cotswold site to the Vale at the 
 Greenway below. At the time when I used to be 
 there, it was, though not to a very great extent, 
 in the kennels at Berkeley Castle ; but though my 
 young hounds came direct from Berkeley to me, 
 I never had the lameness in my kennel at Har- 
 rold Hall. Neither had it ever come to my 
 previous kennel when I kept my stag hounds in 
 my father's old kennel at Cranford. 
 
 Here follows the only fact, in my experience, 
 which seemed to afford a remedy ; and that I arrived 
 at dui'ing my residence at Beacon Lodge, in Hamp- 
 shire, when the kindest of all royal princes, the late 
 Duke of Cambridge, then ranger of the New Forest, 
 assigned to me the privilege of hunting the otter 
 and coursing the hare, which immunities were not 
 included in the usual licence to shoot game. 
 
 Having ascertained that there were a few otters 
 occasionally in the Forest streams, I sent to 
 George Carter, at Mr. Ashton Smith's kennels, 
 
DISEASES TO WHICH HOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 173 
 
 fur my favourite old foxhound^ ^' Ilarrowgatc," and 
 wrote to my brother at Berkeley Castle for any old 
 steady liomids, I cared not liow slow from age or 
 accident, that he could spare me. All I required was 
 steadiness from deer and hares, and in them a re- 
 solution to speak to nothing but a fox, a badger, 
 a martin- cat, or otter. I name them all separately, 
 for I cannot bring myself to desecrate a fox by the 
 vulgarly used expression of a ^^ vermin." His 
 answer to my ajiplication was, that he had several 
 of his best hounds incapacitated from '^ running up" 
 by the ^^ kennel lameness," on w^hosc truth I might 
 rely if their telling it at a foot's pace would be of 
 any use to me. I closed with this proposal, and 
 three couple were sent down to me. Dear old 
 Harrowgate, therefore, found himself, in his old age, 
 with the huntsman who '' entered" him, and at the 
 head of a little pack of hounds, and the splendid 
 old specimen of an English , foxhound was himself 
 once more. Harrowgate, as I have described in my 
 former work of ^^The Eeminiscences of a Hunts- 
 man," found for me in the New Forest my first 
 otter : the other hounds entered well, and on that 
 day I killed a brace of otters. On tliis beginning, 
 I continued to draw for otters, often imaginary, but 
 
174 FACT AGAINST FICTIOX. 
 
 occasionally real, and found several foxes, after 
 whom my homids, wlio had come so fomidered in 
 their action from Berkeley Castle as scarcely to be 
 able to trot, went at a very much amended pace, 
 and after some little time I had to report them 
 recovered, and sent them back to the shire. 
 
 One only, who had been a splendid fox-hound 
 and otter-hound, took to babbling, and became of 
 no use whatever. Whether this entering him to 
 more than one scent caused this culpable loquacity 
 or not, I cannot tell. It had not that effect on 
 those * fox-hounds with whom I had hunted stag, 
 and which I took with me to the Oakley country ; 
 but hounds had better be strictly confined to one 
 scent and the chase of but one animal, although, as 
 a boy, I had heard my father's old huntsman, the 
 famed Tom Oldaker, say, tliat when my father 
 kej^t harriers, and occasionally hunted a wild fox, 
 with them, he could make sure of his hounds and 
 his fox, as well as he could when he came to 
 preside over the exclusively fox-hunting establish- 
 ment, which in those days extended from Worm*- 
 wood Scrubs, or Scratch Wood, to Gerrand's Cross^ 
 Nettlebed, where my father had a house, and so on 
 to Berkeley Castle. 
 
DISEASES TO ^VlIICII itOUNDS ARE LIABLE. 175 
 
 According, then, to my practical knowledge, — and 
 knowledge by reading on this subject, is not know- 
 ledge, because it really is worth nothing unless de- 
 rived from personal experience and close investiga- 
 tion, — the cold bath, or constant swimminrj^ is the 
 only tiling that I have seen have a beneficial effect on 
 '' the kennel lameness." But then comes this query 
 to interfere with the assumed benefit to the kennel 
 lameness from constant swimming in the water. 
 The kennel the lame or foundered hounds came 
 to was a fresh kennel, and not the one whence 
 they had been afflicted ; so it was possible that the 
 kennelj and not the water, had to do, or partially 
 to do, with their recovery. The local benefit 
 reverted to in those days at Berkeley Castle was 
 to give the afflicted hounds their full liberty, when 
 they used to live as they pleased, walk about when 
 they liked, eat what they liked, and sleep in the 
 sheds or under the mangers in the farmyard. 
 After a time, on this plan, they used to recover, 
 and again obtain their places at the head of 
 affairs. 
 
 The " kennel lameness," its origin or cure, 
 remains as, far as my experience goes, without the 
 possibility of beneficial explanation. 
 
176 FACT AGAINST FICTIOK. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EFFECTS OF PHYSIC ON HOUND AND DOG — KENNEL 
 DISCIPLINE — THE FOX. 
 
 Difficulty of administering Pliysic — Curious power of rejection at 
 will — My Bloodhound " Druid " — Importance of ivholesome 
 Flesh to Hounds — Iron Boilers should be used, not Copper — 
 How to know good Oatmeal, and how to Cook it for the Hounds 
 — Hunting the Fox. 
 
 The attempt to meet by medicine the maladies to 
 wliicli the canine race is subject, is very often 
 defeated by the powers of will possessed by the 
 patients themselveSj to which they make the action 
 of the stomach subservient. If they even suspect 
 medicine in their food, however carefully disguised, 
 they will not touch it ; and, if seduced to take a bit 
 of meat in the midst of which a pill is concealed, 
 though from having sat by their master's plate, and 
 taken from his hand, and swallowed without tasting 
 them, three or four such bits before, if some slight 
 sensation or after-taste suggests physic, they have 
 
EFFECTS OF PHYSIC ON HOUND AND DOG. 177 
 
 the power at will instantly to reject the objection- 
 able, or by them supposed to be objectionable, 
 morsel. With this power of wilful rejection of the 
 contents of the stomach, the female portion of the 
 canine race are more gifted than the males ; and 
 for this reason : — It is in the reasoning* powers of the 
 female — for it cannot be referred to mere instinct — 
 to know that her little puppies, when at a certain 
 age, require more sustenance than she herself can 
 afford them. Therefore, she will feed herself first, 
 and, after mastication, and the action of her own 
 gastric juices, will reject from the stomach the food 
 and give it to her puppies. In a wild state, — in dog, 
 wolf, or fox, for it pertains to them alike, — this gift 
 of stomachic rejection is absolutely necessary to 
 their whelps or cubs, because they have to hunt for 
 raw and solid food, which, when killed or picked 
 up, must be taken home and reduced in consistence. 
 Without this power of reproduction, the litters of 
 whelps or cubs would have entirely to subsist on the 
 mother. 
 
 It is a mystery to me that, possessing this power 
 of rejection, dogs are as easily poisoned as they are. 
 Why do they not, on the first symptom of internal 
 disarrangement, at once get rid of the painful 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 FACT AGAINST FICTIOll. 
 
 symptom of approaclimg death ? Even stryclmine, 
 in its deadly effects, miglit give time for an im- 
 mediate vomit ; yet in no case of poisoning have I 
 ever had it brought to my knowledge that a homid 
 or dog of any kind ever had recourse to tliis action 
 of the stomach to save his life. 
 
 When mv bloodhound ^' Druid " was in the latter 
 years of his extraordinary and gifted life, to attemj^t 
 to give him physic, unless he chose to eat it with his 
 food, which he would sometimes condescend to do, 
 was to entail more exhaustion on him, through his 
 enormous exertions to resist the administration of 
 medicine, than to leave him to struggle through the 
 ailment, by the strength of his constitution, as best 
 he might. To dress a cut on his foot, or the bite of 
 an adder on his sweeping hips, was impossible to 
 anybody but me, and even then I could only 
 succeed in it just so long as it jileased Druid to 
 submit. The first time that he had an injured 
 foot, he was not aware of the nature of a muzzle, 
 and therefore he at once permitted me to fasten it 
 on. After that one occasion the very sight of a 
 muzzle displeased him, and to attempt to approach 
 him with it was to enter into deadly strife. In 
 the hot summers, the liottest days of July and 
 
EFFECTS OF PHYSIC ON HOUND AND DOG. 179 
 
 August, the greatest care was necessary as to how, 
 and in what manner, he was fed. Heat had no 
 effect as to diminishing his poAvers of speed and 
 endurance, hut the nature of his food, if neglectfidly 
 or improperly given to him, though fed twenty- 
 two or three hours on the day preceding hunting, 
 would occasionally affect his brain, and render him, 
 for the moment, out of his senses. In the six or 
 seven years' constant work in summer and winter, 
 when with me killing the deer in the New Forest, 
 on two, or at the most three occasions, I have 
 seen him thus stricken. 
 
 After the death of a deer, on the conclusion of a 
 severe chase, I have known him race round and 
 round in a circumference of twenty or thirty yards, 
 flinging his tremendous tongue as if in view of a 
 deer, his bristles up, and an inclination to bite 
 anything with which, in his mad excitement, he 
 came into contact. 
 
 My companions, and also the attendant keepers, 
 have got up trees to keep out of his infuriated way, 
 and called to me '^ in the name of Heaven to take 
 care, for that he was ' mad,' " — the word, of course, 
 as in the lamentable case of the Durham kennels, 
 
 in their estimation, including the fatal disease 
 
 N 2 
 
180 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 of ^^ liyclropliobia," but certainly not '^ dumb." 
 Knowing the real state of the case, I took my belt, 
 with his coujdIcs in my hand, and got within the 
 circle of his insane gyrations, taking care that, in 
 his blind rage, he did not rmi against me. Then, 
 noosing my belt, after an attem23t or two, I suc- 
 ceeded in catching him round the neck, and hold- 
 ing him still, to talk to him. Thus restrained 
 in action, though wild in look, the attack was 
 evidently subsiding, and he began to recognize 
 me ; when my servant, having brought me Avater 
 from an adjacent brook or spring in his hat, when 
 no other receptacle was to be had, having bathed 
 the hound's forehead, he became as sensible as 
 ever. In those days, having much to do, I could 
 not always mix Druid's food or feed him myself; 
 but on my return home I inspected the remains 
 of what he had been fed from, and on each occa- 
 sion my servant got into disgrace for venturing to 
 give Druid horseflesh, Avhich, though finely cut 
 up, boiled, and mixed with his meal, was in a 
 state of beastly putridity. 
 
 In kennels of foxhounds there is an error not 
 sufficiently observed, and therefore insufficiently 
 condemned : hounds should, on no account what- 
 
EFFECTS OF PHYSIC ON HOUND AND DOG. 181 
 
 eyer, be fed on flesh too far gone in decomposition. 
 A huntsman or master of hounds had better throw 
 it away, or put it to the manure heap, when, 
 if they had land, it would not be thrown away, 
 than give it to hounds in whom they expect to 
 find health, pace, and endurance to kill, if required, 
 a brace of good foxes. There is only one descrij)- 
 tion of food that foxhounds should hunt upon, and 
 that is, the best Scotch oatmeal, coarsely ground 
 and kiln-dried, and kept close packed in bins till 
 it became two years old. This, when carefully 
 boiled and constantly stirred in the iron boiler, 
 — a copper boiler always gives fits, — should then 
 be ladled out into a broad, shallow trough, on 
 legs as high as those of a dining-room table, 
 where it should be left to cool, for use on the 
 following day. If the oatmeal is good and old, 
 it, when thus dealt with, will cool into a hard 
 and consistent pudding, and may be cut out like 
 cake, and be carried to the feeding-troughs, to 
 be mixed with water, to any consistency deemed 
 necessary to condition for the work in hand, and 
 its modicum of finely-mixed flesh. When the soup 
 in which the meat has been boiled is very fresh, 
 a little of the soup may be mixed with the meal. 
 
182 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 Init on no account wlien the soup gets stale should 
 it be given to working hounds ; it will affect their 
 bowels, and unfit them for arduous days. 
 
 WJien hounds are not in work, during the idle 
 time in summer, if you can get them to eat it, they 
 will keep up their condition on good old oatmeal 
 without any flesh at all. However, as there are 
 sure to be some dainty feeders among them, in 
 place of flesh, which in summer gets so soon stale, 
 ofive them milk once skimmed with their meal. 
 When I kept hounds, I always purchased an extra 
 cow ' in full milk for the kennel consumption. ' I 
 saw the late Mr. Wyndham, of Dinton, find a fox 
 in a gorse cover on the Wiltshire Downs, and get 
 away with him in view. The scent Avas first-rate, 
 but before half-an-hour was over, hounds began to 
 ^^ tail," to drop behind, and to lie down panting. 
 The fox ran them out of view, and at last out of 
 their powers of scent, and when the fox was lost 
 I asked Mr. Wyndham what his hounds had been 
 fed on. '^ Wheat meal," and, of course, ^' from the 
 tail," was the reply. 
 
 When men who wish to seem to know something 
 about hounds, come into the kennel, by introduc- 
 tion of the owner or tlie liuntsman, they cast their 
 
EFFECTS OF PHYSIC ON HOUND AND DOG. 183 
 
 eye over the hounds, and exclaim, in complimentary 
 guise, ^MVliat even condition!" 
 
 A more empt]^ compliment than this in the 
 hunting- season was never administered. Hounds 
 vary in the amount of flesh they had better carry, 
 as much as fighting men or racing horses do ; for 
 though one liound may be the better for a little 
 flesh, another cannot well he drawn too fine if you 
 expect from him the best of his pace and stoutness 
 in the field. It is for this reason that a good 
 kennel huntsman is invaluable. Huntsmen in the 
 field and lumtsmen in the kennel, ifpossihle, should 
 always go together, because the field huntsman, if 
 he rides well to his hounds, will very soon find out 
 the peculiarities of constitution in each hound, and 
 feed accordingly. 
 
 Of course if the hounds hunt from four to six 
 days a week, there must be a feeder or kennel 
 huntsman under him, to feed while the head man is 
 out ; but the keenly observant huntsman, who rides 
 to help his hounds when necessary, and to give 
 them blood, should, in and out of the kennel, make 
 condition his study. 
 
 If I am invited to see the meet of hounds, (Grod 
 help me! I have not the means, and have, in the 
 
184 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 latter portion of my life, not had wealth enough to 
 kee23 a hunter, — a mouse is in my mangers now 
 instead of the dear sweet noses of joyous steeds,) 
 and it is the middle of the hunting season, I can 
 form a pretty sure oi^inion of the success they have 
 been having. 
 
 If their coats are perfectly sleek on their backs, 
 that testifies to good bodily condition ; but scratched 
 arms and faces, and whipped tips to the sterns, show 
 me at once if they have had much running at 
 beaten foxes, with whom they have turned short, 
 and in view of whom they have dashed furiously 
 through the tangled blackthorn, gorse, and briar 
 to get at him. Scarred cheeks and faces, not only 
 from the bites of foxes, but from accidental snatches 
 from the jaws of their fellows, in breaking up 
 the fox, those, and such marks as those, show me 
 what the pack has had to do. These outward and 
 visible marks prove hard work. Without hard 
 work there cannot be much sjDort, for foxes are apt 
 to die in difficult jolaces when not run into in the 
 open, and the hounds cannot get blood unless they 
 know what blood is. Hounds continuously out of 
 blood are very difficult to make kill their fox ; but 
 hounds constantly having their triumph by killing 
 
EFFECTS OF PHYSIC ON HOUND AND DOG. 185 
 
 and enjoying blood, are very difficult to be got 
 out of it. 
 
 There is one thing I have been often doomed 
 to see, and which cannot be too much lamented 
 — it is the forced inactivity of huntsmen and whip- 
 pers-in by order when a bad fox who won't run, 
 and a good fox who has run, but cannot or will not 
 run any more, and over whom the hounds, as far 
 as open running goes, have worked their triumjoh, 
 sticks to a cover. Any man who really knows the 
 art of the chase, and the reward that hounds ought 
 to have, to which they look, and without which 
 they will not show the best of sj^ort, ought, when a 
 fox, from will or weariness, will not leave a cover, 
 to assist the hounds by any means to kill that fox 
 as soon as possible. ^ 
 
 It would assuredly spoil the hounds to take them 
 off either the one fox or the other ; the thing to do, 
 therefore, is not to mar but to make the hounds, 
 and to get the best chance for a second fox, by 
 killing the one that the hounds immediately 
 deserve. Instead of lending their assistance in a small 
 cover so stained that there remains not a yard of 
 scent, you hear foolish people cry out to some more 
 sensible man, who cracks his whip in the fox's face, 
 
186 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 ^^ Oh, shame, shame ! do not head him! do not mob 
 hmi!" ^' Mob " a fox who is no longer of any use as 
 far as showing sport across comitry goes ! — the word 
 is foolish so applied. The only use of that fox is, 
 to be given to the hounds ; they have worked for 
 him, and they want him. If you are so short of 
 foxes that you can't afford to kill one, why then, 
 for the sake of sport, you had better not go out ; but 
 if you have found a fox who won't run, or you have 
 well worked a fox who can't face the open any 
 more, why then aid the hounds to kill him, the 
 sooner the better, and later in the season spare the 
 vixens. 
 
 If you have had enough of flying across country 
 with a good fox, the hounds ought to have as much 
 reward as the riders ; if you have only found a short 
 running idle fox, who won't go, but who is always 
 at his leisure behind the hounds, why then kill him 
 as soon as possible. As I have said before, a man 
 can't call his hounds off while they are on a bad short 
 running fox, the fox they are taking pains to hunt. 
 If he does call them off, the next fox who '^ hangs," 
 they will be inclined to leave of their own accord, 
 and you '11 have a country full of four-footed 
 animals who won't run, and are just as cunning as 
 
EFFECTS OF FPIYSIC ON HOUND AND DOG. 187 
 
 you are. Kill a fox who won't run as soon as 
 you can; your hounds will have the benefit of him, 
 and so will you, for you can then take a willing 
 and an able pack of hounds elsewhere to find a 
 better. 
 
 When hunting my hounds, the fox that used to 
 trouble me most was a cunning old customer, 
 who, from sheer knowledge of men who had pre- 
 ceded me in the country, or from having had a very 
 late and heavy supper, did not choose to run, and 
 at the same time kept his very able wits about him. 
 He turned so short, that he contrived to be always 
 close behind the pack, and following them, I have 
 heard a hound Avho chanced, at some turn, to have got 
 behind the pack, view and yell with eager haste at 
 such a fox as this, and in a moment more I have 
 no doubt but that the fox was behind the hound, 
 who was expecting and looking for him in his front. 
 In large and heavy woodlands, such as some of tlie 
 Bedfordshire woods were, the sort of fox I am now 
 reverting to would seldom leave the quarter where 
 he had already dodged the hounds, and so foiled it 
 that there was not a tell-tale line of scent to brino- 
 them up to him. A fox such as this affords no 
 going across country, no amusement to the field of 
 
188 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 riders, while, at the same time, to kill him takes a 
 vast deal out of the kennel force, hound and horse. 
 He must be killed, and be killed, too, in the 
 strictest interests of future sport; and I illustrate 
 the necessity of this by what I found in regard to 
 Odell Wood. When I first came into the country 
 it Avas pointed out to me, — about 400 acres, if I 
 remember rightly, well cut into rides, but the 
 quarters of it very large, and very severe with 
 briars, blackthorns, and hazel, — as a place whence 
 no fox would break; and if once the hounds got 
 into it, they never came out of it again that day. 
 
 The first cub I killed in one of its quarters was 
 given to the hounds in the tangled cover where 
 they laid hold of him. 
 
 The first old fox I killed in it was done by in 
 the same way, and again and again the same 
 course was pursued, till at last it was quite enough 
 for any fox in it to hear me speaking to my hounds 
 at one end of it, for him to break at the other. 
 My friend, Mr. H. Boulton, is hunting still, and 
 can testify to the fact that when Odell Wood was 
 within the draw of the day, on approaching it I 
 used to ask him, as well as other friends whom 
 I could rely on, — poor Jem Whitworth among 
 
EFFECTS OF PHYSIC 01^ HOUND AND DOG. 189 
 
 tlicnij now no more, — to post themselves at given 
 spots down wind to give me the ^^ gone away " of a 
 wideawake and stealthy fox. 
 
 I refer to these things in order to deter eager 
 ridersj anxious for a gallop, from sitting in the 
 sulks on their horses, growling at the work thus 
 forced upon a master of hounds and his men. We 
 know the fox the hounds are on will show us no 
 sport in the open ; but stout as he may be in the 
 bushes, and unfitting, as his crafty stoutness may 
 unfit the hounds for a second fox, he must he stuck 
 to and hilled^ as a lesson to his fellows and his foes. 
 I have seen the mischief done by tactics of another 
 kind. 
 
 As to the very common expression of '^ head- 
 ing a fox," it is far more easily imagined and 
 said than done. A good wild fox, who means 
 running^ may be headed in a wood; but if it is a 
 wood of considerable dimensions, he will take a turn 
 or two in cover, and as soon as he thinks he has a 
 good start of the hounds, he ivill make his point 
 for the open again, and if he wishes it he will 
 break cover under the legs of any fooPs horse who 
 has blundered into the very place, - of all others^ 
 where he ought not to be. It is different in a gorse 
 
190 iFACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 cover. Then, in a space of small dimensions, a 
 congregated lot of horsemen may head a good fox, 
 and by heading him send him back into the mouths 
 of the hounds, thus at once precluding all chance of 
 a run. 
 
 In drawing Shelton Gorse, I have viewed a fox 
 among my hounds before a hound had spoken to 
 him, although their feathering sterns told me of his 
 presence ; and in such a case I held my tongue, for 
 this reason. The fox was as cool and collected as 
 a man in the face of imminent danger might be ; 
 his ears were up, his pace creeping and slow, and 
 his eyes regarding the shake of every bit of furze ; 
 he was, in fact, doing his best to keep himself safe 
 and be ready for a start. To have halloed him, 
 or touched my horn, would have taken up his 
 attention ; and he had need of all his caution, with 
 forty mouths close around him, ready to fasten on 
 his limbs. I have seen a fox thus creeping about a 
 gorse cover in the midst of the hounds^ with so 
 little scent, that a low whimper from an occasional 
 hound was all that testified to his presence ; tlien, 
 ivhen he got the chance to break, instead of there 
 being no scent, the scent lay breast high. 
 
 It is very difticult to confine all the remarks 
 
i<:ffects of physic on hound and dog. 101 
 
 my long practice in varied sport has stamped 
 upon my mind, beneath the headin<i,' of the 
 chapter within which they ought to come ; but as 
 things thus, so to speak, occur to me out of place, 
 my readers will, I hope, pardon me for such 
 digression. 
 
 It is in the imagination of some landed pro- 
 prietors, that under the desire of having game and 
 foxes they ought to keep a certain head of rabbits ; 
 but the rabbits do not save the game unless the 
 rabbits are hilled for the foxes. If the old foxes 
 catch a rabbit for their cubs, both dog and vixen do 
 so; when they have taken the food to the earth or 
 old pollard stump, in going out for another rabbit, 
 they may come across a leveret, or an old pheasant 
 on her nest, or a pheasant with a nide of young 
 ones, and being thus intercepted by mischievous 
 temptation, do a deal of harm. Pheasants are more 
 delicate food than rabbits, and foxes j^refer them 
 to anything else, just as the house cat likes game 
 better than rats or mice. The rabbits in sjDring 
 and summer should, therefore, be shot when out 
 at feed by the keepers, and left to lie Avhere they 
 are killed, not handled in any way. 
 
 I have known this practised to such an extent 
 
192 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 and so carefully done, that an old vixen (I saw it 
 myself), and no doubt the old dog-fox also, would 
 follow the report of the gun in the cover-sides, 
 keeping at some distance in rear of the gunner, 
 and before he was out of sight pick up the rabbit 
 and draw back with it into cover. 
 
 When the litter is large the foxes will pick up 
 anything they find dead that has not been handled 
 by man ; if touched by the human hand and tainted 
 by the supposed enemy, they suspect poison or a 
 trap, and will have nothing to do with it. 
 
 One summer's evening, at Harrold, in Bed- 
 fordshire, I had a very long shot at a very crafty 
 old buzzard hawk (all biped buzzards are not 
 fools). The bird was perched on the topmost 
 dead limb of a tree, with the great, broad breast 
 to me. With time to take sure aim, and a 
 cartridge in my powerful gun, I felt sure the 
 hawk had a death blow, though I could not 
 detect the fall. The next day, on paying a 
 visit to the whereabout of the cubs, by some 
 fallen oak trees in the ride at the cover-side, 
 which was one of the playgrounds of the litter, 
 I found the wings of the buzzard hawk, brought 
 there, no doubt, by their industrious parents. On 
 
EFFECTS OF PHYSIC ON HOUND AND DOG. 193 
 
 a grass field between these woods, and not far 
 from the birthplace of the cubs, I shot a squirrel, 
 and left it, not designedly for the foxes, but to 
 induce the other buzzard hawk to take a subse- 
 quently baited trap. On the next day, on coming 
 to the spot where the squirrel was left, it was 
 gone, and I had begun to congratulate myself 
 on an improved chance of taking the winged 
 vermin ; but, alas ! on further inspection, I ascer- 
 tained that the old fox, on coming to the squirrel, 
 must have had her mouth already full, for, in 
 taking up the one, she let fall a portion of what 
 was already in her jaws, in the shape of a 
 dead young pheasant, bearing on its crushed 
 form an evidence of the teeth that had caused its 
 death. 
 
 When master of a fox-hunting country, I could 
 feed all foxes in my woods indigenous to the well 
 preserved locality ; but if an unattached old dog-fox, 
 without a mate in the shape of a vixen (don't 
 mistake me, dear reader, I don't mean to say 
 that all female mates are vixens), and with no 
 family to provide for, but time and leisure to 
 suit his sporting inclination and fastidious 
 
 appetite, and who had at some time or other 
 VOL. I. o 
 
194 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 been half-trapped or half-poisoned, that fox would 
 not receive even a friendly offer from man, but, 
 suspicious of danger, he killed his own food, 
 and revelled in delicacies and sleep in his sylvan 
 kennel, without mate or many mouths to vex 
 him. 
 
 Note. — The usual or the most available remedy 
 at hand to make a dog sick is salt and water ; but 
 the most approved, in my estimation, is sulphate of 
 zinc, in doses of from 10 to 30 grains, according to 
 size and age. 
 
 In regard to the common occurrence previously 
 mentioned, of a doe being quick with a living fawn, 
 while at the same time she still held the remains of 
 a dead fawn of the previous year, I never found 
 that to be the case with the canine race. The 
 Faculty, who are aware of something of the sort as 
 to humanity, the '' dermoid ovarian cyst," of course 
 are better informed than I can be, I speak only as 
 to facts that have come to my immediate notice. 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 195 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FALLACIES AND FACTS. 
 
 Triplett's Facts and Fictions — The Legislature Misled — My First 
 Greenfinch and my Second Greenfinch — Tottie, the Tame Stoat 
 — Teaching Humanity — Infant Education — Travellers' Tales. 
 
 In writing this work, which may amount to a 
 
 book of reference upon all sporting subjects, as 
 
 well as upon matters connected with portions of 
 
 natural history, I bind myself to no narration 
 
 which is not based on honest truth, and known to 
 
 me by personal observation and adventure. 
 
 There is a most amusing little volume, which I 
 
 have read so often that I have almost got it by 
 
 heart, called 'Peg Woffington,' by Mr. Charles 
 
 Eeade : this book particularly delights me ; it hits 
 
 so hard upon the inflammatory action of would-be 
 
 authors as to their '' facts and fictions," — so hard, 
 
 indeed, that by way of illustration I must borrow 
 
 o2 
 
196 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 from those interesting pages, and give tlic quotation 
 line by line, setting the ^^ facts" on one side and 
 the ^'fiction" on the other, as printed in ^ Peg 
 Woffington.' 
 
 Tri^Dlett, in the novel in question, is a would-be 
 dramatic author, inclined to portray murder and 
 sudden death, keeping all natural feeling well out 
 of sight, and chronicling crime so flagitiously, that 
 the demoniac stage itself might have requested a 
 '^ fire piece " at his hands for the special amusement 
 of Proserpine. 
 
 " triplett's facts. " triplett's fictions. 
 
 " A farthing candle is on the " A solitary candle cast its 
 table. pale gleam around ! 
 
 " It wants snuffing. " Its elongated wick betrayed 
 
 an owner steeped in oblivion. 
 " He jumped up and snuffed it " He rose languidly and trim- 
 with his fingers. Burnt his fingers med it with an instrument he had 
 and swore a little." by his side for that purpose, and 
 
 muttered a silent ejaculation." 
 
 ^Vhen I take up the highly-lauded works on 
 natural history, by authors long since dead, I do 
 not feel much annoyed at the fallacies therein 
 submitted to the public, because the old school is, 
 of course, but as the one-mile stone on a long 
 neglected road— stones of misdirection, as far as 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 197 
 
 present circumstances are considered, left behind 
 simply to say which way the heavy old coaches 
 and broad- wheeled waggons had been used to plod 
 along those weary ways, now fumed over by 
 roaring railroads — those modern improvements in 
 locomotion which, in some timid minds, seem to 
 point to the world's approaching dissolution. 
 
 Almost all our books on natural history were at 
 one time compiled on hearsay evidence, gathered 
 from the country people, or written after mere 
 superficial glances at the objects described, the 
 design of Nature guessed at by the brain of the 
 intended historian. This sort of guesswork has 
 been more or less indulged in down to the present 
 day, and quite recently we have evidence of it in 
 the institution of the staircases, or ^^salmon-ladders," 
 placed in such positions that no salmon instincts 
 would teach the fish to look for them, and which no 
 salmon, as the ^^ ladders" were first established, 
 Avould ever dream of ascending unless spawned 
 with legs! 
 
 Adventurers invented, through the salmon-ladders, 
 a means of gulling the Legislature, of misleading 
 the public, and, for themselves, an ascent to the 
 higher waters of popularity! For a time the 
 
198 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 humbug paid its parents, and pleased the restless 
 minds of ignorant people ; but its folly has become 
 apparent at last. It is not my intention minutely 
 to trace bygone errors ; a few illustrations of follies 
 and an exemplification here and there will suffice 
 for the object I have in view, which is to place 
 before my readers my ^' facts," assigning all 
 Triplett-like fiction to oblivion. 
 
 We all know the round men who got themselves 
 planted in the square holes as regards the Fishing 
 Commission ; not one of the first instigators of the 
 '' salmon-ladders" knew anything of the instincts of 
 the fish with which they professed to deal. The 
 adventurous round men in the square holes knew 
 that they themselves possessed legs (although they 
 might not be very good ones), so they made a 
 ladder of steps for legless fish to tread on, and a 
 species of rat-gap, or hole, on one side of the steps 
 of the ladder, for large, bold, powerful, widely and 
 highly leaping fish to creep through ! And all this 
 on one side of the bed of the river, where no 
 instinct possessed by the salmon would cause it to 
 look for a possible means of ascent. The Com- 
 missioners were very angry when, on viewing the 
 ladder with as serious a face as it was possible for 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS, 199 
 
 me to command, I made the suggestion that, by 
 way of completing the design, they should put up 
 a hand-board on the bank of the ladder, with 
 directions for the fish— '^ The Way In," ^^ The 
 Way Out " ; and then nothing more would be 
 needed but an amphibious schoolmaster to put 
 himself into correspondence with Neptune, and to 
 establish a scaly school beneath the waves, to teach 
 a new mode of ascent to the higher or descend- 
 ing waters, the object of the school not being more 
 vague in some respects than the earth-born schools 
 of the upper world now so mischievously fashionable. 
 
 All wild things — fish, birds, and beasts — are, to 
 an immense extent, governed by the instincts given 
 them by Nature ; and if it is the desire of man to 
 lead, to interest, or to tame those creatures, and to 
 induce their timid instincts to lay aside the terror 
 inculcated by man's appearance and by his acts, 
 man must court them through the means to which 
 Nature allows him to attain ; there is no other way 
 of compassing the object save by the delicate road 
 suggested. 
 
 Hearsay will not teach method ; for the informant 
 is prone to exaggeration, particularly when, with a 
 vulgar mind, he sees that exaggeration undetected 
 
200 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 pleases the recipient of the news. Nothing but the 
 closest study will lay open the road to that curious 
 germ of attachment or affection, dormant, perhaps, 
 but ever more or less present in the heart of every 
 creature towards what is called a superior being; 
 and nothing but the most minute knowledge of 
 instinct, combined with care and gentleness, will 
 bring to light the depths of the love and the last- 
 ing attachment which some of the, to look at, 
 ^^ meanest of creatures" are capable of entertaining. 
 As soon as their hitherto dreaded tyrant, man, 
 gains their confidence, and teaches them that he is 
 not the terrible monster they expected, the Ydcpid 
 change from fear to faith is most remarkable, and, 
 to many minds, utterly incomprehensible. 
 
 My study of nature began when I was about six years 
 old, and when I had begun to outgrow that strange 
 desire inherent in the breasts of all male children 
 to be cruel to everything less than themselves. 
 Mice and birds were, at that early age, my peculiar 
 favourites. The first bird I ever had was a green- 
 finch, and many, many times has the renowned 
 Dr. Jenner, one of whose favourite studies was 
 natural history, seen me take that little bird in my 
 hand and set it down on the grass plat in the outer 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 201 
 
 court of Berkeley Castle, at fifty or sixty yards from 
 its cage, in order that he might see it immediately 
 find its way home. Its home was its cage, and 
 although a full-grown bird when it was taken in a 
 trap, it seemed to have no wish to be away from 
 the confined space in which it ever found food and 
 protection. I had cut the feathers of its wing in 
 the first instance when it was quite wild; then, 
 did an instinctive knowledge of its inability to fly 
 away induce it to be satisfied with kindness and a 
 cage, or why did it resort to its cage when it could 
 have hidden itself in the surrounding bushes, or 
 crept beneath the ground-ivy, or ascended hop by 
 hop into the trees? The motives that governed 
 the little bird I cannot answer for. 
 
 In 1806, then, my first pet of that kind was a 
 greenfinch, and, oddly enough, I never had another 
 greenfinch as a pet until 1869-70. Has the 
 soul of my former little friend come back to me, 
 to live with me, and to see me pass away ; or how 
 has come to pass the unadorned and simple fact 
 which I am about to relate ? 
 
 We, that is, myself and a young lady, were 
 seated, towards the close of the summer of 
 1869, at luncheon, at Alderney Manor, — a repast 
 
202 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 in which my giant retriever, ^^Nep," always 
 shared, for the house to which, when I am not 
 out with him, he is chained, is immediately in 
 front of my dining-room window, and the young 
 lady, as was usual with her, had prepared the 
 dog's refreshment, and was on her way to take 
 it to him, when she saw that his back was towards 
 the window instead of his expectant face, and that 
 he was deeply and curiously occupied in staring 
 at some very little thing which rested in the dust 
 on the line of his heavy chain-. The attitude of 
 the huge Newfoundland dog was intensely curious, 
 and, apparently, his bright yellow eyes were in 
 doubt as to whether or not the thing he saw with 
 its mouth perpetually gaping at him was hostilely, 
 and, perhaps, poisonously inclined; for it kept 
 advancing as if to bite. However, the tete-d-tete 
 was disturbed by the appearance of the young 
 lady, plate in hand; for Neptune, hearing her, 
 turned round, and in coming to the length of his 
 chain to meet her, the heavy iron rolled the poor 
 little greenfinch over and over again ; yet, notliing 
 daunted, the bird righted itself, crawled on, and 
 opened its mouth once more. The lady picked it 
 up, and, carrying it in, put it upon the luncheon 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 203 
 
 table, whereupon I recognized it as an unfledged 
 greenfinch, by no means fledged; its neck and 
 crop were completely bare, the corners of its beak 
 yellow, its wings nothing more than little blue 
 quills, and its legs not yet strong enough to bear 
 its weight. 
 
 We at once went out to look, in the large 
 evergreen oak and laurels above Nep's house, if 
 we could find the nest from which it must have 
 fallen, but in vain, so we returned to finish our 
 luncheon. No sooner were we seated, than the 
 poor little bird crawled directly up to a dish upon 
 which there was a joint of cold lamb, and, seeming 
 to look me full in the face, stretched up his feather- 
 less neck with widely open beak, and craved for 
 food. Upon seeing this we minced some of the 
 lean meat very finely, added to it some crumbs of 
 bread softened in water, and the little stranger ate 
 of this mixture so heartily, and '' asked so often for 
 more," that we immediately christened it '' Oliver 
 Twist," and it still bears the name of that well- 
 known hero now fashioned into '^ Twistie." We 
 had no nest for the accommodation of our poor 
 little foundling, but we got a small shallow basket, 
 into which we put it ; but as the sides of the basket 
 
204 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 were so low that it could crawl out, we assigned 
 a copy of the Times to sit on it for its education, 
 and as a substitute for the parent bird, bending 
 the sheets of the newspaper over the basket so 
 that there should be no premature escape. 
 
 No foster-mother ever did her duty better than 
 that erudite journal; and as my investigations in 
 natural history have shown me that the affections 
 of birds in future life, supposing such birds to 
 have been hatched by a foster-mother, are fixed 
 on the species from which the foster-mother came, 
 and not upon that of their own species, so, perhaps, 
 the sagacity, the self-possession, and the exquisite 
 temper of the greenfinch, may have been, in con- 
 junction with us, inculcated by those columns which 
 essay to rule the country and to teach the world. 
 In time, however, even the little bird, like some 
 other people, objected to be ^^sat upon'' by the 
 Times ; it fought its way above the ponderous pages, 
 and became what in falconry we should call a 
 ^^ brancher ;" it ascended to the handle of the basket, 
 and positively overlooked the Times, aspiring at 
 last to the finger of the young lady. Twistie 
 must have thought that the common or usual way 
 in which all birds came to life was by falling from 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 205 
 
 a height in the first instance, then by being rolled 
 over by a heavy iron chain, with a black monster 
 at the end of it, and then having breakfast or 
 luncheon with a lady and gentleman upon cold 
 roast lamb ! 
 
 Twistie is now a very pretty and happy little 
 bird, and so tame and fearless that she does not 
 scruple to peck my hand, when at night I hang 
 her cage on the accustomed nail, and to twitter 
 welcome to me, in bird fashion, when she sees me 
 in the morning. From my lips she will take a 
 seed or crumb of sugar, and is as attached as a 
 bird can be. Who can tell that this, the second 
 greenfinch of my life, may not have come to fetch 
 me away, as the doe has been supposed to have 
 done by Thomas the Rhymer ?* 
 
 It is a fact within my experience, and it admits 
 of no denial, that the wilder the birds and beasts, 
 and the more distant their haunts are from man, 
 and the less they are acquainted with his wiles, 
 his tyranny, and his destructive disposition, so 
 arc they infinitely the more trustful and easy to 
 tame. I have tried it with birds — with the 
 
 * February, 1874. — My poor Twistie is gone without me, for the 
 common lot has overtaken her, and she is dead. 
 
206 I'ACT AaAlNST FICTION. 
 
 oyster-catclierj the lesser puffin, the goosander, 
 the Bahama duck, the Pernambuco goose, the 
 prairie grouse, the cormorant and bittern, and I 
 have tamed all of them more easily and com- 
 pletely than the little bird who is to some extent 
 tame to us by nature — I mean, the common robin. 
 
 I have tamed a stoat so successfully that he 
 would come from his cage after dinner, bathe in 
 a finger-glass on the dining-room table, and carry 
 back to his cage a sponge-cake. One amusing 
 mistake he would occasionally make, I must 
 describe. He invariably selected a lady's dress 
 by which to ascend to the table (he was always 
 asked for after dinner both in town and country), 
 and when several guests of both sexes were 
 assembled, he never omitted what he rightly 
 considered the best mode of ascent. But he 
 failed always to distinguish which line led to the 
 desired spot, the outside or the inside of the 
 elaborate attire. A slight exclamation, a laugh, 
 a blush, a stooping forward, and a pressure from 
 the hand, sometimes a jump and a shake, would 
 tell me that '' Totie," as he was called, had 
 mistaken his way ; and the fact very often led 
 to much amusement. 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 207 
 
 The manner in which this strange pet came 
 into my possession I shall here relate. One day, 
 at Cranford, I saw an old stoat carrying something 
 in her mouth across a small field from one cover 
 to another. She was too far off for a shot ; but 
 my retriever dog ^' Smoker," who, at eight or nine 
 months old, saved the then Lady Young's life 
 from a tame and infuriated stag (oh, reader! 
 understand her danger from a stag, not a buck), 
 having viewed the vermin, I gave him a sign to 
 kill if he could. The stoat saw him coming 
 with his tremendous stride and speed, but she 
 would not quit the pledge of her affection until 
 the dog was close upon her; she then tried to 
 escape without her burden, and, turning back 
 across the field, I was in time to shoot her. On 
 going to the spot where the deer-dog had come 
 up with her, short as the grass was, there was 
 nothing to be seen. At last, however, a little 
 stoat was discovered couched in an old horse-shoe 
 print ; he had made himself fit its curve exactly, 
 and there he lay as still as death, with his two 
 little black shining eyes fixed upon me as I 
 stooped to pick him up. 
 
 There has been in this year (1869) a vast deal 
 
208 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 of nonsense talked respecting the setting up of a 
 school or schools for the purpose of ^ teaching 
 humanity to babes from their cradles." We have 
 already seen, and it can be seen at any time by 
 all those who wish or who dare to look the fact 
 in the face, that, by the statistics of the police, 
 crime of all sorts has increased (an increase far 
 beyond that which the growth of the population 
 would account for) hand in hand with ''■ better 
 education," as it is the cant to call it, and with 
 the acquisition of letters — an acquisition, when 
 attained, not always well du^ected. 
 
 The old proYcrb, that '^a little learning is a 
 dangerous thing," has shown its truth of late, and 
 we see hour by hour that the mistaken leniency, 
 and the mischievous timidity, which veils or 
 shirks the execution of the murderer from the 
 eyes of creatures of his own class, has made the 
 annals of our criminal courts in town and country 
 so rife with crime, and so little feared. 
 
 To attempt to teach a baby not to kill a fly, 
 or a newly-breeched boy not to beat a frog to 
 death, nor to make a ^^blue-bottle" perform its 
 so-called exercise with the hair of a tooth-brush 
 in its agonized ^'feelers" or ^4iands," and a pin 
 
 \ 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 209 
 
 tliroiigli the skin of its back to keep tlie miserable 
 atom upriglit, is nonsense. In their early years, 
 boys possess a tyrannous cruelty in their natures, 
 assigned to them in some way, it Avould seem, 
 as a sort of birthright, and of whicli, until they 
 become old enough to think and reason with tliem- 
 selves, they cannot be dispossessed. So as to the 
 idea of ^' baby schools " for the purpose of ^^ teach- 
 ing humanity," I look upon them as ridiculous in 
 one respect, as the filthy institution of ^^baby 
 shows" are in another, and as simply nonsense 
 tending to the expenditure of money. 
 
 While upon this subject, let me turn for a 
 moment to the method of early education which 
 has long existed, and which, I have no doubt, 
 will continue to exist, in spite of reason and 
 common sense, to the end of time. 
 
 The moment a child of either sex is capable of 
 looking at pictures, or of reading nursery tales, the 
 first books put into its hands are printed lies of the 
 most, to the child, fascinating description. The 
 bodies of Bluebeard's wives spouting up fountains 
 of crimson blood, a house on the top of a bean-stalk, 
 and a Welsh giant ripping out his own bowels with 
 a knife ! Fairy tales of lies, and all manner of false, 
 
 VOL. I. P 
 
210 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 and therefore ingenious, descriptions. They are then 
 followed U23 by the ^Arabian Nights' Entertainments,' 
 and other amusingly clever and exciting fictions, 
 such as ^ Eobinson Crusoe.' All and more of these are 
 given to children, the givers quite forgetting, or, 
 perhaps, ignorant of the fact, that such literature 
 can but lead the then malleable mind into a laby- 
 rinth of erroneous conclusions, all of which will have 
 to be combated in future ; and that, as methods of 
 useful instruction, such Avorks are wholly and utterly 
 worthless,— not only worthless, but absolutely 
 wrong. 
 
 Now, if the infant mind really is," at a very early 
 age, capable of instruction, why not amuse and 
 teach it by truth and not by fiction, and from the 
 brilliant pebbles of the earth, from the strange and 
 incontestable facts which its bosom so indisputably 
 contains, find materials wherevnth to write books, 
 and to draw pictures brighter by far than can be 
 illuminated by any '' wonderful lamp," and more 
 beautiful because of the heavenly pencil which 
 touched the plumage of the bird, gave to the wing 
 of the insect and the leaf of the rose and other 
 flowers their glorious colours, and illumined with 
 sparkling splendour and dazzling sheen, silver, gold, 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 211 
 
 and all precious stones ? Surely the immortal liand 
 is capable of work wliicli no mortal hand can ever 
 copy, and is a proof, if proof were needed, that, 
 long before the birth of man, some strange and 
 wondrous artist Avas occupied, through whose in- 
 scrutable labours alone truth must eventually 
 triumph and angelic knowledge crush out all 
 human m isappr ehen sion . 
 
 As early education exists, and has existed, we 
 amuse with falsehood, and inoculate a wish to 
 lie ; and, in my opinion, nothing can be more 
 pernicious than the system I thus endeavour to 
 condemn. There is no harm in the idiotic noises 
 and verbiage made by a doting mother, or a 
 silly, illiterate old nurse, when they wish to amuse 
 a child. I smiply find fault with the nursery tales 
 which are told to, and put into the hands of, the 
 wondering and fully-believing child. Being on the 
 subject of '^ baby talk" and infant literature, I 
 cannot help laughing at an anecdote lately told to 
 mcj apropos of the former subject. 
 
 A woman carrying a heavy baby sat down to rest 
 by the roadside, and presently an old gentleman 
 driving past in his gig or dog-cart, she asked him 
 
 to '' give her a lifti" 
 
 p 2 
 
212 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 '' Yes," replied the old man, in a gruff voice, 
 ^^ you may get in; but you must not pester my 
 ears Avitli any of the nonsense you women talk to 
 your babies." 
 
 ^^Oh, certainly not, sir; not for the world. I 
 won't do anything of the kind, upon my word ! " 
 exclaimed the woman ; and she was soon seated" by 
 the old man's side. 
 
 They went on quietly for a mile or two, and then 
 the heavy baby woke up ; its head began to roll, 
 and its lips to make odd noises ; it was evidently 
 pleased or hungry. Its manifestations were too 
 much for the habitual folly of its mother to resist, 
 so she immediately began to dance it u]) and down 
 in the air, crying out, ^ ' An' does it like its little 
 ridy-pidy, hidy-hivy ? " 
 
 " Humph ! " said the old gentleman, with a grin, 
 as he pulled his horse u^i short, and sto^^ped botli 
 gig and prattle so abruptly that he nearly sent 
 his comj^anion over the splash-board. '^ Perhaps^ 
 ma'am, he 'd like a little walky-palky as well ? 
 Get out directly and try." 
 
 The poor crest-fallen woman obeyed, and the heavy 
 baby parasite was soon refreshing himself at the ma- 
 ternal expense under the shade of the nearest tree. 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 213 
 
 If an educated gentleman is a sportsman in every 
 degree, from tlie fisli to the bird and beast, that is 
 no reason why tlie more gentle sensibilities of his 
 natm-e should not be interested when violent excite- 
 ment is over, and every refined taste is free to 
 exercise its graceful power. All sport pursued 
 with a view to the death of any living thing may 
 be burdened with a charge of cruelty. So may the 
 trade of the butcher, when in cold blood he knocks 
 down a bound and unresisting ox, or sticks a 
 sheep or a pig ; but the butcher's trade is necessary 
 to the existence of man, and so are hunting, shoot- 
 ing, and fishing necessary to his welfare, to his 
 health, as well as to the manliness of his life. 
 Because there are people in the world who can 
 neither hunt, shoot, ride, nor fish, whose muscular 
 frames require no strong exercise, and who for that 
 reason, and from a squeamish inclination to fret 
 at the deeds of better men than themselves, make 
 an indiscriminate charge of cruelty against the 
 sportsman, — their doing so affords no real reason 
 why we, the sjDortsmen, should not be able to love 
 and cherish the animal and bird creation in our 
 hours of rest, and find some opportunity of being 
 kind to all. 
 
214: FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 I hold no man to be a good sportsman who 
 has not studied natm^al history, and made himself 
 acquainted with the habits of creatures and the 
 effects of weather upon their mode of life and 
 upon their haunts ; also with their instincts, 
 reason, and affection. My knowledge of the 
 nature of wild beasts, and of the class to which 
 any wild beast described hy travellers must helong^ 
 enables me at once to detect any exaggeration 
 in the narrator. To tell me that a great clumsy 
 ape '^ roars ^^ in the dense forests until he scares 
 away the lions, or that with one blow of his 
 claw, and a very moderate claw, too, he '^ knocks 
 out the intestines of a man and kills him," and 
 '^breaks in two, besides, the metal barrel of his 
 rifle," is at once to refer me to a class or genus of the 
 /era natiira, with the nature of whose cries I 
 am as perfectly acquainted, and also with their 
 means of aggression or resistance when brought 
 to bay, as if the angry creature were before me 
 in the place of its resort. 
 
 Tlie attributes of a ^^ genus," say of the ape 
 family, from the little spider monkey to the great 
 oramr-outanff and the o^orilla, are familiar, or 
 ought to be St), to any man calHng himself a 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 215 
 
 naturalist ; and tlie sort of cry those animals will 
 utter, from the smallest to the largest of the 
 class, will have the same origin and tendency, 
 and so will tlie method of their fighting. No 
 monkey, no matter what his size may be, can 
 ^^ roar"; nor do monkeys, large or small, fight 
 with their clenched jists. The fabulous pictures 
 of their walking with sticks and carrying off 
 women — a feat which, as an itinerant showman 
 used to say, ^^ fully accounted for the milk in 
 the cocoa-nut," — have long ceased to be regarded 
 as facts, because anyone who has really studied 
 natural history knows the habits of an animal 
 when he knows his class or genus. 
 
 Travelling s^Dortsmen, as they call themselves, 
 would do well to remember that when they tell 
 the reading world about the exploits they have 
 succeeded in — exploits which there was no eye- 
 witness to corroborate — that, although we can't 
 say that they have not done the things they tell 
 us, we can safely swear that they did not shoot 
 ^^a full-grown elephant with a pea rifle," nor 
 ^' steer wounded hipj)opotami " in a rapid river 
 to the shore, when shot in the head and giddy, 
 by a handle cut by them on the instant with 
 
216 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 a knife in the creature's rump, because the beast's 
 own tail was not a sufficient rudder for them 
 to grasp. It is a foolish thing to tell such a 
 hippopotamus tale as this when the live tail can 
 be seen by all visitors to the Zoological Gardens 
 in London. 
 
 There was another would-be traveller, who at 
 one time, among his companions, used to be called 
 the ^^ Pawnee"; his truth, or otherwise, on other 
 matters has been since established. He gained 
 the flattering cognomen of the ^^ Pawnee" from 
 a tale he told of his having, while in America, 
 joined that noble tribe of savages^ dining with them 
 every day, for a considerable period, on the raw 
 livers of bison, which he, in common with maii}^ 
 other vexatious travellers, will call ^' buffaloes," 
 — the bison being the beast of the plains of the 
 ^' Far "West," and the buffalo the inhabitant of 
 quite another region. However, the Americans 
 fall into this error themselves ; but then we must 
 make allowances for them, for it has long been 
 apparent that no one stretches a point more 
 finely than some classes of the tobacco-chewing 
 Yankee. The true gentleman of America is as 
 far from rej)roach as any other. 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 217 
 
 Boastful travellers, such as this '^ Pawnee," 
 would do well to remember when they name 
 the particular tribe of savages with whom they 
 say they have consorted, that there are other 
 more honest wanderers who have become ac- 
 quainted with some of the many Indian tribes 
 in America, and who know very well whether or 
 not they could have lived with the ^^ Pawnees." 
 
 This travelled man forgot to give to the English 
 reader the full bill of fare of the usual prairie 
 dessert indulged in by the chiefs of his selected 
 entertainers, which dessert is, I am sorry to say, 
 found in the outer crust of the unclean heads 
 of the children of the tribe, which heads, beina- 
 laid in the laps of the chiefs, afford a chase of 
 very small live game with which to garnish the 
 raw bison livers, this lesser game being regarded 
 by these particular chiefs as the real delicacies 
 of their living kitchen. 
 
 The subsequent fate of this traveller induces 
 me to suppose that if he did travel, it was not ^^far 
 West," and if he did meet with the ^' Pawnee " 
 tribe, he feasted as they feasted, or, after being 
 robbed by tliem, he levanted, which would have 
 been very probable had he travelled into the 
 
218 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 company of a tribe of Indians who could not 
 bo trusted, and who would murder any man wlio 
 was fool enough to put himself into their power 
 for the simple possession of his scalp. 
 
 In earlier days I used to read with avidity 
 all tales of sport and travel in which wild beasts 
 had been pursued ; but in later time, what with 
 ^nion- killers," ^^ gorilla -hunters," or humbugs, 
 steerers of struggling and gigantic hipj^oj^otami, 
 and ^^ elephant bags" in Abyssinia, as published 
 for authentic news in the Field, 1 turn from all 
 such stuif, and am content with things I really 
 know something about, and seek only to push 
 my way to further knowledge by the fair and 
 open means of investigation. 
 
 The more we study Nature, her lovely face and 
 flowers, her curious entomology, her crafty and 
 courageous beasts, her featliered minstrels of the 
 woods and fields, and the strange complexity of 
 her wondrous works and laws, imperative in many 
 instances, and unaccountably lax in others, the 
 more we have to learn. In this wide field or 
 ^Miappy hunting-ground," the divine study of 
 nature, there arises no dread of failing sinew, 
 no decay of buoyancy of heart ; for that busy 
 
FALLACIES AND FACTS. 219 
 
 structure tlie brain will often far outlive the 
 power of limb, and keep up in us that glorious 
 link in life 'twixt heaven and earth which joins 
 the spirit of man to the wondrous Power that 
 gave it. We may not always be able to see 
 that everytliing is ^^ very good," but we can 
 always look forward and hope that it may 1)0 
 better, and that the beginning, perhaps, will 
 come to a happier end. 
 
320 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INSTINCT AND EEASON IN DOGSj BIRDS, FISH, ETC. 
 
 Salmon and Salmon Ladders — Eels — Young Ducks at Heron Court 
 captured by a Pike — Power of Animals to find their way Home 
 — The Terrier Badger — The Manner in which a Wild Duck at 
 Alderney Manor secured her Nest from Inundation — Mr. El- 
 more's Monkey — ]\Ir. Liston's Monkey — Another Monkey and a 
 Baby. 
 
 Man claims to be the only creature under the sun 
 possessed of '' reason" ; but to mark the exact spot 
 where instinct ends and reason commences, is very 
 difficult, for man, like the beast or bird, has his 
 instincts, and very strongly, too, they are deve- 
 loped ; and instinct and reason are so nearly allied, 
 that it needs a very fine touch to sever and to 
 mark their exact position. 
 
 The fish — our choicest fish, the salmon — is a 
 creature of instinct. Instinct teaches this fish at 
 certain seasons to leave the sea and ascend tlie 
 rivers for the purpose of breeding, and not pos- 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 221 
 
 sessing reason, or legs, for that matter, the sahnon 
 does not see that Messrs. Buckland's and Fennel's 
 ladder in any way leads him to the water he 
 desires. Instinct alone, for the propagation of 
 species, induces him to leave the sea ; instinct 
 alone makes him thread the bed of the river, and, 
 when the water is shallow, to lie under and wait 
 for an opportunity to jump up the mid-stream and 
 strongest fall of the descending water. 
 
 This is instinct without a thought. The fish by 
 nature at certain seasons is prompted to fresh 
 water, therein to deposit spawn. Where the freshest 
 water is, there will the salmon be ; and as fish do 
 not ''thinJtj^^ the fallacies of foolish men, even if 
 they put a hansom cab at their disposal as well as a 
 '' ladder," will never induce the salmon to accept 
 other means of ascending rivers or anything else 
 than that suggested by instinct, the gift of Nature. 
 
 On ascending from the sea, according to natural 
 instinct, the salmon finds herself stopped, when no 
 natural impediment arises. By a weir or other 
 artificial means; the old ^^ gap" through which we 
 and our forefathers for years had known salmon to 
 pass when salmon were in plenty, and up wliichj 
 and against any force of water, / hai'c seen that 
 
222 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 clumsy Jislh the roach make head and attain to 
 the iij^per portion of the river, under the pliilo- 
 sophical march of folly and reason, had been 
 stopped. 
 
 In the place of the old free ^^ gap," the Fishery 
 Commissioners put, at corners of the river, water- 
 falls or structures they called "ladders," by which 
 they asserted that the salmon would be able to 
 ascend without any difficulty. They, the salmon, 
 really had no difficulty before ; but because of the 
 upper level of the lands being drained into the 
 river before the lower level had been rendered 
 fit to receive the sudden influx, and on account 
 of the fact that the increase of man, and consequent 
 pollution of all Heaven's gifts, caused the decrease 
 of both fish and wild fowl, the dearth of salmon 
 everywhere was set down to the impossibility of 
 the fish to pass by the old free gap — the gap 
 they had ascended by for years on years. 
 
 Now, had "reason" been given to the salmon, 
 reason might have induced the fish, Avlien he found 
 the free gap closed, to look for some other means 
 of ascent, as a man would do by his liouse. If his 
 door was fast, he would call for a ladder ; but the 
 salmon's instinct having stoj^rped short where it 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS; ETC. 223 
 
 certainly ended and reason miglit have begun, 
 not having reason at command, he kept to the bed 
 or natural course of the stream, and lay according 
 to instinct, and unsuspecting the deeds of men, 
 waiting for a ^^ freshet" to open him a passage, 
 and never thought of looking for some hole and 
 corner in which the ladders had been stuck, 
 as if for the express accommodation of bathing 
 boys or nightly prowling rats ; reason thus not in 
 any way coming to the rescue. 
 
 Here, then, was a very good illustration of the 
 difference between reason and instinct. The Fishery 
 Commissioners themselves at the time having no 
 other instinct but that for place, and not having 
 reason enough to show them the grievous faults 
 into which they fell from their ignorance of natural 
 history, kept up all sorts of rumours as to the good 
 they were achieving; but as I at the time rented 
 the fishery at Winkton on the AvoUj and was 
 perfectly well acquainted with the Avon and Stour 
 fisheries, each side above and below me, I foresaw 
 and knew that they added not one salmon to the 
 spawning-beds by the working of their new-fangled 
 
 gear. 
 
 I refused to put ladders to my weirs, and con- 
 
S24 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 tinued to liawl for all otlier kinds of fish not 
 salmon, close up to the weirs, putting a salmon back 
 again into the water if taken within the prescribed 
 distance, as suggested by the Act of Parliament. 
 
 On being asked the reason for my opposition, 
 tlie answer was, that no salmon would go up the 
 ladders I had seen on the Avon and Stour. In 
 the first place, the position of the ladders in holes 
 and corners at the side would never occur to fish 
 as a means of ascending a broad and rapid river, 
 however much they might lead to ditches ; and in 
 the second, that the rounds, if so they can be 
 called, of the ladder are too confined for anything 
 that had got no legs to go up by. To this hour, 
 187^, I do not believe that a salmon ever ascended 
 by the ladders on the two rivers immediately 
 referred to. 
 
 I have hitherto spoken of mere rushes of water 
 not worthy of being called falls, where really 
 nothing more than a ^^free gap" or open sluice 
 was wanted to give the fish the run of both the 
 Stour and Avon. If roach and otlier far weaker 
 fish than the salmon could avail themselves of the 
 gap or sluice open to them, which all the coarser 
 fish did to my certain knowledge, then what need 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 225 
 
 was there of the vam' fallacies of men totally 
 unacquainted with the matter to start a new 
 project? 
 
 Let us now proceed to consider rivers in Ireland 
 of far steeper falls, of far greater force of water, 
 in which the ladder really is said to have been of 
 service, because properly and reasonably applied, 
 the entrance to the ladder placed in, as I am told, 
 the exact spot where the instincts, not the reason- 
 ing power, of a salmon would look for a means 
 of ascent, and up which instinct would lead him to 
 ascend. 
 
 I allude now to the county of Sligo and to the 
 Ballisodere Fishery. No wonder that those broths 
 of Irish boys beat us in reference to water, as they 
 do so far surpass us in the interests of whisky* 
 
 The Ballisodere river, if I have not been led into 
 error^ is formed by the union of the Owenmore 
 aiid Arrow, which unite about two and a quarter 
 miles above the Bay of Ballisodere* The Owen- 
 more and its affluent, the Owenbeg, flow in a 
 northerly and easterly direction, draining the south 
 side of the county and the southern slopes of the 
 Ox Mountains. 
 
 The Arrow drains the south-east of the county, 
 
 VOL. I* Q 
 
22G FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 flowing in a northerly course from Loiigli Arrow. 
 The lower part of the united ^streams is very rapid, 
 falling fifty-seven feet in three-eighths of a mile, and 
 presents the very unusual feature of tumbling right 
 into the tideway over a precipice of twenty feet 
 high, that fall being reduced to about thirteen feet 
 at full spring tides. By this my readers will think, 
 where they are acquainted with the usual manner 
 in which English rivers reach the sea, that in Ire- 
 land, pardoning innumerable mistakes into which 
 the brain of Erin sometimes falls, fresh and salt 
 water, whisky and hot water, oil and vinegar, jump 
 together, though they don't always mingle peace- 
 ably, much more rapidly than they do in England. 
 
 About half a mile ahove its junction with the 
 Arrow, the Owenmore has a fall of seventeen 
 feet at Collooney Mills, the limestone rock being 
 not only precipitous, but overhanging. Thus, then, 
 I offer to my readers real difficulties opposed to the 
 upward progress of salmon from the sea, which no 
 '^frce gap" could remove. We will now see the 
 better construction that was formed and said to 
 surmount the difhculty. 
 
 Previously to the adoption of the lower ladder a 
 few occasional salmon, but very few, had been 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 227 
 
 seen, so it was said, to leap at the fall, but no one 
 ever knew a fish to succeed in the attempt. A 
 precipitous fall of an immense body of water sheer 
 down from an impending height of from twenty to 
 thirteen feet was indeed a far greater difficulty than 
 our English rivers, such as those I have particularly 
 alluded to, afford to the ascent of fish ; but Ireland 
 seems to liave been equal to the occasion ! 
 
 In 1856-7 '' salmon ladders," as they were called, 
 were erected ; ova was deposited in various parts of 
 the river ; salmon in a state of spawn were turned 
 into the river above the falls, and a breeding mill 
 established in Knockbegs. In due time ^'salmon 
 fry " appeared where ova had been placed, as well 
 as in other sites, from the full-grown fish that had 
 been turned in, and the ^^mill" too was full of 
 '^ par." The latter went through the usual change 
 to the silvery ^^smolt," and proceeded to the sea, 
 returning to their birthplace in August as well- 
 grown '^ grilse." In some places, as I understood 
 the local and piscatory -language) they call the 
 young of salmon by two names, '^ the grilse " and 
 the '^salmon peel"; then there is another fish caught 
 at the mouths of salmon rivers, called a ^^sea trout." 
 
 Of the history of this latter fish I cannot pretend 
 
 q2 
 
228 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 to speak; and, incleed, I know notliing ; for if the 
 sea trout is a genus per se, I do not know where it 
 breeds^ and in the English rivers, far from the tidal 
 way, and at times when salmon and trout breed, 
 I have never met with it. 
 
 The sea trout (so called) — the larger sea trout 
 that I have seen (there is a very fine one, very well 
 preserved in a glass-case in the shop of Henry 
 Cutler, the excellent fishmonger and gallant man, 
 for he has saved human life at sea, at Bournemouth) 
 — is precisely, in size and weight, like a salmon 
 not yet arrived at his silvery jpc^yec^zo;?. On my 
 telling Cutler that it looked very like a salmon, 
 he said that it did, but the proof that it was a 
 sea trout lay in the ajDplication of the thumb 
 or finger nail the reverse way of the scales. Those 
 of t\\Q sea trout would easily come off, while the 
 salmon scales were more close and adhesive* Still, 
 this might arise/rp^?i condition^ and not from variety 
 of class* 
 
 I confess I thirst for knowledge of the exact and 
 natural history of what is called the sea trout, 
 because I need a l^etter reference to distinguish 
 species by than a loose scale, as in the snig and 
 eel, a blunter or a sliarper nose, and a variety 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 229 
 
 of colour. Condition vanes in all living things ; 
 and put two fishes side by side of the same kind, 
 but the one in season and the other out of season, 
 their aspect, as well as the eating and handling of 
 them, would be very different. 
 
 Very few people are aware of the extreme 
 difficulty of handling for any time, with a view 
 to their recovery and retaining life after manipula- 
 tion, any sort of fish whose tissues are defended 
 by the delicate and silvery scale. Not one 
 person in a thousand, albeit that he is a fisherman, 
 believes that if you ^^ throw" a fish which is 
 thought to be of insufficient size to retain, back 
 into the water, tliat fish so used is as sure to die 
 as if the head liad been severed from the body. 
 ^^ No, they do not thus die," I have heard these 
 ^^ throwers offish" back into their element exclaim, 
 when T remonstrated on the foolish act ; and then 
 they added, ^^ we always see the fish swim away 
 as well as ever." That they may do for the time 
 being ; but if they could observe that fish there- 
 after, when suffering from such treatment, they 
 would see that in the course of a few days his 
 back and sides were becoming ^'furred," and that 
 at last death terminated his sufferings. 
 
230 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 When salmon, particularly, are manipulated for 
 the purpose of producing spawn, any person 
 conversant with the rebellious and violent resist- 
 ance which that gallant fish offers to the hands 
 of men, when landed by line or in the net, must 
 know that great force has to be used, and a 
 tenacious grasp fixed on the fish, to retain it in 
 the position required when pressed for the purpose 
 of sj^awn. Why, when a salmon is landed fresh 
 from the net, if not killed or stunned with the 
 hammer, without man's violence, he will beat 
 himself to pieces on the ground ; and my readers 
 may take my word for it that, let the ova-seekers 
 say what they will, half or more than lialf of the 
 salmon ojjerated on for the purposes of ar.tificial 
 breeding, when returned to the water, disappeai^ 
 and die. 
 
 In retmiiing fish of any kind to their natural 
 element, with a view to their restoration to life 
 and health, they should be carefully put down 
 with tlieir nose just within the water, and thus 
 let glide away. 
 
 It is far from my wish to throw cold water even 
 on fish, or on the attempts I liave heard of made 
 in flic ^^ soutli gallery of the Agricultural Hall'' 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 231 
 
 to supply tlie rivers or even ponds with salmon 
 treated like the jealous guards of a Turkisli 
 seraglio, so as to put a desire to return to the sea 
 out of the question. (My dear reader, don't laugh; 
 I wish you to he serious.) To sum uj), then, my 
 belief in this aqueous theory, I simply make the 
 following assertions. The organization of fish, 
 and the immense power of the salmon in par- 
 ticular to resist, and the frail texture of the 
 bodily covering, the scales, render an operation, in 
 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, practically 
 impossible either upon the male or the female 
 fish. If you desire to increase the quantity of 
 fish of any kind, handle them not at all; for, to 
 quote Byron's beautiful lines, yet to render them 
 apposite to the matter in hand, — 
 
 " The lovely ' fish/ so fiercely sought, 
 Hath lost its life by being caught, 
 And every touch that forced its stay 
 Hath reft each silvery.scale away ; 
 Shorn of its hues, the salmon flics, 
 Swims to the pool, and ' sulking,' dies." 
 
 Wonderful things do happen in this the year of 
 grace 1871-2; yet in respect of natural history 
 more so than in any other case. Nature renders 
 
233 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 the attempted interference of man impossible by 
 a determined ^^ No," which neither the orni- 
 thologist, the skilful surgeon, nor the more mar- 
 vellous learning of the engineer can in any way 
 contravene. 
 
 Wliile receiving information in regard to the 
 Irish salmon rivers before mentioned, I met with 
 the following news as to eels, to me of rather an 
 unaccountable nature. There is no doubt but 
 that the usual chain of ^^ elvers" up the pre- 
 cipitous damp rock can be seen closely packed; 
 and they say that in some instances the owners 
 of the fishery assist their ascent from the sea by 
 a long band or wisp of twisted straw. 
 
 They assist them, though they know that the 
 breeding eels at certain seasons do leave their 
 rivers for the sea, that not one full-sized eel has 
 ever heen known to return. The only way in which 
 they could do so would be by the ladder, and 
 that they have never been known to do. 
 
 Now this piece of information, if correct, comes 
 hand to hand with my English assertion, that 
 unless eels return from the sea as ^^snigs," or in 
 '^ snig condition," there is no proof that they 
 return at all. 
 
INS'J'INCT AND REASON I?f DOGS, ETC. 233 
 
 Then there remains this query: in this Irish 
 river, as the full-grown eel only moves by night 
 and when it is dark — they will not run when the 
 moon shines — do the eels not return from the sea 
 when Paddy has whiskied himself to sleep, 
 unseen by any fisherman in their thus concealed 
 and noiseless use of the ladder ? My own opinion 
 is, that, if the eels that have left the river and 
 tumbled over a high fall into the sea, do come 
 back, they do so in dark nights by the ladder, 
 imless they possess the power of gliding up the 
 fall of from twenty to thirteen feet. I would 
 not vouch for the fact that eels are unable to do 
 so, after what I have known the common and 
 smaller fish of the English rivers do, by falls 
 of water, — including the roach, the gudgeon, and 
 that powerless-looking, big-headed little fish com- 
 monly called the '' miller's thumb." 
 
 When a coop with rare young fowl is placed 
 by the side of a considerable sheet of water, with 
 a small enclosure of galvanized-wire netting in 
 front of the coop, enclosing some yards of the 
 shallows of the pool for the young, in this instance 
 of the Carolina or wood-duck from America, to 
 swim in, is the following an instance of instinct 
 
234 FACT Igainst fiction. 
 
 or reason in tlie generally-considered foolish fisli, 
 the pike ? 
 
 At Heron Court, in the summer of 1871, in 
 the sheet of water on the lawn, in which there 
 was said to be no other than one small pike 
 of scarce a pound in weight, there were several 
 young birds, from the common wild duck bred 
 at large, as well as the young Carolina ducks, 
 under a hen, in the coop before alluded to. Day 
 by day the young wild ducks disappeared in an 
 unaccountable way, with no signs .left on the bank 
 of their destruction ; and so did the young Carolina 
 ducks. When these young water-fowl had dis- 
 appeared, that had thus been given free access 
 to the water, my suggestions as to the next ^^trip" 
 were adhered to. The next hatch of Carolina 
 ducks were put in a coop before described, but 
 in a little pool to themselves, wired off from the 
 expanse of water. One day, on the head gardener, 
 Mr. Bowring, going to visit the young ducks, 
 there, close along the side of the wire, in the 
 shallow water, his motionless eyes fixed on the 
 coop, lay a pike, of about five pounds, waiting 
 for the expected prey. The alarm was at once 
 given, the drag-net procured, and the pike was 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 235 
 
 captured with the remains of some of the yomig 
 fowl in his stomach. 
 
 Now in this fact reason and instinct clash ; and 
 there is, that I can see, no definite spot at which 
 the one ends and the other begins. Instinct and 
 appetite induce a voracious monster, the pike, to 
 swim on and eat any little thing he sees alive 
 upon the water; but motive of a superior grade, 
 allied to reason, induces him to approach and 
 lie in wait by a coop, in which reason, not instinct, 
 has taught him the prey he of late has had, and 
 is in quest of, lives. 
 
 The hound and dogs of all kinds, like the carrier 
 pigeon, possess the knowledge of how to make, in 
 the straightest and shortest way for the house 
 or kennel from which they have been taken. 
 The pigeon has no marks in the air to guide his 
 flight ; and the hound or dog, in going the shortest 
 way to his former home, needs no path nor road 
 to guide him. If the most direct way lies over 
 moors, fields, and across rivers, he looks not for 
 a beaten track nor bridge^ but proceeds to where 
 he desires to go with the most unerring and 
 instinctive precision. Wild ducks are possessed 
 with the same gift. I have given some away, 
 
236 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 sending them in a hamper by night, but before 
 many days were over they had retm^ned to me 
 again. Very many instances I could enumerate 
 of this fact that had come immediately under my 
 ]Dersonal sujoervision ; but having told of them in 
 1113^ former publication, ^ The Reminiscences of 
 a Huntsman,' and other works, I abstain from the 
 repetition of them to readers already acquainted 
 with the subject. 
 
 This knowledge of the way home I define as 
 mere instinct. Reason would have suggested land- 
 marks and roads, the things which guide the less- 
 gifted human being. The dog and the bird trust 
 to the inherent directions of mysterious Nature. 
 Neither map, sign-post, nor compass, is requii'ed 
 by the dog; he trots or swims direct for home, 
 and seldom finds himself at any loss. 
 
 Instinct and reason are so closely allied that 
 Solomon himself, supposed among the ancient 
 ignorant to be so wise, could not define a line of 
 demarcation between the two as regards an Irish 
 dog, to which I now immediately refer. I close this 
 chapter with two more notices of dog and bird. 
 
 The horses belonging to a gentleman from 
 Wales, who intended to finish the hunting season 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 237 
 
 at Mallow, accompanied by a rough little terrier, 
 called Badger, came to tlie Eoyal Hotel in that 
 town, and remained there three months. At the 
 end of that time, the gentleman and his horses 
 and his dog returned hy train to Tralee, In forty- 
 five hours Badger retraced his ste2ys to the inn — a 
 distance, I believe, of sixty miles — and remained 
 there.. 
 
 The landlord of the Royal Hotel then wrote to 
 Badger's master to say the dog had come back, 
 when orders were given for Badger's return home 
 by train. The command was obeyed, but Badger 
 seemed to have made uj) his mind that a ^4iome" 
 elsewhere had nothing whatever to do with it, for 
 within the week Badger's tail again wags in the 
 stable-yard of his selected residence, without any 
 apparent '^sexual selection" whatever; for ^^ sexual 
 selection " with a female of any kind he seems to 
 have had none, though he entertained vast enmity 
 to all the males of his own race, and kept them 
 from trespassing upon the premises where he 
 mounted guard. 
 
 His owner, evidently not his master, for Badger 
 owned no such dictation, then abandoned the dog 
 to his fatCj and for a time Badger was contentedly 
 
238 FACT AGAIKST FICTION. , 
 
 liapj)y. The inliabitants of tlic hotel, not wishing 
 to keej) poor Badger, then gave him to a gentleman 
 resident about Kseventeen miles off; hut by the 
 next day Badger had returned, and lay down at 
 the door as resolutely as ever. Perhaps deeming 
 that Badger had a ^^ selection" for a particular class 
 of society, the next place of his banishment was 
 to a farmer, who lived only ten miles off, from 
 which scene of rural life Badger returned the 
 same day, when, as it seemed impossible to be 
 rid of him, he was then tacitly adopted as '^ the 
 dog of the hotel." He seemed to own no master, 
 nor to be attached to one person ■ more than 
 another. An hotel for himself, not '^ Ireland for 
 the Irish," is his motto; and I am haj)py to say 
 that all the inmates of the hotel treat him with 
 kindness, and at night a stable is his lodging, in 
 which he bids defiance to the roughest weather* 
 Alas ! Time, that tenacious tyrant over every living 
 thing, is making the usual inroad on jooor Badger's 
 constitution. His pace is slower, and his teeth 
 are wearing out. The one sole thing with him 
 — but, alas ! with very few others, bipeds and 
 all, that defies the touch of time — is, the love of 
 his heart to the one treasured place that has 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 239 
 
 gladdened his dog's life. To tliat lie still clings ; 
 and defies all the curs of the town to approach 
 nearer to the treasured precincts he has for years 
 guarded; although they may think he cannot bite. 
 Poor dear Badger may still thankfully growl that — 
 
 " Not Heaven itself upon the past has power : 
 What has been, has been ; and I have had my hour." 
 
 At the moment I am concluding this chapterj 
 May 1st, 1872, there sits in the moor at my decoy, 
 on her nest, in the same spot to an inch in which 
 she has had her nest, to my knowl(^dge, for the 
 last three years, a wild duck. I think she must 
 have sat there before the year in which I found 
 her, but that is simply a thought. We will now 
 approach the fact — a fact proving a rational power 
 in birds, far beyond the mere instinct assigned 
 them by Nature. 
 
 My belief is that in the first year she made her' 
 nest in that ivet ditch, subject as it is to flooding, 
 and, after much rain, she must have had her nest 
 destroyed by the sudden rise of water. Nothing 
 hat that J that I am aware of, could have prompted 
 this wild duck for the future systematically, and 
 by a reasonable foretliought, to guard against a 
 similar misfortune. Nothing seems to incline her 
 
240 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 to leave the exact spot for her nest; but, to meet 
 the clanger of its continued position in a small wet 
 ditch, she has adopted the moor-hen-like plan of 
 raising the nest on such light material that it will 
 rise and fall with the water beneath, besides, being 
 built of a very considerable amount of grass and 
 heather twigs, lifting it from the bottom of the 
 ditch a foot high. Most ducks commence their 
 nests by scraping out a dent in the ground, and 
 as they lay they cover over the eggs day by day 
 with freshly collected material. Not so with this 
 duck, who must have had ''reason'' to know that 
 her nest CO z^ZcZ not he safe if dealt with by her after 
 the suggestions of Nature. She, therefore, com- 
 mences building her nest quite four days previously 
 to laying an egg, and builds it much after the 
 fashion of the swan. She raises it, and finishes it 
 off always within twelve hours or thereabouts of 
 laying the first egg. During the time that I have 
 been cognizant of this, Toovey, my head keeper, 
 has always contrived to take her off the nest on 
 the day of hatching, with her young ; and that we 
 intend to do again, as she makes an excellent 
 mother when put under a cooji. My experience 
 teaches me that all birds have an attachment to 
 
INSTINCT Al^D REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 241 
 
 the site of a former nest, like the rook, the raven, 
 and the hawk ; but wild ducks are remarkable for 
 local attachment to previous nesting-places. I 
 have proof of that fact in numerous instances now. 
 With only two excej)tions, there are the usual 
 nests as last year. I account for the two excep- 
 tions by deeming that the two ducks thus missing 
 fell to the gun in the last shooting season. Con- 
 sidering that one hundred and seventeen duck and 
 teal fell on my first day at the wild fowl, the 
 flights must have taken pretty good care of 
 themselves to have lost so few of the nesting or 
 home birds. 
 
 Now, Nature never, that I am aware of, usually 
 assigned to birds more than some very curious 
 instincts in regard to nesting and other habits ; but 
 here we have an instance of a duck reasoning on the 
 cause of losing, or danger to, her eggs, and of the 
 most actual forethought in providing against the 
 calamity ; not scraping a mere dent in the ground, 
 as other wild ducks do when they are on the 
 instant of depositing an egg^ but hnowing that 
 the place is ivet, and liable also to be too luet, 
 methodically building up an unusual nest by reason 
 
 and forethought that mere instinct of nature had 
 VOL. I. R 
 
242 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 not prompted nor suggested Iby the method and 
 rule mider which she was brought to light — pre- 
 paring itj too, with three or four days purposely 
 set apart for the labour, and then depositing her 
 eggs in a nest artificially raised for their reception 
 and protection. 
 
 While I write these lines, in the month of May, 
 1872, this wild duck, thus possessed of ^^ reason," 
 — not only mere instinct, but ^^ reason" to a sjDCcific 
 purpose, — is sitting on her nest in the usual spot, 
 and for the third or fourth year she will again 
 breed up her young under a coop. Should she, 
 when mingling in the ^^ foreign flights" next 
 winter, again escape the gun, as I hojie she will, 
 she is as sure to nest in the same place as winter 
 is to come again. Out of more than thirty nests 
 which I knew of in the spring before this, there 
 are only two of the previous sites unoccupied 
 now, — all the rest have their previous tenants; 
 and when it is considered that in one shooting- 
 day the bag was one Imndred and seventeen 
 head, it seems extraordinary that the wild fowl 
 rendered indigenous to the place should have 
 escaped to that extent. 
 
 Again, in the many monkeys that have come 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 243 
 
 within my notice, — I refer not to man clotliecl or 
 miclotlied, though Darwin says he was a monkey, — 
 there are two instances within my knowledge of the 
 difference between reason and instinct, and in these 
 two cases ^' instinct" Avas evident, and not '^reason." 
 
 The late Mr. John Elmore, of whom I had 
 bought some of my best hunters, lived in a villa 
 in the vale of Harrow ; and his son, being very 
 fond of carpenter's work, to amuse himself, kept 
 an elaborate shop, and in the shop a monkey. 
 
 One day he (Mr. Elmore) was called from his 
 amusement and his hammers and nails, and, expect- 
 ing very soon to return, he left the monkey master 
 of all he surveyed. On returning to enjoy his 
 work, he found that the monkey had carried out 
 his labour to the fullest possible extent ; for, getting 
 possession of the hammer and nails of all sizes, 
 he nailed everything on the long table and about 
 the room together, without reference to colour, sort, 
 size, or kind, and grinned his satisfaction when he 
 saw his kind master taken by surprise. 
 
 Now this was an act of mere '^ instinct J^ He 
 had seen, according to Darwin, the tailless an- 
 cestor of his own kind nailing things together, and, 
 
 not knowing what it was for. without '^ reason ^^^ 
 
 li 2 
 
244 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 and through '^ instinctive imitation/' to which 
 Nature had made his kind prone, he did the same 
 thing that he had watched Elmore do, but for 
 no mental ^^ reason" whatever. 
 
 Again. The famous surgeon, the late Mr Listen, 
 he, too, kept a monkey, in a cage in the room 
 where he received his patients, and this monkey, 
 like Elmore's monkey, narrowly watched the 
 master-hand ; and it appeared that while any sort 
 of operation was going on, the monkey sat absorbed 
 in instinctive and meditative and amused interest. 
 At the time of these skilful proceedings, the poor 
 monkey, of course, was unnoticed, and sat very 
 quiet in his cage ; but, strange to say, day by day 
 became ill, and for a time Listen himself could not 
 account for liis indisposition. It was discovered at 
 last, however, that the imitative and ^^instinctive" 
 genius of the monkey had been aroused by what 
 he had seen his master do ; so when left to him- 
 self, being solitary and without a j^atient, and not 
 having much choice of surgical instruments, he 
 used the straw in the bottom of his cage, in lieu of 
 instruments, u2)on himself, and brought on at last 
 a painful dissolution. 
 
 Here, then, in these two incidents, we have 
 
INSTINCT AND KEASON IN DOGS, ETC. 245 
 
 ^^ instinct" witliout ^^ reason," and it is thus that I 
 seek at least to draw some line of demarcation 
 between the two. But avIio, then, shall draw the 
 line that will leave to us neither cavil nor difference 
 of opinion ? It must be wiser men than those who 
 call all animals ^^dumb," or who prate of a '' dumb- 
 madness" other than ^Miydrophobia," and capable 
 of deadly infection through dog to man. Dumb, 
 indeed ! Both beasts and birds can speak to me — 
 to us— in tones of far more touching pathos, ample 
 and audible, than can be uttered by the growling 
 voices of some of our own sex. To woman's lips 
 alone I yield the sweeter preference, for in her 
 voice there seems to dwell the soul of all that is 
 gentle, generous, and beautiful. 
 
 Let us take one more instance of instinct so 
 blended with reason, that it is scarcely possible to 
 define the severance of the two. 
 
 There lived in a family a nice, good-humoured, 
 and good-sized monkey, — certainly kind, good- 
 liumoured and truthful, for it had never shed its tail 
 in its approach to Christianity, nor, as our sequel 
 shows, could it resist in another an aj)peal for food. 
 Love and charity this monkey decidedly possessed, 
 and it was dotingly fond of the baby son and heir to 
 
246 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 which the lady of the mansion had given birth. 
 So fond had the monkey become of the little child, 
 that they were wheeled about together by a maid- 
 servant in a little chair. The child would cry if 
 the monkey were taken away ; and the monkey 
 would grin, shake her cage, and chatter, if not 
 permitted to '^ take the air." 
 
 One day, when the nurse had slipped off to 
 dinner, leaving the babe asleep, the monkey got 
 out of its cage and attained the cradle, when, 
 finding the baby awake and sucking its thumb, — 
 I wish fond mammas would break babes of this 
 bearish propensity, — the monkey deemed that it 
 wished for air and exercise; so taking the child 
 out of the crib, — such being in aj^ish imagination 
 the best place for air, — the poor dear monkey carried 
 tlie child to the leads on the top of the house, and 
 there sat with it on the edge of a gutter repre- 
 senting the head of a satyr, in rainy days disgorging 
 water far above and immediately over the hard 
 stones of the paved court below. 
 
 Tlie child was soon missed from its bed, and 
 then the monkey from its cage, and a general 
 search commenced, ending in the before-mentioned 
 disclosure on the gutter. 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC. 247 
 
 The father of the infant was a sensible as well 
 as an affectionate man, — the two things really 
 went together, — and he did his best to prevent 
 the nonsense-talking ^^ Gamps" from screaming; 
 but, try to hush them as he might, the child having 
 benefited by the . decidedly fresh air, heard, or 
 thought that it heard, its nurse's voice, and, being 
 hungry, cried for food. 
 
 Not a word had been said to the monkey, and 
 no attempt made to approach her, for the head of 
 the house was full of apprehension lest they should 
 make the monkey drop the child in obedience to a 
 call, or accidentally let it down in carrying it 
 away to some more inaccessible place. 
 
 Well, the baby cried for food, and the monkey 
 knew by ^^ reason" what the baby cried for; 
 ^^ instinct" then suggested that, the mouth being 
 open, something should be put in it, so the monkey 
 sedulously scraped all the moss, soot, and snap- 
 dragon growth that was on the roof of the house, 
 into a wad, and most kindly and assiduously stuffed 
 it into the baby's mouth, tasting it herself first 
 to see that it was good. What the monkey thought 
 of the taste of this food, no one was near enough 
 to tell, but she gave it all to the child. Here was 
 
248 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 a dilemma — to be choked with weeds and soot, or 
 to be dashed to pieces by a fall ! Horror held the 
 entire household in suspense, when a little boy, 
 the coachman's son, who knew the effect of apples 
 on himself, was seen to crawl beneath the roofs 
 from behind along the gutter, at the end of which 
 were the monkey and the child, when the monkey, 
 being a friend of the boy, tucked the baby under 
 her arm head downwards, and hobbled off to meet 
 him. The monkey and the boy had often ex- 
 changed civilities, the boy giving a half-rotten 
 piece of an apple, best side uppermost, for a good 
 nut kept for future enjoyment in the monkey's 
 pouch ; and while they were again making their 
 exchange, and the monkey was thumbing her 
 cheek to get out the nut, the boy got hold of the 
 child, and the trio, in full confidence with each 
 other, threaded the chimneys, slid the tiles, and 
 delivered themselves up to the anxious family, and 
 suppressed but furious nurse, who showed her 
 affection for father, mother, and son, by reiterating 
 her opinion that the child ''^ might as ivell have 
 been dashed to pieces,'' The parents did not think 
 so : the boy was promoted to a surfeit of buttons, 
 and the poor monkey, who had erred from no 
 
INSTINCT AND REASON IN DOGS, ETC, 249 
 
 want of affection, but from the confusion of intel- 
 lect, reason, and instinct, was given away to a 
 street musician, and shortly died of a horrible 
 stomach-ache produced from the inharmonious 
 groans of a barrel-organ, on which the monkey 
 was made to sit, wound persistently from beneath, 
 as that terrible instrument of unrest generally is, 
 when study or sleep have to be discomfited. 
 
 I confess that reason and instinct are so nearly 
 allied, that it puzzles us all, monkeys with no tails 
 and monkeys with, to draw the line where one 
 ends (not the tail, but reason) and the other 
 begins ; still the study of the two is so beautiful 
 and so curious in the wondrous ramifications of 
 its varying mysteries of minds, that I am content 
 to solace and lose myself in a labyrinth that seems 
 as yet to offer no deliverance. 
 
250 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 REASON IN THE DOG. 
 
 Difficulty of drawing the line between Instinct and Reason — 
 Instance of Reason in a Wild Duck — Bird in the Zoological 
 Gardens — My Retriever Neptune — Retriever Dog in the New 
 Forest and the Jack Snipe — My dog Brutus and the Heron — 
 Smoker the Deer-hound — Brenda in the First-Class Railway 
 Carriage and the Irate Man — The Doe Rescued and the Thieves 
 Discovered — The Irish Setter Nellie — Wolf — Instances of 
 Reasoning Powers in Hounds, Dogs, Birds, Fishes, &c. — Skim 
 and Cress. 
 
 It is, as I have said here, there, and everywhere, 
 ahnost impossible to draw the line between instinct 
 and reason. The size of the creatures offers us 
 no guide by way of solution to the difficulty, even 
 placing by the side of each other the elephant and 
 ihe ant ; nor does the class to which each creature, 
 insect, bird, or animal belongs, suggest any course 
 by which man, in his investigations, can be guided. 
 From the elej)hant to the beetle, the bee, and the 
 ant, we find reason and instinct run so much the 
 
REASON IN THE DOG. 251 
 
 one into the otlieij that the two can scarcely be 
 severed. 
 
 A remarkable fact happened on my lawn in the 
 month of April, 1872. No wild ducks had ever 
 been reared there, and seldom seen there, and 
 certainly not a duck had been on the lawn since 
 the autumn of the previous year. Every morning, 
 however, summer and winter, the pheasants had 
 been fed, and every morning they were assembled 
 round my door at breakfast-time, awaiting their 
 expected food. At the period to which I refer, 
 on opening the door, there, among the pheasants, 
 witli their eyes and ears fixed on the opening of 
 the latch, sat a couple of wild ducks and a mallard. 
 They showed no sort of timidity at my sudden 
 appearance, but ran to meet me ; and, having filled 
 their crops and even necks so full of Indian corn 
 as to be unable to eat any more, they rose, and, 
 flying immediately up over the house, went off 
 in the direction of the decoy. 
 
 ^' Instinct" could not have made these wild ducks 
 seek me in my liome : '' reason" must have told them 
 who it was that kept the food and where they 
 would be sure to find it, and, governed by that 
 reason, then they came. 
 
252 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 To illustrate the fact by further comparison, we 
 now come to the bird which lays its eggs in short" 
 mown grass in the Eegent's Park Gardens, which 
 of course heats by its own damp. This bird ex- 
 hibits decidedly an amount of thought, and there- 
 fore of reason, for it bears in its reasoning mind 
 the amount of heat which is necessary to keep the 
 eggs Avarm throughout the time of incubation, and 
 the bird visits the heap of grass that contains the 
 eggs very frequently, and tries the temperature 
 with its foot: if too hot, he decreases the grass 
 around the eggs ; if too cold, he heaps on more 
 grass; and thus exhibits a thoughtful hnowhdge 
 tending to a distant hut expected result^ and that 
 is ^^ reason." No ^^stoker" could heat his engine 
 better. 
 
 The dog is possessed of reason, and I illustrate it 
 by a reference, in the first place, to my present 
 retriever, Neptune. When he came to me he was 
 a full-grown, uneducated, unsophisticated puppj^ 
 He knew nothing of England, as he came direct 
 from Newfoundland. He took not the least notice 
 of any living thing excejot myself. He cared not 
 for game of any kind, and was frightened at the 
 sight of a live rabbit. For all this inertness, there 
 
REASON IN THE DOG. 253 
 
 was about Lis handsome broad forehead and bright 
 yellow eyes an exi^ression that he was capable of 
 taking notice of anything if he was reasonably 
 taught that notice would be the first step to edu- 
 cation, and that education, agreeably administered, 
 would lead him to s2)ort and recreation. The first 
 rabbit he saw was in a trap, but no inducement 
 that I could offer would make him touch it. I killed 
 it myself, made him tliinh that I was fond of it, 
 and carried it about with me half the day, dropping 
 it occasionally, and picking it up again, caressing 
 him while I did so. At last he began to notice the 
 rabbit, and, to make a long tale short, he became 
 proud to carry home any rabbit I chanced to kill 
 in his presence. His mouth was very light, and he 
 could carry a rabbit all day and never hurt it. He 
 soon came, when a rabbit was shot at in cover, to go 
 and search for it, and had just begun his duty 
 as a retriever when the following circumstance 
 happened : — Some time in the night he contrived to 
 slip his collar ; he was chained to his house on the 
 lawn opposite the front door, and he might have 
 been at large all night ; but when I opened the front 
 door at breakfast-time to whistle up the pheasants 
 to their food, there lay Nep in his house in the 
 
254 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 exact position lie always was in wlien tied up — liis 
 head and neck out of his house, and watching my 
 movements as usual. On seeing me he never stirred, 
 the .pheasants were all round him, and he lay as 
 usual, watching the ojoeration of feeding them. 
 When that was over, on crossing from the lawn 
 to the front door, catching my eye, Nep got up 
 in a peculiarly gentle manner, and, turning round, 
 went back into the inmost recess of his kennel, 
 and coming out again, with his bright yellow eyes 
 flashing with fidelity and pleasure, I saw that he 
 held in his mouth the half of a freshly-killed 
 rabbit. The head and shoulders of the rabbit were 
 gone, the back and haunches of it only remained. 
 This half of the rabbit he presented to me, with an 
 expression of delight it is impossible to describe. 
 Of course his gift was accepted with well-expressed 
 pleasure ; and then we set to work to hold, as it 
 were, an inquest, to find out how he (the rabbit) 
 died. The fur showed no blood; there had been 
 no heavy grasp across the loins, such as the mouth 
 of a large dog would have made ; and at once I 
 suspected that the rabbit had been killed by a cat. 
 However Nep might have become possessed of it, 
 it was evidently killed and divided in a cat-like 
 
REASON IN THE DOG. 255 
 
 manner^ and on fiirtlier researcli I discovered the 
 marks in the back of a cat's teeth. 
 
 The only way to account for Nep's possession 
 of it was that some time in the night, when he 
 was loose, he either took the rabbit from a cat, 
 or found the rabbit when she, the cat, had left it. 
 Remembering, then (and this is reason, not instinct), 
 that I had seemed to set much store by rabbits, 
 instead of eating the tempting morsel, broken up 
 as it was, as many a dog Avould have done, he put 
 it in the safest place in his kennel, quite at the 
 back, and, knowing all the time it was there, he 
 did not produce it for my acceptance until he saw 
 that my usual occupation at that time in the 
 morning was . over ; then, and not till then, he 
 brought out the treasure he had guarded for my 
 acceptance. ^^ Instinct" had nothing to do with 
 this ; Nep found the half of a rabbit, perhaps in 
 a cat's possession,- — I think that very likely,—- and he 
 reasonahhj thought that, from what ho had seen 
 when out with me, I should like to have it. He 
 hieiv that at night he could not see me, and he knew 
 that, perhaps, the rabbit would be lost if he ceased 
 to guard it; so he put it into the back of his kennel, 
 and produced it at the right time, when my tem- 
 
25 G FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 poraiy occu23atioii of feeding the pheasants ceased, 
 and the rendering up his treasure to me could inter- 
 fere with no other thing. 
 
 I may add that Neptune has an immense 
 appetite, and that he is always hungry; yet 
 knowing, as of reason, that the rabbits were 
 mine, and that I deemed it his duty to bring 
 them to me, though he had but recently learned 
 the duty at the time to which I refer, still, honest 
 to the very letter, '^ reason^^ prompted him to 
 keep the rabbit he had found for me, and his 
 deed was an act of ''• reason.'^'' What he did 
 was done for a future purpose, with a forethought 
 that had in 'perspective a just conclusion, and that 
 makes the rationality, the j)ossession of ^'reason,^^ 
 not mere '' instinct, ^^ by the dog. '^Instinct" 
 would have made him eat it. 
 
 I will now quote an instance of reason in a 
 retriever dog, though not of so pleasurable a 
 kind. It was a cold, frosty day in the New 
 Forest, at a time when the frost had been hard 
 enough to freeze the brooks when they were in 
 flood, and then, as the waters sank, to maintain 
 a fragile wall of ice at the sides — no doubt a 
 very unpleasant state of things for a dog when 
 
REASON IX TlIK DOG. 257 
 
 ordered to cross a stream, for the ice projecting 
 from- the banks was of sufficient dm^ability to 
 support liim till he came near the edge, when 
 it let him in over head and ears, and then, on the 
 ojDposite side, he had to face the keen edge of 
 the same obstacle from a more difficult point of 
 view. I killed a jack snipe, and he fell — or it 
 or she fell, as the sex, save by anatomical in- 
 vestigation, cannot be determined — on the other 
 side of the brook. My retriever saw it fall, and 
 simply stared upon the event, without stirring a 
 step to fetch it. Observing this unusual hesitation, 
 I ordered him to cross the water and bring back 
 the snipe, when, as he still hesitated, I put into 
 my look and manner — I never beat a dog — enough 
 to show him that I expected the most prompt 
 obedience, and that he had no choice left. Very 
 reluctantly, then, he obeyed me, and consumed 
 several minutes in trying the strength of the 
 ice, and looking for the easiest place. At last he 
 let himself into the water, swam across, and broke 
 his way to land through the ice on the other 
 side, picked up the jack snipe, and then stood 
 stock-still, and regarded me Avith a mournful and 
 sullen expression, as if asking me how I could 
 
 VOL. I. »s 
 
'2'^S FACT AGAINST FICTIOK. 
 
 find it in my heart to insist on sucli duty during 
 a time resemblino: that in the Polar re2:ions. To 
 me, thougli I had not Ijeen nuich in the 
 water, that day was piercingly cold, and I 
 naturally felt anxious to move on, so I made an 
 angry gesture for no more delay. I saw my 
 dog then tJiinhj and, perhaps, on the suggestion 
 of ^'reason," not of ^'instinct," look each way, 
 for the moment reflecting if it was possible for 
 him in any decent time to reach either of the 
 bridges lie knew of above and below. He came 
 to the conclusion that it was not, so, regarding me 
 steadfastly, after a pause, he- swallowed the jack 
 snipe as if it was a cordial pill, and then coolly, 
 but certainly very coldly, let himself off the bank 
 of ice into the water and came to me. Of course, 
 I gave him a cuff with my open hand, — it is not 
 the actual j^^in, it is the practical rebuke that 
 punislies or reforms the dog, — and turned away my 
 head that he might not see my laughter. 
 
 Again, with that dearest of all dear dogs, the 
 retriever Brutus, who would catch a thievish man 
 as he would a rabbit if I told him to do so, and 
 who was with me in tlie Far West, on one very 
 stormy day, when I lived at Winkton, with the 
 
REASON IN THE DOG. 259 
 
 Avon in considerable flood, lie was out with me, 
 and I killed a heron at a very long shot, who fell 
 on the other side the river, where the stream was 
 immensely rapid, and from the flood very wide. 
 
 On seeing the heron fall, he dashed in, and, 
 swimming across, picked up the bird, and then 
 came over a shallow a certain way into the river, 
 the wings of the heron blowing incommodiously 
 across his face. The breadth of the stream, its 
 force, and the immensely high wind, weighed on 
 his mind J and I saw him tliink as to how he could, 
 with the greatest ease, accomplish his purpose. 
 
 An idea never entered his honest, gallant, and 
 faithful head of blinking his duty, and I felt sure 
 he would never let that heron out of his mouth 
 till he gave it into my hand. Well, he stood for a 
 moment opposite me, — it was a pause of profound 
 mental and reasonable consideration ^ — and then he 
 set off at a full gallop for Christchurch Mill, which 
 was the nearest bridge at which he could cross 
 the water, and it was a mile or more off. Thinking 
 that it was the bridge that he was looking for, I 
 watched him down the meadows, when suddenly 
 he turned short to his left and bore down for the 
 
 river again, to the exact spot where some days 
 
 s 2 
 
260 FACT AGAINST FICTIO^^ 
 
 before I had had a punt stationed, and had crossed 
 tlie river witli him. The punt was no longer 
 tliere, so, after pausing for a minute, he retraced 
 his stej^s, and came back along the meadows 
 towards me. 
 
 Having found that there was nothing left for it 
 but to swim the river, he plunged in some way 
 *below where I stood and began to swim up stream 
 towards me against the tide and wind. The heavy 
 wings of the heron acted as adverse sails, and 
 impeded his way, even if he could have made any 
 progress against so strong a stream, — besides, the 
 large wings blinded him; still, there struggled the 
 gallant dog in mid-river, endeavouring to overcome 
 impossibilities, and making no progress whatever. 
 His strength was evidently failing, too, for, instead 
 of holding his own, the flood, the wings of the 
 heron, and the wind were mastering him, and he 
 was going down the stream instead of approaching 
 me. Changing my place to one immediately 
 opposite him, alas I did no good ; his eyes were 
 blinded, and he onl}^ remembered where he last 
 had seen me, so still he fought on against im- 
 possibilities. At that moment the wind caught 
 the wing of the heron next me, and, blowing 
 
KEASON IN THE DOG. 261 
 
 over his licacl, enabled liim to fix his eye on 
 me, when, though still by that time considerably 
 above him, I waved my hand to direct him across 
 the stream below me; he understood the sign 
 immediately, and obeyed. Dropping down, and 
 swimming slant ways across the stream, in a few 
 minutes after I received the heron, and was 
 kissing his broad, wet forehead, and putting on 
 the most joyous and thankful appearance I could 
 assume. 
 
 In this, again, there was ^^ reason," reason far 
 above mere ^^ instinct," for the dog remembered 
 a spot where for one day only there had been a 
 means of passing the river ; he thought it might 
 be there still; and, remembering it, he went to 
 ascertain the fact, but was disappointed. 
 
 Then, again, my splendid deer dog Smoker. 
 In my younger days at Cranford he lived with 
 Mrs. Berkeley and myself, and never left tlie 
 house unless he went out with either the one or 
 the other. If I rode out to make calls in the 
 neighbourhood, and he did not see me go, he 
 would presently awake from his sleep on tlie 
 rug, look round the room, and miss me. He 
 would then scratcli at the door for Mrs, Berkeley 
 
262 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 to let liim out into the hall and inspect the place 
 where I always put my hat ; if tliat was there, 
 he would return to the drawing-room and rest 
 contented; but if it was not there, then he would 
 invite Mrs. Berkeley to follow him to open the 
 doors, and thus go with her to the highest room 
 in the house, and, standing up with his fore-feet 
 on the window-sill, look each way in the hope 
 of seeing me. He would do the same if he saw 
 me take my hat in riding gear, and knew that I 
 was going out, and, having watched me till I 
 was out of sight, then he would return to the 
 drawing-room with Mrs. Berkeley and bo restfully 
 content. '^Instinct" did not teach him all this, 
 it was reason, it was thought — thought combined 
 for special object and particular purj^ose. 
 
 Brenda, my sweet little Brenda, wlio won a 
 prize at the coursing matches we used to have at 
 the Greeway, near Cheltenham, during the life 
 of my dear friend, the late William Lawrence, its 
 then owner, she had the gift of reason in the 
 most perfect and wonderful degree; and when 
 I had been in town for some days attending a 
 Parliamentary debate, and ]\Irs. Berkeley heard 
 me arrive at home, she liad simply to say to 
 
KEASON IN THE DOG. 263 
 
 Brenda, '^ ]3enny, your friend is come," — Brenda 
 ruslied to tlic windows to look out, to the doors to 
 be let out, and, witli a scream of delight, leaped 
 into ''her friend's" arms. 
 
 She once accompanied Mrs. ]3erkeley to Mude- 
 ford from Beacon Lodge, to see me embark to join 
 Lord Malmesbury's yacht, Mrs. Berkeley leading 
 her back to Beacon Lodge, or she would have 
 swam out to the yacht ; and all the days that I 
 was away, Brenda lay at the window which opened 
 out on steps to the lawn^ and watched every dis- 
 tant sail on the sea her high position commanded. 
 Poor, dear, darling, little, sweet, sylph-like Brenda ! 
 I shall never forget the rage of a fat, pompous, 
 drab-complexioned little man, on the platform at 
 Southampton, who, on coming to get into the car- 
 riage, saw it occupied by Brenda and myself She 
 was on the seat, gracefully looking out at the 
 window, and I was on the seat opposite to her. 
 '' Heyday I "he exclaimed^ looking from side to 
 side for an official ; '' a dog in a first-class carriage I 
 This mustn't be — this won't do ! " The officials 
 knew Brenda was there, and no one attended to 
 him. I was boiling at the fool's insolent demea- 
 nour, but choked myself to silence. At last, he 
 
2Q4: FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 exclaimed most pompously^ ^^ Here, porters, I'm 
 not a'oino' to travel with a cIog; in a first-class car- 
 riage! Here, I saj^" Whatever his ^' I say" was 
 to have been followed with, I cut it short, for I 
 could hold in no longer, and at once capped his 
 annunciation that lie would not travel with a dog, 
 by saying I was ^^ devilish glad of it, for I did not 
 wish him to give m/j dog his fleas." I thought he 
 would have fallen in an apoplectic fit, so purple did 
 his drab cheeks become with rage. ^' Fleas, sir," 
 he roared, ^' fleas — " But ^' ere the anvil of his 
 speech" received the ^^ further hammer," the whistle 
 sounded, a porter told him he would be left behind, 
 and I neither heard nor saw anything more of him. 
 Perhaps of all the extraordinary instances of in- 
 telligence I ever knew in dogs, the most extra- 
 ordinary was the one in which a retriever of mine 
 rescued a doe I had killed in the New Forest from 
 two men who had stolen her. It has been narrated 
 at length by me in a former work, ^ The Reminis- 
 cences of a Huntsman,' therefore it will serve all 
 purposes to tell it here in as few words as possible. 
 I had come to the Holmsly Walk to kill one doe, 
 and knowing that it would not take me long to 
 do, besides my rifle and Highland deer dog, I 
 
, ItEASON IN THE DOG. 205 
 
 had brought my shot gun, retriever, and terriers, 
 to try for woodcock and rabbit. 
 
 Havino* killed the doe and bled her, I left her 
 lying on the edge of some furze adjoining an open 
 bog, where she had fallen, and joined my man 
 with my other dogs. On joining him on the lull 
 where he stood which commanded the low ground 
 where I had left the deer, I cast a parting glance 
 to see that she was all safe, while a woodman had 
 gone to the lodge for a cart to fetch her away. 
 Fixing my eyes on the extreme end of the low 
 ground where it joined the furze before mentioned, 
 no view that I could take showed me anything 
 like a deer on the ground, and I told my servant 
 that she was either gone, or some impediment, not 
 to be accounted for, was between me and the deer. 
 ^^Go," I cried; ^^run as fast as you can to the spot 
 to which I point ; 3^ou will find either the doe there 
 or the blood. If you find that the doe is gone, 
 hold up your hat, and I shall understand you.'' 
 
 He ran there, at least half a mile or more, and 
 the hat was raised high into the air. 
 
 On this he hastened towards me, to give 
 me the meeting, one of the Avoodmen joining 
 me ere we met. On this we went back to 
 
266 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 tlio spot where the doer had boon loft, and^ 
 finding no signs of the venison, I ordered the two 
 men to run right and left to the summit of two 
 hills, to scan all the open ground which they 
 commanded, as it seemed impossible for any man 
 or men, in the time that had expired, to get 
 completely out of sight in one way or the other. 
 I had then all my dogs with me, the deer dog, 
 used to killing deer and to track a wounded deer, 
 my old retriever, and my terriers. When the two 
 men had started from the spot where the fresh 
 blood was, I appealed to the deer dog to trace the 
 dead deer ; he understood me, put his nose down 
 a little, but almost immediately returned to the 
 fresh blood, and, licking it, looked up in my face, 
 as much as to say, ^^Here the doe loas, what have 
 you done ivith her ? " All this time my old 
 retriever had been at my heels a passive spectator. 
 He had never in all his life seen a deer killed, 
 nor had he ever been called on to liunt one, nor 
 to trace the footsteps of a man. 
 
 Vexed immensely at losing the doe, and that 
 any thief should have ventured to touch one that 
 had fallen to my rifle, as from having been so 
 long in the forest they well knew I was not likely 
 
REASON IN THE DOG. 267 
 
 to submit tamely to any sort of imposition , I liad 
 just given up any hope in the deer dog, when 
 the old retriever came from my heels, got in front 
 of me, and looked up in my face with an expression 
 I shall never forget, and seeing that I observed 
 him, he went up to the pool of blood, put his 
 nose to the ground^ looked at me again, and 
 began to trot off through the furze and over the 
 heather in the oddest fashion I ever saw, not a 
 bit like his usual action on game, but more 
 resembling the pace of a mad dog : his head to 
 the ground, his stern listless and hanging down, 
 and his manner very unusual. At once I saw 
 that he had understood my loss, and had set about 
 to retrieve it. I followed him with a word of 
 encouragement, and he went for some distance 
 on the exact path my men had taken. When he 
 came to where they had separated, he paused, 
 tried a little way to the left and tlien to the right, 
 and then again looked at me to see if I observed 
 him. '^ Good dog*," I cried, '' where is it ? " 
 
 On this he asrain went off in the same odd 
 fashion, on a line that I knew neither of my men 
 had taken, and I saw at once that he not only 
 knew what he was about, but that as neither of 
 
268 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 my men liacl gone that way, lie must be on the 
 track of the thieves. Away he went, myself and 
 my other dogs following him, till he came down to 
 the railway line ; here he halted, puzzled for a 
 moment or two, then looking at me, he put his 
 nose down again and went ofP along the line, when, 
 looking some distance ahead, I saw three plate- 
 layers on the rails at work. He went from the 
 spot where he had checked at the Avires, about a 
 hundred yards more or less, and then stopped 
 short, turned round, and, without putting his nose 
 down, he went directly back to the place whence 
 he had thus diverged from his original line ; then 
 he put his nose down again, and took up the 
 J anning through the wires, and over the rails, and 
 jumjoed a deep wet ditch into the open forest on 
 the other side, and then he checked again. As I 
 followed him across the line over the soft sand 
 about the rails, I looked down, and, with intense 
 delight, saw that he absolutely trod in the footstep 
 of a man, and that two men had recently crossed 
 the line, and the smaller footsteps sank nmcli 
 more deeply into the ground than the larger ones. 
 
 Thus to me it was evident that the smaller 
 man, at all events, had a weight on his back, 
 
iJEASON IN THE J)OG. 2G9 
 
 and I felt certain that my clog was right. Follow- 
 in<i* him throim'h the wire while he was at a 
 check, and in getting over the ditch, of com'se I 
 kept my eyes about me, and at once saw the 
 reason Avhy the dog Avas at a loss. The two men, 
 fearing pursuit, and that they might he seen from 
 the hills, had gone into the ditch, and carried 
 their burden coasting the line of rails. On seeing 
 this I called to my dog, and, beckoning Avith my 
 hand, sent him into the ditch, and on the track 
 again. The pursuit continued thus for some dis- 
 tance, and then, leaving the ditch, ascending the 
 rising ground towards the notorious huts called 
 the village of Burley, the rise of the ground 
 capped by a considerable brake of furze. By this 
 time, loaded, as I was, with rifle and shot gun, 
 and ammunition for both, my dog had left me 
 some distance behind, and I miglit have been two 
 or three hundred yards in his rear, when I saw 
 him disappear in the high' gorse. He had not 
 entered the gorse long, when he emerged from 
 it at the spot where he went in, in the most 
 joyous way, impatient of the pace at which I was 
 coming up. Tlien he dashed into the gorse again, 
 and when he re-appeared, in the most extravagant 
 
270 FACT AGAIXST FICTION. 
 
 joy, I was close upon him. As I reacliecl him he 
 dashed out of sight again, but I followed his wake 
 by the shaking furze, and a little distance further 
 on, in a slightly open spot in the middle of the 
 cover, to my great joy I beheld him seated on 
 my dead doe. From the higher ground, where the 
 thieves had dropped their burden, I think they 
 must have seen me in pursuit ; be that as it may, 
 I got my deer. Leaving my dog in charge of the 
 venison, I then broke out of the cover, and, putting 
 my hat on the muzzle of my rifle, — or my hand- 
 kerchief, I forget which, — I Avaved it, and, as I 
 hoped to do, gained the attention of my man or 
 men. As soon as I had delivered the doe to their 
 custody, I went back, and, getting on the line, 
 made straight for the three platelayers before 
 mentioned, for I thought they must have seen the 
 thieves cross the line. It must have been an 
 unusual sight to see a man upon the line sur- 
 rounded by dogs ; but^ nevertheless, not a man lifted 
 his head to look at me, but each fellow became 
 immensely occupied Avith his work. Not a word 
 Avas spoken till I put my hand on their shoulders 
 one by one, aiid told tliem I arrested them for steal- 
 ing deer from the Crown. I inspected their clothes, 
 
REISON IN TIIH DOG. 271 
 
 and made tlicni sliow mo tlio nails in tlicir l)oots, 
 but not a nail tallied with those that my dog had 
 followed. On reaching home, and meeting with a 
 clever constable, I at once sent him to see what 
 he could make of it. He charged the men with 
 beino- concerned in the theft, ^^from information he 
 had received from others." ''Well," replied the 
 spokesman of the three, ' ' if they tell on us, we '11 
 tell on them, as they be the parties best to blame." 
 They then informed against the two thieves, and 
 they were apprehended, convicted, and sent to prison. 
 Now comes the most extraordinary fact, for 
 which it is totally impossible to account. When 
 my dog first checked at the rails, the two thieves, 
 knowing that the platelayers must see them, set 
 down the deer, and, leaving her there, they went 
 to the railway-men, and told them that if they 
 would say nothing of the matter, they should share 
 tlie venison. This suggestion being agreed to, the 
 thieves returned and resumeil their burden. Now 
 the curious thing that puzzles me is, how my dog, 
 after going about halfway from the spot where 
 the deer had been put down, to tlie platelayers j 
 discovered that the two men no longer carried 
 the deer. What could it have been that deceived 
 
272 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 liim for a time, or what then suggested to liim 
 tliat the weig"ht they had carried so far was 
 no longer on their shoulders ? No blood had been 
 falling from the deer, for the thieves had taken 
 the iDrecaution to tie up her throat Avith a hand- 
 kerchief; and therefore, versed as I am, and have 
 been, in every phase of scent pertaining to the 
 chase, I cannot imagine how the dog came to 
 know that the men no longer bore a cold carcase, 
 from which neither breath nor blood came, and 
 which did not touch the ground. 
 
 Now there was not mere brute instinct in what 
 tliis dog did. Instinct could not have suggested 
 to him to do a thing for which he had not been 
 intended and never taught to do, nor could mere 
 instinct have induced him to gather from his 
 master's looks the loss that master had sustained, 
 and the wish that master had to trace the thieves 
 who had stolen his jjroperty. In many instances, 
 in animals and birds, there exists, more or less, 
 the faculty of reason; and man, in my opinioUj 
 has no more just ground for claiming for himself 
 an exclusive heaven, than he has to deem all 
 other brains tlian iiis own as simply gifted with 
 instinctive powers. 
 
KEASON IN THE DOG. 273 
 
 As to the facility of scent, as I liavo elscwliere 
 shown, there is no accounting for it; the dead 
 deer proved that it was not breath, nor was it a 
 trace . afforded 1)y blood, — the footsteps at starting 
 of four men, three of them strangers to the dog, 
 had trodden for a space the same path, and were 
 mingled together, all starting from the same pool 
 of blood ; yet the dog's fine and strange dis- 
 crimination detected the footsteps of the man 
 who carried the thing his master liad lost — that 
 thing the dog had not seen killed nor beheld 
 it in his master's possession. He had never hunted 
 its scent, and yet for miles, and through and over 
 every obstacle, he knew the footstej^s of tlie 
 tliief who had committed the dishonest act, and 
 overtook the stolen treasure. 
 
 In discussions on scent in tlie Field newspaper 
 some years ago, a writer, who really knew very 
 little of the matter, asserted it to 1)e his belief that 
 a wounded animal or bird trying to escape capture, 
 and, therefore, in terror, — to use this writer's own 
 terms, — ^Miad the power of withholding its scent," 
 or, in other words, shutting off steam, or closiug 
 the valve, with a view to escape the keen per- 
 ception of a dog's nose. Now we all know that 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
274 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 
 
 terror on many creatures, not excepting' men, lias 
 precisely tlio reverse effect, and tliat instead of 
 failing, tlie aroma referred to increases ; but such a 
 foolish assertion as to a j^ower to ^ ' withhold scent " 
 is scarce worth even a short notice. 
 
 I saw my red Irish setter, ^' Nellie," only three 
 days before thus jmtting pen to paper, in thick 
 gorse as high as my waist in some places, but 
 worse from its short dense thickness in others, 
 endeavouring to retrieve for me a landrail whose 
 wing was broken. I stood still, and said nothing 
 after the words to ^' seek dead." Oh, that I could 
 ^^ding" these Avise words, ^'Let him, or let her, 
 alone," into men's foolish heads, when they tell the 
 canine wiser ones, the retrievers, to look for a fallen 
 bird. Surrounded l)y extreme diffi'culties, — of 
 position, severity of cover, and distracting scents 
 of uninjured game, — a retriever's mind should be 
 left to its full exercise as well as his nose ; for, if 
 tracing a stricken but running bird, brain and nose 
 ought to go together.* Nellie knew she was trying 
 to retrieve a landrail, just as well as I knew that a 
 landrail had fallen to my gun ; and, having kept 
 
 * " Nellie," this darling of my leisure hours, died of a complicated 
 disorder, external and internal, in the close of the winter of 1874. 
 
KEA80N IN THE DOG. 275 
 
 licr oyo on tlio exact spot, she wont tlioro and 
 fastened to the scent slie expected. The gorse was 
 thick enoug'h to have held and concealed a thousand 
 rails, but wlien slie came to '^the fall," slie worked 
 on. Eabbits crossed the line of her quest here and 
 there, but she knew that they were not tlie landrail, 
 and heeded them not at all. Man could give her no 
 useful direction, and tlierefore, unimpeded by extra- 
 neous counsel and anxious interruption, Nellie, 
 let alone ^ sometimes under, sometimes on, the thick 
 furze, fought on through every severe difficulty, and, 
 with triumph in lier frowning little brows, delivered 
 the bird she had sought into my loving and' caress- 
 ing hand. Oh, tliat I could impress this golden 
 rule on all my brother sportsmen, and on all game- 
 keepers, who seldom are sportsmen, never to put a 
 retriever on a running bird unless it is intended 
 that, go where he will, the retriever should get him ! 
 For ever, except at home, I am doomed to see an 
 ass of a keeper go up to tlie fall of a bird and bid 
 his retriever to find him. If the bird is not a 
 ruimer, why then let the man pick him up ; if he 
 is a runner, why then, // you put tlio dog on Iiis 
 traces, in Heaven's name do all you can to let 
 
 him use his own curious discretion^ and let him 
 
 T 2 
 
27G TACT AGA1^ST FICTION. 
 
 trace tlio strickou bird even to the end of the 
 world, if he goes there. Dogs, accustomed in this 
 ^vay to use their own discretion as well as their 
 nose, l)ecoine perfectly trustworthy in covers full 
 of game. 
 
 At Cranford, when His Royal Highness the late 
 Duke of York was shooting there, my old famous 
 favourite. Smoker, so often mentioned, saw a 
 pheasant fall ; and having been sent to fetch that 
 pheasant by me, after going a certain distance, 
 stopped short of the fall, and came back to my heels. 
 The fact was, the pheasant had fallen among a 
 lot of unflushed birds, and Smoker would not put 
 them up. 
 
 The same mental and veasonahle discrimination 
 was, in after years, manifested by Smoker's grand- 
 son ^' Wolf," while I resided at Teftbnt Manor- 
 House, in Wiltshire. There were circular beds of 
 shrubs and flowers on the lawn, and into them I 
 had boon in tlie ]ia1)it of sending Wolf to drive 
 out rabbits. This he had continued to do for the 
 earlier j^art of spring and summer. One day, later 
 in the summer, I sent Iiim into a large bed of shrubs 
 to do tlie usual thing : lie went into tlic slnnibs a 
 little way, made a peculiar sort of distasteful snap 
 
REASON IN TlIK DOG. 277 
 
 with his teeth, as was his habit Avhcu he did not 
 like a thing, and returned with an odd '' sheepish" 
 look to my heels. The fact was, a lot of liand- 
 reared young pheasants had been down from the hill 
 that bounded the lawn, where they had been kept 
 with their coops, for the lirst time, and there 
 might have been from twenty to thirty Avlien I 
 sent Wolf in to drive out the rabbit in the bed 
 of shrubs. From the time these birds were hatched, 
 Wolf had lain by my gun resting on a coop, and 
 seen me feed them, and the care I took that neither 
 AVolf nor myself should approach them incautiously. 
 It Avas from this that he reasonably came to com- 
 prehend that these young birds Avere on no account 
 to be disturbed, and hence his refusal to go among 
 them after the rabbit. It was this same dog who, 
 while Ave shot the belt of hrs at Teffont, remem- 
 bered a Avounded pheasant that floAV back, but for 
 which he Avas forbidden to go, because he Avas more 
 immediately Avantcd. When Ave came to the end 
 next the village, and Avere counting our bag, many 
 of which Wolf had picked up after having seen the 
 wounded bird go back, I missed Wolf, Avlien, on 
 asking if anybody kncAV Avliere he Avas, old Barnes, 
 my keeper, said he had gone back to the further 
 
2TS FACT AGAIXST FICTIOX. 
 
 end of the firs. lie had done so to some rational 
 purpose, for he soon was seen returning with the 
 Avounded plieasant that liad some time before flown 
 hack, and which lie in his own reason remembered, 
 and without bidding went to fetch. 
 
 It is instinct that takes the carrier-pigeon, from 
 whatever distance, to her home ; it is instinct that 
 gives the dog the same power of direction, and 
 induces a young foxhound, if lost on the first day 
 of his going out cub-hunting, perhaps a long way 
 from his kennel and in a strange country, to come 
 directly home : not hy the roads over which ho 
 had proceeded to the distant woods with his hunts- 
 num in the morning, but, like the carrier-pigeon, 
 he comes direct as the crow flies to the desired 
 and loved spot. I used to see this with hounds 
 admirably illustrated Avhile huntinijc from Harold 
 Hall, in Bedfordshire. If a young hound was lost 
 on the Hanger Wood, or Ampthill side of tlie 
 country, to come home to liis kennel at Harold 
 Hall by the roads would be tln^ough the village 
 of Pavenham, and through Carlton over Harold 
 Bridge, and tlien turning througli one field on 
 his left, he would find the hall and the kennel 
 tandhig on that, the Harold side of the river. 
 
iu:a.^on IX Tin: Doa. 270 
 
 A young lioimdj liOAVCver, nc\'or did this : lio 
 iisod to come direct through the fields, leaving 
 Carlton village and the road he had left home by 
 just on liis right, and come down direct upon his 
 kennel, only on the wrong side of the river. Then 
 I have known a young hound to sit down iind 
 howl till he gained the notice of his huntsman, 
 reluctant, when tired, again to swim a river lie 
 probably had swam before he had got to his 
 destination. 
 
 Now, as to the fact of burying a bone, that is 
 more an instinct of the common sort than from a 
 reasonable motive. I have known dogs to bury 
 rats — and particularly cats — when they have killed 
 them. This arose from no intention of exhuming 
 them again, but from an instinctive idea that they 
 ought to 1)0 put out of sight. 
 
 With bones the same. I have known dogs bury 
 them, and never return to look for them again, 
 though often passing that spot. The fox, too, will 
 bury most of the things he kills, and never seek 
 to touch them more ; and that is, in hunting 
 countries, a very fortunate thing, as some keepers 
 are apt to set traps in anticipation of his return. 
 Though reason and instinct arc very nearly allied^ 
 
280 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 still an observant person, tliorouglily versed in 
 animal life, can soon see where the one ends 
 and the other begins. The bird in the Zoological 
 Gardens in London that with his foot tries the 
 temjDcraturc of the heating grass that covers the 
 co:2:s he is desirous of hatchinii', and increases the 
 quantity of hot grass or diminishes it as he deems 
 requisite, that bird is possessed of reason, because 
 there is an absolute learning, and reasonable thought, 
 inculcated by Nature, in what he does. The salmon 
 is led, by the instinctive desire to reach higher waters, 
 to attempt to approach them in only one way, and 
 that is, up the deepest bed to the foot of tlie main 
 fall in the river, and if that fall is not sufficient 
 for him to get up, then he will instinctively wait 
 for a ^' spate" or flood, and will not reasonably look 
 for any corner made for his ascent by human and 
 ignorant hands, in no way compatible with his 
 ^^ instinct." Tlicre never was so great a farce as 
 that of the salmon ladder, as first adjusted by 
 Messrs. Fennel, Buckland and Co. I had a fishery 
 on the Avon, as I have before alluded to, when 
 the foolish ladders for creatures without legs were 
 first set u]). I always laughed at and resisted 
 their imposition, and people have since come 
 
liKASON IN TIIK Di)G. 281 
 
 to my opinion in respect to that matter. To 
 return to dog, the same })rcsentiment of imme- 
 diate danger or suddenly ajoproacliing misfortune, 
 which most certainly at times have throAvn the dim 
 forecast of impending deatli over tlie reasoning 
 mind of man, have, under similar circumstances, 
 dwelt in the gifted brains of dogs. My own 
 retriever, on that, to me, wretched day, when he 
 accidentally died by my hand, Avent, not more 
 than an hour before he was wanted to go out 
 shooting, and hid himself in a strange place, and 
 lay down by the side of the road, and close to 
 labouring men, strange to him, and whose class he 
 always detested. 
 
 He was reported by a passer-by as being there, 
 was sent for, and he came and did his duty as well 
 as ever, until the moment he sprang from behind 
 me, and underneath the barrels of my gun. At 
 the first discharge he leaped at the bank Ijefore 
 me, unmindful of his duty not to go until he was 
 told to do so, and from his unexpected rise beneath 
 the barrels, the discharge of the second barrel just 
 caught the extreme edge of the back of the skull, 
 and killed liim. In another instance. Bull, a iight- 
 hig dog, was so disgusted if any one danced before 
 
282 FACT AGAINST FICTIOX. 
 
 liiiii, that lie wont and sat clown witli his head 
 concealed beneath a tablecloth or sofa-cover, and 
 nothing hurt him more than to pretend to 
 laugh at him. That had nothing to do with 
 instincts inculcated by nature ; in fact, were I 
 to recount all the strange things relating to dogs 
 that I have witnessed in my life, I should fill more 
 volumes than my publisher would purchase. Not 
 wishino' to have that said of me which was said 
 by Mr. Drummond, in the House of Commons, in 
 regard to Macaulay's ^History of England,' viz., 
 that it was an ^'amusing fiction," I abstain from 
 matters of mere hearsay, and only vaite of things 
 that have come within my personal observation, 
 and arising from mj studies of the gifted canine 
 race. Those studies have led me to know that 
 if there is such a thing as ^' mesmerism," dogs 
 are possessed of it as well as some of the human 
 race. Of this I offer the following proof. My 
 greyhound Brenda used to sleep in my roonij 
 and if she was unwell in the night, and wanted to 
 be taken out, she used to come to my bed-side, 
 and look fixedly and intently upon me, without 
 anv noise whatever. From tlie soundest sleep, 
 when sleep always came on '^ down}^ pinions" to 
 
REASON IN Till': DOG. 
 
 
 close my eyes, I liavo first become conscious of 
 uiiaccomitcil)lc restlessness, and, on opening my 
 eyes, by tlic liglit of tlie niglit-lamp I luive 
 fomid Brenda seated by me, intently gazing at 
 me. So often had it liappencd, perliaps once or 
 twice in two vears, tliat the moment I saw her I 
 knew what she said, and complied with her wishes. 
 The same sort of mesmerism I have much more 
 often seen exist in '^ Skim," a favourite deerhomid 
 of mine, the daughter of Smoker. . Skim, and a 
 lovely little white terrier, called '' Cress," had two 
 baskets to sleep in in my room, both made neat 
 and nice, and according to their size. At times, 
 when Skim chose to lie on tlie . rug by the fire- 
 place, or on the carpet. Cress used to leave her 
 little basket and get into Skim's, as small ''swells" 
 do into the great boots of the Household Brigade 
 of Cavalry, under a false impression that they 
 become tall by association. When Skim returned to 
 her basket, and found the little, round, comfortable 
 Cress rolled up in a ball in the middle of it, and 
 as fast asleep as such/a^ things so often are, Sknn 
 used simply to go up to her bed and stand stock- 
 . still, neither growling nor making any noise what- 
 ever, and in a sliort time Cress used to Avake up 
 
284: FACT AGAIXST FICTlOX. 
 
 under tliis fixed looJ:, vacate Skim's nest, and go 
 to licr own. 
 
 Instances of this mesmeric kind I have very 
 frequently seen between those two dear things, 
 much more frequently, I am happy to say, than 
 betw^een Brenda and myself. 
 
 We may, indeed, simply say to those who think 
 or speak disparagingly of the canine race, that 
 there are ^ ' more things in heaven and earth than 
 are dreamed of in their philosophy." 
 
 Men, often times the vilest sinners, arc shaken 
 by the hand by prison chaplains at the foot of the 
 gallows, and assured of an ^^ exclusive heaven;" 
 but I doubt if their future would be half so fair 
 as that assigned to dogs, whose hearts, wdiose 
 affection, faith, and honesty, were bound in one 
 bmve attachment; that lived through life and ended 
 but in death » 
 
TITK USK OF DOGS. 285 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE USE OF DOGS. 
 
 Two Irish Setters, Nellie and Ben— Sensibility of Dogs to Praise 
 and Blame— Their Appreciation of Just and Kind Treatment — 
 On Training: them — Instance of the Exercise of Mind in a 
 Setter — Good Breakers difficult to find — Amusing Error of an 
 Am.erican Author in reference to the Duke of Gordon's Grey- 
 hounds—The Proper Use of Setters and Pointers — Intelligence 
 of my Setters, Quail and Chance— Folly and Cruelty in the 
 Use of the "Dog Whip." 
 
 In writing of tlio capal^ilities of clogs, I cannot do 
 better, by way of continuous illustration, tlian 
 refer to tlie action and capacities of tlie two 
 setters over whom I had been in the habit of 
 shooting — the red Irish setters, Nellie and Ben. 
 They were most kindly given to me, as puppies, 
 by Major Spring, when my kennel had loeen deso- 
 lated by a fatal phase of distemper, such as I liad 
 never before known. Nothing could arrest its 
 course, and three perfect setters, the descendants of 
 my famous old Chance, fell victims to the virulence 
 
286 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 of that disorder. I thought they had liad the dis- 
 temper, and therefore had not had them vaccinated. 
 
 I never saw two creatures, brother and sister, 
 so attached to each otlier as Nellie and Ben 
 were. They delighted in rushing off, when the game 
 was killed, at the word, '^ Seek dead,-' and for a long 
 time, if Ben found the hird first (I speak of 
 partridge or snijoe), and had it in his mouth, ho 
 invariably resigned it to Nellie to l3ring to me, 
 accompanying her side by side, witli whiat they 
 so evidently conceived a treasure. 
 
 After shooting over them for some time, Ben 
 became more fond of me, and more alive to the 
 gratulations I invariably bestow on a dog when 
 he is successful in any endeavour to please me, 
 and hence he desired to bring the bird back to me 
 in his own mouth, instead of surrendering it to 
 Nellie. To this arrangement Nellie would not 
 consent, so they came to an understanding on the 
 matter, — they both brouglit the 1jird, — tlie body 
 of the bird in Nellie's mouth, and tlie tij) of tlie 
 wing or foot tightly held by Ben. When the bird 
 was delivered to me not a feather was ruffled. In 
 cases where two birds in different directions have 
 fallen to a left and right sliot, or when some one 
 
THE USE OF DOGS. 287 
 
 has been sliootino^ witli me, and from tlie same 
 rise birds liave fallen in different directions, Nellie 
 and Ben advisedly, and of tlieir own purpose, when 
 told to ^Sseek dead," went for the different birds; 
 and tliis is remarkable, because the purj^ose to 
 secure the fallen l)irds is reasonably and stra- 
 tegically evident. 
 
 It is a very great mistake not to let your dogs 
 claim all the j^^^'^'^sure they can when working 
 for the gun. To point, to kill, and to pick up 
 the bird is to them a triumph — the picking up 
 tlie most so ; and, unlike mankind, constant 
 triumphs and undeviating success tend to the 
 obedient perfection of the malleable mind of the 
 dog, whereas in man, perhaps, they would tend 
 to tlie simple creation of a puppyish satiety. 
 
 The first thino- in breakino- a do^' is to let liim 
 be thoroughly convinced of loJiat it is you v:ant. 
 Then, when he imderstands 3"ou, when he does 
 what you want, be imfnensely lavish of your 
 approbation and caresses. As I have elsewhere 
 said, I have seen a fool, miscalled a ^^ keeper," 
 rate and kick a retriever, wlien, under immense 
 difficulty of Avater, snow, and ice, he fetched a 
 wild duck from the other side of a river, and, having 
 
t ■ 
 
 288 FACT AGAIN.ST IICTION. 
 
 laid it at tlio fool's feet, sliook liis wot and froezing 
 coat so as to sprinkle tlie tiling called a nian with 
 water. Any dog is mucli too sensible to deem 
 this thoughtless brutality as any recompense for 
 his pains ; and if sensible dogs of this kind are 
 to be assigned to senseless fools, the dog Avill not 
 be of half the value to his master that thoughtful 
 and kind treatment would have made him. 
 
 I deeply regret to say that the immortal bard, 
 Shakspere, — said to be a sportsman j but, from all 
 we can gather, he was only a poacher or deer- 
 stealer, — speaks disparagingly of the beautiful com- 
 panion of our leisure hours, and, indeed, con- 
 temptuously enough, when he says, '^ Tlirow physic 
 to the dogs, I'll none of it." ''A hang-dog 
 look " is commonly in the mouths of foolish 
 j)eo2)le ; and the same idiotic feeling may be 
 traced in the remonstrative expression of ^'You 
 treat me like a do^:.-' 
 
 I kiss the smooth foreheads of my dogs, and, 
 adopting an expression usually applied to a 
 caressing dog, I '^fawn" on them as much as 
 they faT\m on me. My setter Nellie, her face, 
 when she brought me a partridge, landrail, or 
 snipe, was, as she held it up to me^ redolent of 
 
THE usi: or dogs. 289 
 
 hapj^y (Icliglit. Pleased as I may ho with Iier 
 
 gifted behaviour in finding the hird, I add to 
 
 tliat sensation an expression of liappiness similar 
 
 to hers, in order to teach lier that I reciprocate 
 
 her feelings to their fullest extent. 
 
 To l3ring a retriever out, led by a keeper in 
 
 a leash, to find the stricken-down birds dead or 
 
 crijij^led, is inflicting a jealous agony on the 
 
 setters or pointers who have taken the trouble to 
 
 And and bring the gun up to the game. Setters 
 
 will more often bring the game tlian pointers ; 
 
 but if a pointer is pro2)erly l^roken, and then 
 
 sensibly and encouragingly used, he needs no 
 
 other retriever than himself. He will trace or 
 
 foot a running bird, and catch him, or he will 
 
 find a dead bird ; and all that man has then to do 
 
 is. to pick the bird up and put him in the bag. 
 
 It is the lamentable fashion to call any dog 
 
 with a rough coat, and who will fetch a stick out 
 
 of the water, a retriever. 
 
 A retriever, |)c^/' sr, is not wanted with setters 
 
 or pointers properly broken and continuously and 
 
 carefully used, for it is, it can bo, and it ouglit to 
 
 be, their diitij to find anything that is down to 
 
 the gun on which tlie}^ are attending, and it is 
 VOL. I. u 
 
200 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 offensive to tlieir sensitive minds to call in extra 
 assistance. 
 
 It has been my lot very frequently to listen to 
 tlie dogmas deliberately laid down by many noble 
 lords and gentlemen as to Avliat their pointers or 
 setters ought or ought not to be allowed to do. 
 One learned Pundit says, '^ Never let your setters 
 or pointers have snipes or landrails shot to them ; 
 it teaches them to ^ puzzle.' " Another learned 
 man assures you '^ that you should never shoot 
 hares or rabbits before your setters or pointers, 
 or they will always be looking for fur instead of 
 feather I " 
 
 My reply to these fallacies is this. I go out to 
 enjoy myself, and, therefore, to shoot anything I 
 please, and I fully expect my dogs to be as 
 anxious to find, and as careful to point, anything 
 from a landrail, quail, hare, or rabbit, up to a 
 blackcock, grouse, partridge, or pheasant. 
 
 My setters will not of themselves run a Iiare or 
 a ral)bit, but, if I see that I wound oitlier, I can 
 bid tlicm ^' seek dead," and tliey will run tlie line 
 of citlier till tliey find it dead or so crippled that 
 they can catch it, and then they bring it back 
 to me. 
 
THE USE OF DOGS. 291 
 
 One thing I always insist on, when in hcatli 
 or fiirzo I can't see the shot that is made, and that 
 is, that while the setters are down to the discharge 
 of tlie gun, tlie shooter shall tell me if ho lias 
 womided or missed. If missed, I don't tell my 
 dogs to ''seek dead," for, as the}^ f^^^ty i'gI}' on 
 my supposed better judgment, if told to ''seek 
 dead,'^ they deem the game, w^hatever it is, is 
 wounded, and thus, in full reliance on my word, 
 if they were to be deceived, they may go for a 
 mile footing a hare they have no chance of 
 catching. 
 
 To establish a full reliance on the truth of each, 
 as between man and dog, is, or ought to be, the 
 grand attempt of the real sportsman and his 
 dog, the sportsman and his hound. They 
 should love each other, miderstand each other, 
 and have a full reciprocity in the pleasures of 
 the day. 
 
 While on this subject, the capabilities and 
 wondrous discriminative powers of dogs properly 
 taught and judiciously used, I will refer to a 
 circumstance which occurred in the earliest part 
 of September 1871, at Effingham Hill, the resi- 
 dence of my sister, the Lady Caroline Maxse. I 
 
 u2 
 
292 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 was returning from sliooting, and had just readied 
 tlie liousCj when a covey of hand-reared partridges, 
 which were feeding on the gravel at the portico, 
 came rmming along the road to meet my setters, 
 who might have been thirty or forty yards in 
 front of me. I neither called nor whistled, but 
 watched with extreme curiosity and deliglit the 
 upshot of this meeting. 
 
 The setters had picked up many birds on that 
 same day, some few of them winged and runners ; 
 but now, on their return home, they met a covey 
 of birds openly confessed, and running towards 
 them face to face. 
 
 Tlie setters at first put on a look of extreme 
 caution, and almost came to a point; they then 
 stood still, though not at a 'pointy and stared at 
 the birds, and the birds stood very affrighted and 
 stared at them ; they thus regarded each other a 
 moment or two, when the setters put on smiling 
 and good-humoured faces, wagged their sterns at 
 the covey, and looked back at me. All I said 
 was ^^ darlings.'' The setters went on; the partridges 
 on seeing tlie setters advance moved out of the 
 carriage wa}^ a few yards into the grass of the 
 park, and, without further notice, the setters pre- 
 
THE USE OF DOGS. ^2do 
 
 ceding mc, wc went on our way to the com- 
 fortable kennel. 
 
 The occurrence I have thus narrated o^ves its 
 origin not to the mere teaching of man, it comes 
 from use, and the exercise of mind in the setter, 
 from capacity uf thought, not severity of punish- 
 ment by the whip ; the latter tending to destroy, 
 not to teach, and to injure the temper instead of 
 teaching obedience. 
 
 It is very easy to spoil either setters or pointers 
 by over -breaking. What I mean by that ex- 
 pression is to render them by discipline mere 
 galloping puppets, or anything else except dogs 
 to find game, and to whom game may be killed. 
 
 I have seen dogs under this description of 
 ^M3reaking" ranging and quartering their ground 
 beautifully, and ready at the slightest lifting of 
 their breaker's hand to fall down and lie still as 
 if they had been shot. These dogs so taught 
 were hunting by eye and leg; they were looking 
 for, and dependent on, their breaker's hand. They 
 were not using their minds and noses to find and 
 point their game ; all they had been taught to do 
 was to watch, and, so to speak, ^^back" their 
 breaker. They had no knowledge of the likely 
 
2d^ FACT AGAINST FlCTlOX. 
 
 haunt of game, nor did they make the best use 
 of their wondrous powers of scent, for their eyes, 
 their legs, and their ears were all their breaker 
 seemed to require, and their mind had no chance 
 left to direct tlie^use of the nose. 
 
 I regret to say that the custom of shooting to 
 dogs has become obsolete, so much so, that in 
 the spring of 1872 I could not find a breaker 
 to whom in confidence I could entrust a beautiful 
 young setter bitch. 
 
 There is no sort of dog, thoroughbred or 
 ]nongrel, that has not a more or less good nose, 
 and the will within him to make use of it after 
 game, if the knowledge of his own possessions is 
 inculcated into his head and brought out by being 
 called into use. Thus I have taught a beautiful 
 little Italian greyhound, Brenda, to leave the warmth 
 of the rug and the fire, the soft cushions of her 
 lady's sofa, and to hunt rabbits to my gun out of 
 thick furze by the seaside. I have taught tlie 
 best bred greyhounds for hare. My darling 
 Brenda was one of them ; lier public trophies 
 deck my sideboard now. And I have done the 
 same by my deer greyhounds, to hunt for game, 
 to retrieve game, and to work for wikl fowl on 
 
THE USE OF DOGS. 295 
 
 tlie water, as well as for game on land. The same 
 service I have induced from a Ijull and mastiff 
 dog ; and though my hare greyhound so taught 
 would hill rats, and tliough my deer game-liounds 
 would kill, and have killed, both fox and hadger, 
 not one of them but had, with game or eggs, the 
 softest possible mouth ; and so gentle was tlie 
 mouth of Skim, the daughter of Smoker, that if slie 
 found a bantam's eg^^ in tlie garden in front of 
 the drawing-room window at Harold Hall, she 
 would pick it up and take it in to her mistress, 
 with the tender shell unharmed. This gentleness 
 abandoned her one morning, when my friend, 
 Mr. St. Leger, had come to hunt with me when 
 the frost was too hard for hounds to go out, for, 
 unused to do2:s as much as Skim was unused to 
 rude treatment, on seeing her stretched that frosty 
 morning at full length before the drawing-room 
 fire, and wanting more room himself to stand 
 before it, he pushed her with his foot to ^^get 
 out.'' The push was instantly resented, for Skim 
 seized his almost new red coat by the tail, and 
 very nearly tore it from the waist buttons. This 
 gentlest of all gentle things, when kindly used, 
 fought a duel with a large badger I had taken. 
 
^96 TACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 and, single-lianclcd, shook her foe in a very sliort 
 time to death. I had also a bull and mastiff dog 
 wlio would Avork for game for me on land or 
 water ; terriers and lurchers tlie same ; and, in 
 short, all dogs can be induced to do anything that 
 by '^ reason " is possible. 
 
 It is a very vulgar error to suppose that gre}^- 
 liounds, as contrasted with other dogs, are deficient 
 in mind and incapable of the most faithful attach- 
 ment ; my life among them has proved to me the 
 contrary. 
 
 An American author, I forget his name, when 
 '' gleaning notes" in this country many years ago, 
 fell into an amusing error when he attempted to 
 descant on and to describe the greyhounds of the 
 then Duke of Gordon. The American asserted, in 
 his publication, that if any of the greyhounds of 
 His Grace evinced the slightest attachment to any 
 one 2)erson, or manifested more sagacity than the 
 generality of their fellows, for that reason they 
 were immediately ordered by the Duke to be taken 
 from the kennel and hung. 
 
 Now, His Grace of that day Avas the last man iti 
 the United Kin<alom to do anv such foolish or 
 cruel thing. American travellers in this country 
 
THE USE OF DOCS. 297 
 
 add to tlicir inclination to tlic marvellous^ by catch- 
 ing at any sort of straw that current or wind 
 sends or brings in their direction, and are but too 
 delighted to pin any sort of delusion that has the 
 remotest circumstance to found itself upon to the 
 narrative of their adventures in the Old World. 
 
 The same sort of foundation in this instance is 
 attached to circumstances as that on which rests 
 the habit of calling every mad dog a hydrophobic 
 dog, and asserting, because the dog whose malady 
 was mistaken drank water, or attempted to drink 
 it, that all hydrophobic dogs would do the same. 
 
 The real fact as to the drafting of greyhounds 
 for faults or too nuicli wisdom was, that a grey- 
 hound kept for ^^ public running'' was not worth 
 keeping if he selected to ^' run cunmng." To 
 " run cunning" means to w^ait on the dog matched 
 against him ; not to try conclusions of speed with 
 his opponent, Init to ^' lie by" for ^Hhe turn," 
 letting the other dog do all the w^ork, and running 
 on purpose second to him, for the desire of flinging 
 in and catching the hare when 'Hurned." A grey- 
 hound resorting to this cunning trick is no use as 
 far as running in public for a prize goes, an}^ more 
 than a skirting foxhound is for assisting tlie pack 
 
298 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 to kill tlicir fox. A judge at a coursing' nrjcting 
 would at once decide against a crafty runner. 
 
 The use of setters and pointers now-a-days is 
 very little understood, and I have really been asked 
 by sensible men on all other points, '' What was the 
 use of taking out a brace of setters or pointers when 
 one would do just as well ?" 
 
 The real utility of this class of sporting dog is 
 to clear the ground in front of a sportsman by 
 ranging it widely and Avell, crossing tlie field from 
 hedge to hedge ; not the one after the other, but 
 each dog hunting on his own account, ready at the 
 same time to " back" a jjoint if made by his com- 
 panion, or to stop at the holding up of his master\s 
 hand, with the word '' Ho " sharply said to demand 
 the dog's attention. The wind being given to the 
 dogs, up-wind of course, if any change was needed 
 in this direction, it should be brought about by a 
 Vv^ave of the hand, not by that cockney thing the 
 miserable '^ pea-whistle," which, liaving been used 
 by men from time imjnemorial to their dogs in 
 hunting game, is as Avell known to all old birds as 
 any other sign of danger, which gives them cause 
 to fly or run. 
 
 It is very easy to over-break dogs, and to make 
 
THE USE OF DOGS. '299 
 
 tliom mere creatures of art, who range the fields witli 
 no other idea in their heads than the pea-whistle 
 and a sign from their master's hand, at which, 
 when raised, they will dro23 to the instant. 
 
 These dogs so taught are really not using their 
 wits for the selection of likely ground and finding 
 game; they are hunting simply to whistle and 
 hand, and, instead of using their noses, are using 
 their eyes. 
 
 A setter or pointer should know what he is try- 
 ing to find by his nose, and, with due obedience to 
 his master, think of nothing else but the birds that 
 are lying upon the ground. 
 
 At times when birds are wild and running*, then 
 the perfection of the dog's sagacity comes forth in 
 the most beautiful and reasoning Avay possil^le. If 
 he winds the birds and points, and then finds 
 that they are not hjinr/ but running away, he will 
 quit his point, and taking a considerable circuit so 
 as to escape the position of being behind the game, 
 and at the same time not to put the game to wing, 
 he will get before or head them, and thus 2)ut them 
 between him and the gun, in a position in which 
 they are sure to lie, for the simple reason that they 
 don't know which way to run. The thing that I 
 
300 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 have iiovor been able satisfactorily to account for 
 is, how the sensible dog makes out the distance to 
 go in getting round his birds, for he changes places 
 and gives them, if they had noses, which they have 
 not, his wind instead of keeping theirs. Yet I have 
 had both pcnnters and setters avIio never were at 
 fault under these difficult circumstances. 
 
 No dog can be taught by man to do this : the 
 knowledge is acquired by ^^ reason" and by practice, 
 and by permitting the sagacious dog to use his 
 mysterious gifts to com2)ass that which he knows 
 his master desires. 
 
 Setters and pointers should always be allowed 
 to retrieve their o^xn shot e^ame. A do": to retrieve 
 his game need not of necessity bring it, but he 
 ought to be permitted at the words to '' seek dead," 
 and to take his nuister to it, as lie deems it a 
 delightful reward to his steadiness, sagacity, and 
 labour; and he hates to see, and is jealous of, a 
 strange dog brought up to do for him that which 
 he could do, and delights to do, for his master and 
 himself. 
 
 In the New Forest, where there were much cover 
 and water, as neither of the red setters, '^Chance " 
 and 'K^uail," would bring their ganu', I was obliged 
 
THE VSE OF DOGS. 301 
 
 to liavo a retriever. I have, in bad-scenting clays, 
 seen the retriever fail to find dead game, eagerly 
 watched as he always was by those two setters, 
 while they sat down for the loading of the gun. 
 If the retriever returned without his bird, of what- 
 ever sort it might be, both those bright-eyed, 
 intelligent faces were turned at once on me to ask 
 permission to go and do tchat the retriever had 
 failed to do; and Avhen they got the word their 
 j)roud delight was obvious I — the retriever accom- 
 panying them, to bring back whatever they found, 
 without the slightest opposition from them. They 
 would then all three return together. 
 
 One day neither my retriever nor myself could 
 make out what had become of Quail. The three 
 were sent after a jack snipe, but Quail remained 
 absent, and no whistle from the lip could bring her 
 to me. The fact occurred in very rough alder- 
 growth, bog myrtle, and swampy ground, not lur 
 from the Holmsley Station on the South- Western 
 Eailway. 
 
 At last I began to fear some accident, or that 
 Quail was caught in a thieving snare, so I com- 
 menced a search in every hole and corner, and 
 then I found old Quail panting with pleasure at 
 
302 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 my arrival, and pawing sometliing in a muddy 
 place bcncatli liigli lieatli and bog myrtle, which 
 looked like a small ball of plastered mud. On 
 getting down into the hole and picking it up, 
 it proved to be the jack snipe, which she alone 
 had found; and, refusing to mouth it or quit it, 
 she had remained scratching it over and over till 
 she had made it into the ball I saw. She had 
 not hurt the bird, and, when the mud was washed 
 off, the jack snipe Avas fit for the kitchen. 
 
 In these rough wild scenes, or in some of them, 
 wood and swamp w^ere intermixed with clear places 
 here and there. If Chance, by any accident while 
 out of sight, came down wind* on any game and 
 flushed it, I always knew what he had done by 
 finding him with a peculiar look in his handsome 
 face come to heel. On such occasions as these, 
 I have turned round to him, and, praising him, 
 waved my hand in the direction he came from, and 
 said in a pccidiar tone of voice, ^' Wliere was he ? " 
 
 On that encouragement he would go in the 
 direction the game had gone, whicli was seldom 
 far, for his red curly coat and his long, stealthy, 
 cautious gallop suggested a fox to bird ideas ; and 
 at times I have found pheasants and black game 
 
THE USE or DOGS. 303 
 
 simply percliocl in a tree out of liis way, and 
 having no apprehension of man. Occasionally, 
 when he himself had marked down a snipe, lie 
 would go straight back to the spot and find it : 
 snipes, particularly the jack, when flushed by him 
 alone, very seldom went far. 
 
 Now I call this making use of a dog, and per- 
 mitting the dog to sliow a sagacity which man 
 cannot teach, but which good usage and judicious 
 treatment may bring forth ; and tliis, again, is the 
 poetry of sport, and, in bringing game to the bag, 
 worth a hundred of the tramjDing nailed-shoes and 
 sticks which are in use in the present day. 
 
 All young hounds and dogs, of every sort and 
 kind, are naturally addicted to run hare. When 
 at their walks, as pu23pies, they have indulged in 
 it ; and, of course, when full grown, they have a 
 lively remembrance of their sport in their ^^outh, 
 and when taken out to hunt they recur to it. 
 
 On no account whatever, when they first evince 
 this inclination, which they themselves do not as 
 yet recognize as a fault, let tlicm be stricken with 
 tlie whip or punished. With foxhounds, get tliem 
 to enter ^r5^ at a fox^ and let them be taught by 
 the old hounds that that is the animal they are 
 
6 
 
 0-L ' FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 broui>'lit out to chase, wlicn tliey ontor to that 
 particular scent and know its difference from the 
 line of the hare ; then let them he rated from 
 the latter and feel off-handed the lash of the 
 whipper-in's whip, if he gets within reach of them 
 in an act of riot, but on no account whatever 
 permit them to be coupled up for punishment. 
 
 Foxhounds, harriers, setters, pointers, truffle 
 dogs, and rat-catchers may be spoilt hy the in- 
 judicious use of the whip ; and it really makes 
 the true sportsman that has lived up to the present 
 day shudder to see the horrible, heayily-knotted 
 instruments for rib-fracture and torture, sold by 
 saddlers as dog-whips, to be carried in tlio coat 
 2:)ocket. A bit of whip-cord tied to a little twig 
 or handle of a painting-pencil is quite enough 
 to im23ress the knowledge on a dog that lie has 
 done wrong. It is not severe bodily pain, it is 
 the sign of possible punishment, that makes the 
 desired impression. 
 
SCENT AND SMELL C0NTI?ASTI:D. 305 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SCENT AND SMELL CONTRASTED. 
 
 Uncertainty of Scent — From What does it Arise? — Difficulties of 
 the Subject — Scent in Hounds not the same as Smell — The 
 " Drag " — Gossamer unfavourable to Scent — Good Huntsman, 
 Good Hounds — Mr. Asliton Smith and the Curate — Remark- 
 able Faculty of Scent in my Bloodhound Druid. 
 
 This is a subject wliicli, up to the present time, has 
 baffled all our ideas as to what the '' scent " (the 
 line of scent as hunted by hounds or dogs) of 
 bird or beast may he, and how or in what way it 
 differs from those ^^ smells" of various descriptions, 
 sweet flowers, artificial perfumes, or tlie malaria 
 of drains, &c. &c., which are palpable to the nose 
 of man. What it is that governs the scent of deer, 
 fox, hare, or birds of game, and renders it, as the 
 huntsman says, '^breast high" on one day, cold 
 and close only to the ground another day, and 
 perchance on the next day no scent at all, is to 
 my mind utterly beyond conception. 
 
 VOL. I. X 
 
306 . FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 I have known a brilliant scent on a hot, dry 
 clay, when my foxhoimds could run even in a cloud 
 of dust ; I have known a holding scent in a high 
 wind, and a scent in snow and hard rain, a scent 
 in a beautifully mild, still, damp day, and no scent 
 at all occasionally on all those days thus mentioned ; 
 so to none is a certainty of scent attached. 
 
 The few things that I have been able to mark as 
 decidedly militating against the chance of a scent, 
 are these. 
 
 Gossamer webs when Jixed^ and holding thickly 
 across the face of the felds; rain in the air, 
 but not come down, and snow lying yet in the 
 ditches, that the thaw has not had warmth 
 enough to melt away. These few things I have 
 known to tell against scent in many remarkable 
 instances; but of them all, I should say that the 
 worst symj^tom of the lot is the abundance of 
 the gossamer web. 
 
 In all weathers, and at all times and seasons, I 
 have known scents and no scents, and, on looking 
 out of my window in the morning, I never could 
 attempt to say, with the slightest aj^proach to 
 certainty, that hounds would run, or that '^it was 
 a fine huntin,i>' day." 
 
SCKNT AND SMELL CONTKASTED. 307 
 
 There is an old song, that old men, when I 
 began life, used to sing, and in which ^^ catch" 
 I have joined wlien singing round the table was 
 in fashion, in tlie truth of which my seniors 
 seemed to believe ; but, though there may be 
 ^^ truth in wine," I very soon found that ^' the 
 southerly wind and cloudy sky" was as fallacious 
 as a good many more of their antiquated notions. 
 In later days the practice of my liuntsman's life 
 has taught me that the probability of there being 
 a scent lies in the wind having something 
 northerly in it, — and at one of the best runs known 
 in Leicestershire 'Hhe wind was at north-east, 
 forbiddingly keen," — and, take my hunting life 
 through, I have seen, as a rule, worse scents in a 
 southerly wind than when the wind was in any 
 other point of the compass. 
 
 A partial frost in the night, or early in tlie 
 
 morning, which had thawed before noon, and 
 
 rendered the surface of the fields ^^ greasy," soapy, 
 
 or in a clinging state, to be picked up by the 
 
 feet of fox or hare, and carried on, that is 
 
 decidedly opposed to the chance of scent. But in 
 
 a dry, cold afternoon, with a frost in the air 
 
 about to set in that night, then I have often 
 
 X 2 
 
308 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 known a scent Avliicli had been bad all day mend 
 in the afternoon, to tlie fullest perfection ; but take 
 it all in all, there is no rule to he laid doioi as a 
 governing principle presiding over the chance of 
 sport. The fact of the ground where it ^' carries " 
 militating, as it always does, against a good 
 scent w^ould seem very evidently to suggest that 
 the scent that leads on the hound arises from the 
 foot of the creature before him, and not from 
 the breath, or from any exudation of the animal 
 structure. But there have come within my expe- 
 rience facts as to there being a scent from a dead 
 deer carried on men's shoulders, as narrated in 
 another place, whose feet had never touched the 
 ground since her death, and who had no breath 
 in her body, which would go far to prove that 
 the foot of a creature, and the breath, were not 
 the sole facts that led the hound along. 
 
 Scent and its fathomless intricacies, its varia- 
 tions and its presence or otherwise, its strength, 
 its weakness, or its non-existence, arise, say what 
 we will, from some strange phenomena of wliich 
 we really know very little. 
 
 I liave often put my face into tlie ^'form" of 
 a hare that moment disturbed, to try if I could 
 
SCENT AND S^rETJ. CONTRASTED. 3 09 
 
 distinguisli any sort of smell or scent ; but, though 
 the ^^form" was deeply sheltered by the grass, 
 warm, and well imprinted on the ground, there 
 was no sort of trace of the occupant that had 
 so lately left distinguishable to the human faculty 
 of smell. Under such circumstances, when the 
 harriers Avere brought to the spot, at times they 
 would race away in full cry and at full speed ; 
 then on other occasions, if it was what is com- 
 monly called '^ a bad scenting-day," even under 
 that adverse circumstance, the hounds still could 
 slowly hunt the foot of the hare, whose four feet, 
 breath, and whole body, after the form had been 
 held by the creature, perhaps from break of day 
 till noon, afforded to man not the slightest indi- 
 cation of her recent presence. 
 
 If the scent of the creature really depended on 
 the commonly accepted term ^' smell," then, faint 
 as the smell of a hare is, and must be, surely, to 
 use a strong expression, a ^^ stink " of any filthy 
 kind must overpower it. But no such thing is 
 the case. Other effluvia, however strong and 
 noxious, have not tlie slightest power to intervene 
 between the nose of a hound and the scent of 
 the creature he is running ; that is to say, if the 
 
'HO FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 strong and filthy effluvium emanates from carrion 
 or other oifal which the hound has picked up, 
 rolled on, or eaten in his way to cover, that in 
 no way impedes his power of running what seems 
 to man to be a foot that leaves not a trace in 
 the air. Now we find that in the case of man 
 (there is reason to be thankful for it in some 
 instances) man can overpower one smell by the 
 artificial introduction of another. One "" smell '' 
 can be overpowered by another, and delicious 
 perfume and fetid malaria may be made to take 
 turn about in overpowering succession. But not 
 all the fetid smells nor carrion effluvia of any 
 kind, though on the hound's nose, skin, as well 
 as in his stomach, and pervading his breath and 
 lips, can in any degree lessen his olfactory power 
 of detecting and being carried on by the ^' scent," 
 as we call it, left by the fox, the deer, or hare, 
 or rabbit. 
 
 It is, as to scent, the same thing as regards 
 the setter, pointer, spaniel, and retriever, in 
 reference to the ^'foot" of Avinged, that is, 
 l)roken-winged and running game. The most 
 horrible effluvium that man can, to his disgust^ 
 detect as arising from carrion on his hounds or 
 
SCENT AND SMELL CONTRASTED. 311 
 
 clogs, from the back of liis hunter or shooting- 
 pony, has no effect on the power of hound's or 
 pointer's, spaniel's or retriever's, nose, in their 
 keen and beautiful and curious detection of the 
 foot of running game. 
 
 Now, then, comes the query. From what source 
 does that which the sportsman calls '^ scent '' 
 arise ? 
 
 Is it from the foot, or the body, or the breath 
 of the creature that is hunted ? On this point I 
 am at considerable loss to divine. ^^ Perspiration " 
 from the pores of fox, deer, or hare, and from 
 birds, there is no)ie. If in regard to the fox or 
 deer, the perspiration comes from the mouth, as 
 it does from the hound or dog. As to birds, I 
 never could discover any discharge of perspiration, 
 not even in the at times prolonged battle between 
 two game-cocks. Distress and long exertion induce 
 panting ; but from the beak there is no percep- 
 tible discharge, such as there is from the mouth 
 of hound or dog, and from all ruminating animals 
 as welL 
 
 The three creatures that have the strongest scent 
 for hounds are the red deer, the otter, the badger, 
 the martin cat, and the fallow deer. I name them 
 
312 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 successively, as the scent tliat pertains to tliem 
 exists. All are infinitely stronger in scents to 
 serve hounds tlian the fox. Yet to man's nose 
 the fox seems to be the stronger '^ smell," that of 
 the red deer the next, and as to the otter, none 
 at all ! 
 
 Then comes the fact of the '' drag" for hounds. 
 A red-herring, or the anise-seeded skirt of an old 
 coat, will induce them for a certain period, only 
 they soon get tired of it, to run as if they gloried 
 in the chase of a ^^ smell" they had never known 
 before. But on this they Avill veri/ soon become very 
 slack as well as very uncertain. In short, a hound 
 used to the ^^drag" will soon become an egregious 
 liar, and at a check '' speak" to any unusual track 
 he may come across. 
 
 The most beautiful things in nature may be tra- 
 vestied and rendered marvellously ridiculous : all 
 our sports are becoming so. Pigeon-shooting and 
 the tossing up balls or toys for shooting at are fast 
 taking the place of Avild sport with game and dog, 
 and now we tramp with a company of men in line, 
 flag-bearers sent out to do what is never done, and 
 turnips suffer Avhilc 23artridges get away. 
 
 I have seen my hounds when running a stag 
 
SCENT A^'D SMELL CONTRASTED. 313 
 
 run as hard as it was in their power to run, when 
 they were at least 150 yards or 200 yards off the 
 line or foot of the deer — the stag shut out from their 
 sight J so there was no ^' view," by a bank and high 
 hedge. The hounds, of course, were down-wind of 
 him. They could not have done this by fox or 
 otter, nor can a setter or pointer ''foot" a winged 
 or running bird, save immediately on the line of 
 retreat, though they will wind the covey a long- 
 way off. If the fugitive stojDs, when down-wind of 
 their intended captive the dogs can wind him, but 
 not so while the bird runs away. The pointer's or 
 setter's, or retriever's nose must be on the very foot 
 of the bird. Well, then, viewing all j)ositions to 
 which I have referred, it is beyond my conception 
 as to what governs the scent that '' leads the 
 hound to go." 
 
 If my early readings serve me correctly, ^Esop 
 asks, '' What stirs the dog?" the answer, '' His ears 
 and tail " ; but what I cannot explain is, what it is 
 that leads the hound at tip-top speed to pursue, his 
 ''stern" down and head in air (zKsop, of course, 
 did not speak of hounds when he used the words 
 ''dog" and "tail"), nor why it is that the 
 most filthy and carrion smell cannot overpower 
 
314 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 tlic curiously fine discernment of the liound's 
 nose. 
 
 The observable fact that mostlij militates against 
 scent, in its sporting attributes, is, the gossamer 
 threads upon the grass. I have seen them so thick 
 that the hound's face and nose have been to some 
 extent clogged with them. These gossamer webs 
 have no power over scent, save by intervening con- 
 tact. When pertaining only to the bushes or lower 
 boughs of trees, they do not, as far as I have ob- 
 served, exert any very great detrimental power; 
 but when they cling to herbs and grasses along the 
 ground, it is far worse than when '' the dew-drop 
 hangs on the thorn," and, in fact, with much gos- 
 samer on the ground the huntsman mat/ "■ go home 
 and hang up his horn." However, it was always 
 my rule with my hounds to work them under ad- 
 verse circumstances, as well as favourable ones, and 
 never, so long as I could hit a fox on field or at a 
 hedge, would I be induced to give that fox up to 
 look for another, or to go home. In this way I 
 have '' guessed" a fox to death; and it is in these 
 ways that you make a perfect pack of hounds* 
 
 There is no creature that takes the tone of his 
 temper from his master so much as the hound does 
 
SCENT AND SMELL CONTRASTED. 315 
 
 from tliat of liis Imntsman. If the himtsman is wild 
 or slack, so will liis hounds be. If he is persever- 
 ing and clever, his hounds will not only never give 
 in, but under difficulties they will attend to his 
 judicious lead, and be quick to his hand in 
 ^^ lifting." 
 
 It is a very rare thing to meet witli a huntsman 
 who knows when to be quiet and when to be quick. 
 Quickness, though, when ill judged, is often any- 
 thing but useful speed, while sluggish slackness is 
 just as much to be condemned. Of this I have 
 treated in another place. 
 
 Mr. Ashton Smith's reply to a curate who 
 pestered him on his road home after an unsuccessful 
 day with his hounds, though very rude, was never- 
 theless not very far off the truth. 
 
 " I should like to know, Mr. Ashton Smith, 
 what you consider your huntsman's place is 
 worth?" said the divine. 
 
 ^^ Perhaps, from two to three hundred pounds 
 a-year," grunted the squire. 
 
 " Dear me," replied the curate, ^^ that is double 
 the sum, or more, that I get for doing my sacred 
 duties." 
 
 ''Humph," again growled the squire, ''that is 
 
316 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 very likely, because you see we must liave a clever 
 man for a huntsman, while, you know, any cl — d 
 fool does for a parson ! " 
 
 The curate stuck spurs to his beast and vanished, 
 and the mighty hunter pursued his way to tlie 
 kennels without further vexation. 
 
 To recur as^ain to scent. There have been writers 
 who, as previously alluded to, because their pointers 
 could not find a dead or wounded bird, mooted it 
 as their opinion that creatures had the power of with- 
 holding their scent, and thus leaving no intimation 
 to the dog as to where they had fallen or hidden 
 themselves. I sim^^ly recur to this childish idea, to 
 show how few there are wise enough to take charge 
 of the much more gifted dog. I do not think that 
 '^fear" in the common course of nature takes from 
 the fetid exhalations of tlie breath or body of the 
 frightened thing ; perhaps it would be a mercy in 
 some human instances if it did. The idea of a 
 power being given to the brain and form of birds to 
 shut off scent as if it were steam, is so preposterous 
 that I am almost ashamed of having alluded to it ; 
 but, perhaps, in this true liistory it may be right to 
 illustrate it witli a few of the ridiculous imagings of 
 others, who, tliough they may liavc taken pen in 
 
SCENT AND ►SMELL CONTRASTED. 817 
 
 hand, are certainly incapable of leading the ideas 
 of others. 
 
 An otter-hound, when the otter is under water, 
 can only speak to the '^ chain," or air-bubbles, 
 which ascend to the surface. 
 
 A deer that has " taken soil " in a river can 
 only l^e spoken to by a liound by the bubbles, or 
 by the spots of foam from the mouth of the deer, 
 which the deer leaves on the line in which he 
 swims. Also, a hound can speak to his passage 
 if any twigs or boughs touch the deer as he 
 swims by. My liound J3hinder, whose jDortrait 
 still hangs in my dining-room, always was the 
 foremost to help me in these contingencies ; and 
 some other foxhounds used to stag were of similar 
 service. 
 
 Of all the noses I ever had in my kennel, my 
 bloodhound, the well-known ^' Druid" of the New 
 Forest, had the most curiously sensitive; and, what 
 is more, he possessed a brain which, by the most 
 evident thought or reflection, gave him the power 
 to use, under all emergencies, the information he 
 arrived at through the poAver of scent. Thus, witli 
 tlie deer, in the New Forest, to l3c sure of a find, 
 I could not, without close investigation, heedlessly 
 
318 FACT AGAINST FICTIQN. 
 
 pass over the semblance of a slot or footprint left 
 by a buck or doe. 
 
 One hot, dry day in summer, not long after a 
 shower that had slightly damped the bottom of a 
 deep rut, I saw the single ^' slot" of a deer therein 
 impressed, but, as the surface of the rut had been 
 rebaked hard and dry by the sun, it w^as im- 
 possible for me to tell whether the slot was fresh 
 or stale, the earth around giving no other evidence 
 of the j^assage of a deer. 
 
 Druid knew the impression made by the foot of 
 a deer by sight as well as I did — a fact I had 
 frequently observed — so, kneeling down, I called 
 to him to come to me, and then with my finger 
 pointed to the doubtful spot. 
 
 He recognized the fact of its being a '^ slot " at 
 once, and put his fine, broad nose dow^n to it, and, 
 snuffing at it for a moment or two, gave no 
 indication of having obtained any information. 
 Still he paused rather longer than usual, as if in 
 doubt, during whicli time I watched any symptom 
 of a '' flutter " from his stern. He then raised his 
 rounded and magnificent foot, and, scratching tlie 
 baked clay off tlie slot, so lightly as just to disturb 
 the surface, he put his nose to it again, and then 
 
SCENT AND SMELL CONTKASTED. 319 
 
 at once I saw that the deer had passed that spot 
 in the night or very early in the morning, for the 
 graceful wave of Druid's stern conveyed to me 
 the desired information. 
 
 The trace was too faint for this lord of all 
 sylvan truths to speak to, so, though I knew that 
 Ave were on the line of a deer, I gave no cheer, 
 but simjjly said, in a quiet, unexcited tone, ^^Good 
 old dog, have at her." I knew it was a doe by 
 the slot. 
 
 Druid then followed the line at a foot's pace 
 into the woods of the forest, and for a long distance 
 through short fern and over the fallen leaves of 
 hollies, the worst foil possible, and, in short, 
 through all sorts of impediments in the way of 
 scent. Often during that time he lost the cue to 
 the expected '^ lair," and returned some distance 
 back to points to which mysterious certainty had 
 led him, and then took up the research again, so 
 as to be certain that to given sj)ots he had un- 
 doubtedly been right. Thus we went on for a 
 long, long distance. Of course, I took care not 
 to press him too closely so as to interfere with 
 his re-investigations. At last up sprang the doe 
 near me, but closer still to him ; and Druid's full. 
 
820 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 deep roar at view and my gun were heard almost 
 together, and the doe fell dead before us. 
 
 Scent and its degrees are also very strange ! 
 It may exist to some extent in the air, sufficiently 
 so to make a hound fully aware that he is in the 
 precincts of deer or fox ; and yet the scent is 
 not of that particular description as to induce the 
 hound to ^^ fling" his tongue. 
 
 I once stood in one of the thrown-out enclosures 
 of the New Forest, in a ride on the highest portion 
 of the immediately surrounding land, while Druid 
 was drawing for a deer. He had left me for some 
 time, and though I moved about, occasionally 
 speaking to him to '' draw on" from time to time, 
 yet he never appeared in any of the various 
 rides. On returning to my most elevated position, 
 after having resumed my place for some little 
 time, Druid came out of the wood to the spot 
 where he had first left me, and, wagging his long 
 and waving stern to greet me, he resumed the 
 look he always Avore when he Avas aware of the 
 proximity of doer, and, with a flourish of his stern 
 a^>'ain, dashed into the same quarter of the cover. 
 After a short absence, he came to me again, and 
 made a deliberate cast uj) the ride on either side 
 
SCENT AND SMELL CONTRASTED. 321 
 
 of mc. He then returned, and, raising himself 
 for a moment on his hinder legs, snuffling as higli 
 up in the little air there was as he could reach, 
 he again disappeared in the cover. 
 
 On seeing this, I felt sure that there was a deer 
 not far off, lying close in '^ lair," but that some 
 how or other Druid could not make her out, and 
 that in all probability there was very little scent 
 that day, and most likely the deer had gone to 
 the lair very late at night or very early in the 
 morning. Patience, then, of course, was the order 
 of the day. If I had called Druid off, he would 
 not have come away from a wood in which he 
 knew there was a deer. After running thus a 
 considerable time, a yell from Druid, and then a 
 roar on roar, told me he had roused the deer almost 
 beneath his nose, and in that quarter, at the edge 
 of which he had at first disappeared. 
 
 There was, however, a very good holding scent, 
 when, after a run of over an hour and a half, I 
 heard Druid's never-failing tongue, given at 
 intervals, returning. Having been aware for some 
 months that there was only one deer in regular 
 use of that enclosure, and that I had found her 
 once or twice before, and that she was very 
 
 VOL. I. Y 
 
322 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 cunning, I lay down in some young brushwood 
 and long grass, which indicated to the deer no 
 chance for an ambush. I had observed that she 
 always, wheiL she could, avoided open rides and 
 hi^'h hollow cover. I had not thus lain flat on 
 the ground for long, when, by the nearer aj)proacli 
 of Druid's tongue, Avhich my ear told me was 
 coming exactly in. the line where I was, I knew 
 that the deer was between us, and must very soon 
 come in sight. It was so, for I saw her in a long 
 gallop coming directly to the s})ot where I still 
 held my recumbent position. Now to me at the 
 time, and perhaps still to the reader, comes a 
 painful fact : many such facts I liave seen in my 
 sporting life, though at the moment excitement 
 took from them the sting. The poor doe came 
 on in a line which she deemed an open line, not 
 likely to contain or harbour a foe (she had been 
 shot at by the keepers), until she "was within thirty 
 yards of me, when I suddenly rose immediately in 
 front of her and raised my gun. The scream of 
 hopeless terror she uttered, and the bound of liorror 
 which she gave, I shall never forget. Deer never 
 give utterance to a cry unless seized by dog or 
 man ; but, in this instance, the loud and prolonged 
 
SCENT AND SMELL CONTEASTED. 328 
 
 cry uttered by the doc was distressing to nic, 
 
 excited even as I was by tlie sport of the wild 
 
 hour. The wire cartridge of ^' double Bs," from 
 
 the first barrel of the John Manton gun put an 
 
 end to all further suffering ; but, for all that, 
 
 I would rather not have slain that doe. 
 
 Druid came into my possession when about a 
 
 twelvemonth old, and entered at his first deer 
 
 under my tuition. Having to teach him to draw 
 
 the woods, find his deer, and act independently 
 
 of a huntsman, or assistance from anv other hound, 
 
 I never in any one way, when I saw the cause of a 
 
 check, and how he could be set right, interfered 
 
 by a cast or otherwise. • The consequence of this 
 
 was, that, being left entirely to himself, his extreme 
 
 sagacity became a match for any unfavourable 
 
 contingency of the day ; and, let the scent 
 
 be bad or good, he Avas sure of his deer 
 
 in a long or short time, unless by any accident 
 
 he changed on a vieiu to a fresh deer. A view 
 
 occasionally induced him to change, but if fresh 
 
 deer crossed his line, and he did not see them, 
 
 he never varied from the line of scent that he 
 
 was ori. This shows a very curious discriminating 
 
 power in the nose of a hound thus to particularize 
 
 V '^ 
 
324 FACT AGATXST FICTIO:?^. 
 
 one deer's foot from another, similar scents for 
 chase as they are ; and is more curious than that of 
 ahiiost any dog, who can trace his master's footstep 
 through crowds of other people's. 
 
 There is another fact as regards the doubt as 
 to whence, or through what means, scent emanates 
 and exists, as narrated of my retriever following 
 the foot of a man who had stolen a dead deer 
 from where I had left it in the New Forest, as 
 described in my ' Reminiscences of a Huntsman,' 
 and again referred to in the present work. The 
 entire fact of the matter was so extraordinary, 
 that I am almost tempted to tell it again ; to cut 
 it short, however, it is needful to remember that 
 the retriever had never hunted a deer nor the 
 trace of a man before, but on missing the venison 
 from Avliere 1 had left it, the dog became aware 
 of my loss and of my wish to recover it. He 
 at once set to work, and by a look invited me 
 to follow him. He then led me a long way 
 over the forest, till he came to the railway. At 
 the fence of the line he came to a check, and looked 
 at me in some doubt what he had better do. 
 
 He then put his nose again to the ground, 
 and led off down the outside of the line towards 
 
SCENT AND SMELL CONTRASTED. 325 
 
 some j^latclayors who were at work, but when he 
 had got about half the distance from where they 
 were, he cliecked agam, tliought for a moment, 
 and then ran very fast back to Avhere he had 
 first paused on reaching the raihvay. Here he 
 put his nose down again, went confidently through 
 the fence on to the line, and over the line into 
 the forest on the other side. He cliecked then 
 for a little while, for he had over-shot the foot 
 he was hunting in his spring over a wide ditch. 
 
 On the soft gravel between the lines, as I 
 followed the dog, I saw the foot-marks of two 
 men, and when I got beyond the line, then, for 
 the first time in that extraordinary chase, I could 
 assist my dog. The men had got into the ditch 
 to escape any observation, and I pointed out the 
 traces to my dog. He took uji the running 
 along the ditch again, and eventually got the 
 doe, which the thieves, no doubt, had flung into 
 a furze brake, while they made off elsewhere. 
 
 Now, then, comes the curious point, as to how 
 or by what wonderful power did the dog know 
 when the man carried the deer and when lie 
 did not. Investigation, and evidence procured 
 from the platelayers, proved that where the dog 
 
326 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 first checked at tlie line was where the man put 
 down the deer, and then went to tell the men 
 on the line that they should share in the venison 
 if they said nothing about it. The dog at once 
 found out the alteration, but at first could not 
 make it out ; he therefore ran the same footsteps 
 for some distance, but at last detected by his nose 
 that the deer was no longer carried by the men. 
 
 Having made up his mind thus far, he returned 
 at full speed to the exact spot, and there found 
 that the men had resumed their burden, and 
 he raced them without further hindrance to 
 the end. 
 
 In this instance, what was the scent that the 
 dog ran? It was neither from the foot nor the 
 breath, nor the blood of the deer ; for, to prevent 
 any blood from being spilt, the thieves had tied 
 up the throat of the deer Avhich had been cut 
 with a handkerchief Yet, for all this, the dog- 
 by his nose ascertained that when the men put 
 down their burden they were no longer worthy 
 of pursuit, and, remembering at once and through 
 reflection, the spot where the change took place, 
 lie ceased from chasing the depredators when they 
 went to the platelayers no longer j^ossessed of the 
 
SCENT AND SMELL CONTRASTED. 327 
 
 deer, and returned to where tliey had for a time 
 put her down. According to this fact, it would 
 seem that the nose of a hound can tell what is, 
 on the shoulders of a man, without any part of 
 whatever is carried touching the ground. 
 
 Scent will arise from a deer that has heen 
 couched in the lair for hours, and reach the nose 
 of a bloodhound without bringing the hound to 
 the S23ot where the creature lies. The efxhalation, 
 or what we term scent, may float on some current 
 of air, be strong enough to attract the nose of the 
 hound, and yet, though it unmistakably assures 
 him that a deer is near, it is. not of that peculiar 
 kind of strength to which he will speak or fling 
 his tongue. I have seen Druid become thus 
 sure of the near a^^proximation of a doe over 
 and over again, and yet not ho able cither to 
 come on her foot, or on her in her lair, for more 
 than an hour. During that time, as before nar- 
 rated, he came back several times to the spot 
 for the tell-tale air whence he had first detected 
 the' exhalation, and at which spot, or l)y which 
 current of air alone, he gained the information. 
 There is nothing so uncertain, as I have said 
 before, in this uncertain world, as scent, — that is, 
 
328 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 the scent which leads the hound or dog to follow 
 or to find the fox, the hare, and all the birds 
 of game. The most uncertain is the scent from the 
 fox or hare. In this case we have the fox, who, 
 in the nose of man, smells so strong that your 
 gloves, in taking up a hunted fox from the liounds, 
 during the time those gloves last, are never 
 divested of the aroma — they are tainted as long 
 as they hold together, yefc, for all this, I have 
 seen a dog on which, while the hound could not 
 own the line of a fox, some would feather on 
 and even speak to the foot of a hare, which 
 hare, had the hounds killed her, would have 
 afforded no sort of smell to the nose of man 
 whatever, nor have tainted in any way the gloves 
 he wore. 
 
 Scent, then, baffles all our attempts to under- 
 stand it ; and all we can be sure of is, that scent 
 and smell are two existences having nothing to 
 do with each other, though both are acknow- 
 ledged by the nose. The strongest, the worst, 
 and most filthy effluvia on the nose, lijDs, and 
 in the stomach and breath of a hoimd, will not 
 prevent that hound from racing on the line of fox 
 or hare ; and the horrible smell that pervades 
 
SCENT AND SMELL CONTRASTED. 329 
 
 liim cannot overpower his nicer discrimination. 
 Man, then, by artificial perfumery, can obliterate 
 the worst of smells ^ so far as the hmiian vose goes ; 
 but put what you will on tlie hound, the power 
 to scent a creature of the chase which lie possesses 
 cannot be obliterated, but serves him even when 
 trotting by liis huntsman's horse, and when the 
 huntsman can scarcely dare to risk an inhalation 
 arising from the hound's lips. 
 
330 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE DIFFICULTY OF DEALING WITH PANICS. 
 
 Of the many things I have found it difficult to 
 cope with during my life, there is nothing so 
 difficult as a panic among men and animals, even 
 to the birds. A sudden terror seizes at times on 
 soldiers, though, according to the opinion of a gal- 
 lant General in the United States, the men are ^^so 
 much more intelligent " than in England, that 
 they know, as well as the French soldiers do, 
 when they are beaten, while our men, if we are 
 to believe the gallant United States officer, from 
 a want of sagacity, seldom or never come to 
 that conclusion in regard to themselves! 
 
 From the correspondence that has at times 
 appeared in the columns of the jDress respect- 
 ing liydrophobia, we may have gatliered — from 
 the melancholy fate, through timid counsel, a 
 
DIFFICULTY OF DEALING WITH PANICS. S'll 
 
 panic, or a superficial desire to find a mare's-nest, 
 that was forced upon the poor, dear foxhounds 
 in the Durham kennels — how mischievous and 
 melancholy the effects of timorous and ignorant 
 delusions are. 
 
 No sooner was it bruited about tliat a kennel 
 of noble hounds had gone mad, and that, to 
 prevent contagion to men, numbers of hounds 
 were instantaneously destroyed, than a mental 
 contagion broke out in the brains of the tem- 
 porary rulers of other kennels, as well as in tlie 
 heads of some other veterinary men, cats, and 
 old women. Every sort of illness or distemper 
 among the canine, feline, and human race w^as 
 set down as the long-known and really very rare, 
 but always fatal, disease of hydrophobia. The 
 delusive term of ^^ rabies" is made to cover 
 any kind of delusion. When the wildest rumours 
 gained, or had been purposely made to gain, 
 insertion in a large portion of tlio press, in tlie 
 month of April, it was urged, witliout the usual 
 respect shown to that remarkable month, so famed 
 for folly, that not only liad men and women died 
 ^'from hydrophobia," but that in i\\o Bel voir 
 kennels fifty of His Grace of Rutland's well-known 
 
332 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 hounds liacl been destroyed, . wliicli, fortunately 
 for all sportsmen, proved to be a lie. 
 
 At this spot I pause, to assure my readers tliat, 
 on the event of the inquests on men, holden by 
 the coroners, the verdicts were that the patients 
 had died, not from hydrophobia or from any 
 infection caused by the tooth of dog or cat, but 
 that death had arisen from natural causes as 
 shown by acute disease visible on post-mortem 
 examination. 
 
 The published report which appeared in one 
 of the papers, in respect to the Belvoir kennels, 
 was, as I have said, simply a canard set about 
 without the slightest foimdation. On direct in- 
 quiry, the Belvoir hounds, botli old and young, 
 were never more healthy, nor the young entry 
 suffering in a milder degree from the usual attack 
 of distemper, ahvays more or less 'prevalent in 
 each succeeding spring. 
 
 Closely following these veterinary mistakes, came 
 the lamentable fact, as reported, that forty young 
 hounds in the Wentworth kennels liad, in the 
 absence of Lord Fitzwilliam, been destroyed on 
 account of liydrophobia. On thorough investiga- 
 tion, I expect that here again a fearful loss to 
 
DIFFICULTY OF DEALING WITH FANICS. 333 
 
 tlicir noble owner has been clone imcler further 
 '^ veterinarian error." 
 
 In the Went worth kennels, I have heard that 
 this alleged hydrophobia manifested itself in the 
 entry of young hounds just brought to kennel 
 from their walks, precisely at the period of the 
 year as previously, and so often noticed by me 
 for sixty years, when madness, arising from tJie 
 common distemjyer, invariahli/, more or less as the 
 severity of the attacks may vary, breaks forth. 
 That long period of sixty years among all this 
 insanity offering to me only one case of hydro- 
 phobia. 
 
 Surely, then, my practice should gain for me 
 the reliance of my brother sportsmen in a far 
 greater degree tlian they would bestow it on a 
 veterinary surgeon whose practice favours or other- 
 wise the stables of the gallant Engineers^ for 
 where he has had — I mean Mr. Flemming — one 
 instance of an insane dog under his care, I must 
 have had thousands; and, as my sport and the 
 sport of my friends depended on the care bestowed 
 by me on the admirable creatures of our daily 
 pleasure, it would not be at all likely tliat ruinous 
 mistakes should be persisted in by the servants 
 
334 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 under my command^ the more particularly that 
 when neededj if it were ever needed, I had 
 the means of callinii: in the best- medical as well 
 as veterinary advice that the nation contained. 
 
 In winding" up my volume, perhaps the last 
 that will ever proceed from my pen, let me im- 
 press upon my readers some of the miseries I 
 have seen fix their terrible hold on the human 
 mind, the mind of both sexes, as well as the 
 really horrible cruelties I have now extensively 
 known to be enacted against the poor and inno- 
 cently suffering creatures, the most attached, the 
 most useful, and the most brave and faithful friends 
 of man. . 
 
 It is known to everybody how fond ladies are 
 of their lap-dogs, or any of the canine race on 
 Avliom they lavish their care, or to whom they 
 assign a companionship that, by constant use, 
 becomes one of the amusements of their lives. 
 
 In the course of my existence, it has come 
 occasionally Avithin my knowledge that ladies 
 and their waiting-maids have been bitten by 
 their canine pets, and when there has been any 
 constitutional or nervous tendency in the mind 
 — a species of morbid apprehension, needless in 
 
DIFFICULTY OF DEALING WITH TANICS. 385 
 
 its origin, but very difficult to combat — lias sprung 
 up, capable b}' its own cliinieric and mental 
 poison to produce, not the very disease tliat caused 
 tlic unfounded dread^ but a madness from the 
 force of imagination, arising in and nuistering 
 the temporarily unhinged intellect, and wliicli 
 might ultimately produce death. 
 
 The same thing — the same liability to yield 
 to morbid sensations of dread which undermine 
 the constitution and unhinge the brain — often 
 manifests itself in man and woman, and it is, 
 therefore, wise and humane in all those who love 
 and like their fellow-creatures and their friends 
 to raise — or, at least, to devote their best 
 energies to raise— a shield of protection to ward 
 olf a possible or constitutional infliction which 
 the faculty, which the physician, cannot cope 
 with, as a '' rooted sorrow " is beyond his 
 reach. 
 
 Then how much those ^ men deserve condemna- 
 tion who spread idle reports as to the insanities 
 of the canine race, — who, on small experience, 
 and still less practice, venture to include the 
 madness in dogs, curable or incurable, under the 
 solitarv term of '' rabies." 
 
336 FACT AGAIXST FICTION. 
 
 The term ^^ rabies" really means madness, 
 but madness is by no means hydrophobia. 
 
 Hydrophobia, known to the Greeks, through 
 whom the name was handed to iis, or, I 
 may say, to all the nations upon earth, having 
 been by the veterinary surgeons of the present 
 day included in the mischievous term '^rabies," 
 which, divested of its mistakenly instilled poison, 
 simply means an animal rabid or mad, or for 
 the time being out of his senses, whose teeth 
 are not infectious, whose bite carries Avith it no 
 danger to the human race, nor to any animal 
 save of his own kind, to whom tTie bite could 
 only give, if the bitten dog had never suffered 
 from the epidemic before, a course of the com- 
 mon distemper. If the patient so infected took 
 the disease mildly, he might recover, and never 
 show a symptom of madness ; if he imbibed it 
 in its severest form, he might for a time be de- 
 prived of his senses and die, or he might recover 
 from the entire attack and live. 
 
 This demonstrates, at least, the advice which 
 I have so repeatedly given, viz., ^^ Never in- 
 stantaneously destroy a supposed hydrophobic 
 dog," who lias bitten anything or anybody, be- 
 
t)iFFICULTY OF DEALING WITH PANICS. 'V'^7 
 
 cause the clog that gave the bite might be suffer- 
 ing from an insanity as delusive to the brain as 
 hydrophobia, but not so deadly in its infectious 
 powers, nor bearing Avith it any danger to man, 
 woman, or beast. 
 
 It has been, and more particularly it Is at 
 present, the insanity of man to destroy all dogs 
 suffering from that vulgar and mischievously 
 named disease ^^ rabies." Men seem, and veteri- 
 nary surgeons particularly, to be infected Avitli 
 a very old proverb, that of ^' give a dog a 
 bad name, and hang him," for, of late, at 
 least whenever a certain veterinary surgeon 
 has been called in by a master of hounds whose 
 entry is suffering from the usual epidemic of dis- 
 temper, the physical or mild remedy advised and 
 resorted to is an administration from the barrels 
 of deadly guns. 
 
 A mischievous and ignorant advice, which puts 
 an end to the lives of the most faithful followers 
 of man, and so completely prevents that close 
 investigation into the source of disease, and source 
 of contagion, if there is any, which ought to 
 tread on the heels of an infliction such as liydro- 
 phol^ia, so frightful a malady, so easily dis- 
 
 VOL. I. ^ 
 
338 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 seminatecl, and so fatal in its impossible-to-be- 
 mitigated result. 
 
 At present, while I close this chapter in the 
 month of May, 1874, the public press teems with 
 vague assertions and impossible-to-be-carried-out 
 suggestions in regard to the merciless war sought 
 to be enforced against the poor dog, who, through 
 a miserable mistake, has become charged with a 
 disease which, in nine hundred and ninety-nine 
 cases out of a thousand, he does not possess. It 
 would take up too much space to dwell on these 
 fabulous assertions; but, in passing, I select the 
 last that I intend to notice from the Evening 
 Standard of the 1st of May. 
 
 In that impression there is a notice copied 
 from the Dadij Telegraph, It is therein tugged 
 '' that an ownerless and stray dog is, potentially, 
 a mad dog, and a mad dog is neither more nor 
 less dangerous tlian a rattlesnake or a cobra di 
 capello.'' 
 
 We need only read this to see liow slight the 
 foundation is for the charge made against all dogs 
 of being hydr(j})hobic, and at the same time how 
 little faith there ought to be placed in the cry 
 pervading certain classes of society, falsely, cruelly. 
 
DIFFICULTY OF DEALING WITH PANICS. 389 
 
 and ignorantly raised to condemn tlie l)eautiful 
 creature, the noble, graceful, useful foxhound, for 
 the possession of a deadly disease from Avhich he 
 really never suffered. 
 
 If, while descanting on this cruel subject, any- 
 thing could make a man laugh, it would Ijc the 
 orders issued in some cases by local mayors, alder- 
 men, and others, that the police should seize and 
 capture, taking them to a place of confinement, 
 all mad dogs supposed to be suffering from hydro- 
 phobia. 
 
 If such an order were really issued by the chiefs 
 or superintendents of police to their men, and the 
 men Avere inconsiderate enough to have any faith 
 in the false allegation of ^^lydrophobia," and an 
 idea of obeying the order, why a strike of the 
 entire police force would be the certahi consequence 
 to their being bidden to be bitten by dogs, every 
 one of whose teeth would be sure to convey an 
 inevitable death ! 
 
 If we look through the notices in the press on 
 
 this subject, it is remarkably evident, in the first 
 
 place, that the term ^'rabies" is supposed to mean 
 
 hydrophobia ; in the second place, that there 
 
 is no sucli tiling as a dog simply insane from the 
 
 z 2 
 
')40 PACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 annual epidemic of the common distemper; but 
 that if a mad dog, that is a delirious dog-, such 
 as the one that the post-mortem examination proved 
 to be, driven mad from a pin having 2)ierced and 
 become fixed in the stomach, a notice of which 
 appeared in the Macclesfield Press, bit anything 
 or anybody, the person so bitten must die of hydro- 
 phobia ; the patient would be just as likely to die 
 a death of pins ! 
 
 Another vulgar superstition pervades the public 
 mind, and it is, that if a dog in a healthful state 
 at any time bit anybody, if, years after, that dog 
 should go mad with hydrophobia, the person he 
 had bitten wlicn he was in a healtliful state would 
 follow suit, and become as mad as the dog that 
 died, and consequently cease to exist. 
 
 Again, while considering this unhappy and use- 
 lessly distorted subject, people and the press seem 
 to forget that it is the months of April and May 
 iio every consecutive i/eai'y the identical season at 
 ivldcJt the common distemper, and consequent mad- 
 ness in some cases, so frequently occurs. Every 
 kennel of hounds and greyhounds, setters, jiointers, 
 and spaniels, where many of the young of either 
 sort come togetlier, is sure to suffer from the 
 
DIFFICULTY OF DEALING WITJl PANICS. 841 
 
 epidemic. Insanity more or less reigns when the 
 attack is very virulent. It is an insanity of 
 the brain from epidemical fever wliicli besets the 
 constitution. That insanity may come within tlie 
 term ^^ rabies," which can be applied to any animal 
 that is rabid, or that is violently insane ; but, 
 nevertheless, the patients so suffering have not the 
 hydropJwhia, nor a s/finjjtom of it, nor an approach 
 to it, save in the fact of a disordered l)rain ; and 
 the bite of any of those hounds and dogs so 
 sufferimj ivould carrij ivith it no contagion luJiat- 
 ever. 
 
 It is a madness serioushj hurtful to notliiiuj but . 
 the poor suffering dog, that has been mistaken for 
 the very rare, but always fatal, disease of hydro- 
 phobia; and there is a means at hand to diminisli 
 tlie ill-founded and mischievous dread that preys 
 on the public mind for dispelling tlio disease that 
 occasions all discomfort.^ Distemper is to Ijc pre- 
 vented,_ by car(ful and successful vaccination. Jt' 
 distemper is lessened, causeless fears, originated 
 by fools or designing people, are in the same 
 dcOTce diminished : there is less madness amona* 
 hounds and dogs to 1)0 mistaken in; tlie enormous 
 cost in breeding many hounds, and the loss occa- 
 
'^4:2 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 sionocl hy tlioir deaths wlicn the entry comes in 
 in sprifKjj Avould be saved; and this is not urged 
 on my authority alone, but I sj^eak on the authority 
 of tlie great Dr. Jenner, on the faith of Avhose 
 assurance I adopted the prevention I have so long 
 both used successfully and tried to teach. 
 
 The real difficulty is, tlie possibility of meeting 
 witli an assured and undoubted case of hydro- 
 phobia. In the vast exj^erience, extending over 
 sixty years; which I have had, I have met witli, 
 as previously shown, but one instance of the sort. 
 If an assured case of the death-dooming malady 
 could be found, and the hydrophobic dog and 
 a distempered mad dog could be chained up in 
 tlie same kennel, then the real test of ivater could 
 undoubtedly be applied, and it would be seen 
 that the hydrophobic dog had an unconqaeraUe 
 dread of icater, while the distempered mad dog 
 would greeddij covet it, and persistimjlij try to drink. 
 The bite of the one sufferer would be fatal to 
 tlio life of anything, while that of the other 
 would sim2)ly occasion the mere inconvenience of 
 a superficial wound. If anything could create 
 any mirth in me wliile labouring to discuss so 
 solemn a subject as that of su2)poscd liydroj^jliobia 
 
DIFFICULTY OF DEALING ^VITH PANICS. 343 
 
 in the dog^ and througli tlie dog' to tlio lunnan 
 race, it would be an article published in the 
 London Medical Record ^ wliich has now recently 
 been Ijrought to my notice. 
 
 It appears under the head '^ Hydrophobia," and 
 delivers itself as follows : — 
 
 ^^At the meetino' of the French Academy of 
 Sciences, on April loth, M. Boulay laid before 
 it a memoir by M. Bourrel, a veterinary surgeon 
 of Paris, entitled ^ A Complete Treatise on Eal)ies 
 in the Dog and Cat, with a Method of Preserving 
 Oneself against It.' " 
 
 The Medical Recoixl — Heaven save the mark ! — 
 goes on to state : — '' The means of preserving from 
 rabies, to make known and disseminate the know- 
 ledge of wliich is the principle aim of this memoir, 
 consist in taking ofP tlie edge of the teeth of the 
 dog by the aid of nippers and tiles. M. Bourrel 
 had the daring to ])erform this operation of tiling 
 down the teeth on three dogs when they were in 
 a condition of raging madness, notwithstanding the 
 dano^or of inoculation he incurred both during 
 the preliminaries and the different stages of the 
 process." 
 
 Reader, I pause here to ask you if it might 
 
o^-i FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 not be the case that M. Bourrel knew as well as 
 I do that none of those dogs were really afflicted 
 with h}'drophobia, and that they were poor crea- 
 tures only suffering from distemper madness, or 
 rabid from the pain inflicted by the Frenchman's 
 hands ? 
 
 The Medical Recoxl continues : — ^' Six dogs kept 
 for experiment were then delivered over to the 
 mad animalsj who precipitated themselves on tliem, 
 and bit them furiously, but without l^reaking tlie 
 skin in any one of them. 
 
 '^ The dogs experimented, on were watched during 
 six months, and madness did not show itself in any 
 one of the number." 
 
 Again, kind reader, let me aj^peal to you. Is 
 this not a proof that not one of tliose poor, dear 
 animals — from those who, in a raging state (no 
 wonder), were forced to submit to the veterinary 
 dentifrice of the daring M. Bourrel, rather rouglier, 
 perhaps, than that of the surgeon-dentist, to tlie 
 six who were bitten furiously by tlie su2:)posed 
 hydropliobic dogs — that not one of those poor 
 things had any joower in their jaws to convey 
 a deadly infection ? 
 
 The ridiculous, but frightfully mischievous. 
 
DIFFICULTY OF DEALING WITH PANICS. '345 
 
 narrative continues: ^' j\r. Boiirrel, convinced that 
 the bhmtecl tooth of the dog could not penetrate 
 througli clotliing, gave liis hand covered with a 
 o^ove to one of the mad dogs I " 
 
 Reader, he oifered his hand in all kindness, 
 and, HO to speak, shook hands with a dog mad 
 from hydrophobia. 
 
 After this passage of friendship, ^' when the 
 
 mad dog released the grasp of his jaws, not having 
 
 given his paw, the glove was intact, and the bite 
 
 had only produced a deep impression." The 
 
 daring M. Bourrel continues: ''This experiment, 
 
 repeated on dogs who were not mad, to which 
 
 I gave my naked hand to bite, proved to me 
 
 that the blunted tooth can but very rarely, 
 
 however great may be the contraction of the 
 
 muscles of the jaw, break the epidermis of animals 
 
 whose hair necessarily deadens the pressure exerted, 
 
 and can only injure the liuman epidermis in very 
 
 exceptional cases." 
 
 Now, let me appeal to the thinking readers of 
 both sexes— to tlie kind and gentle lieart of 
 woman and to the hairier hearts of men and 
 sportsmen, which ought to beat in so much grati- 
 tude to the most faithful, brave, and useful four. 
 
o 
 
 46 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 
 
 footed frioncl they have — if every line of tlie 
 foregoing- quotation does not show that the mis- 
 ajDj^lied, dehiding term of '^rabies" has nothing- 
 really whatever to do witli the rare and fatal 
 disease of ]i3'drophobia, and that all the insanities 
 in the canine creation have been most erroneously 
 covered by an inapj)ropriate term ; and that, Avhilo 
 it has decreed many a dear and faithful creatin-e 
 to a cruel and unnecessary death, has, at tlio 
 same time, doomed the gentle mind of a lovely 
 girl (I speak from individual knowledge) to months 
 and even a year, if for a time incurable or in- 
 tangible, still to the most horrible terror of an 
 impending death, arising from the mere bite of 
 a momentary insane, but thereafter to be an affec- 
 tionate and faithful, companion. I had such an 
 example of this that I shall not easily forget it. 
 Destruction to this poor little pet was authori- 
 tatively decreed by the higher powers ; cauterism, 
 Avhich would for ever have stained the fairest skin, 
 was suggested ; but the pet, while consultations 
 were going on, suddenly vanished, and, to my 
 intense amusement, tlie heads of the house and 
 the head of the veterinary surgeon overawed us 
 all, or sought to do so, by saying ^^ how correct 
 
DIFFICULTY OF DEALING WmE PANICS. o47 
 
 tlioir opinions wore," for tlio poor little pet, in 
 this instance, '' had done, no doubt, as all mad 
 dogs were said to do," he ''had escaped the 
 premises in a ' rabid ' state, run the usual 
 'muck,' bit everybody and everything*, and cither 
 been killed or died from the effects of the 
 terrible disease he was deemed to carry with 
 him." 
 
 Suffice it to say that the " obstinate child," as 
 the dear, graceful girl was called l3y her immediate 
 elders, though they, her elders, by their foolish 
 conduct, impressed for a time her malleable mind 
 with a melancholy and morbid fear of the j^ossiblo 
 consequences of the bite she had received, still 
 kept the graceful limb ]iot cauterized ; and after 
 a time the condemned pet was restored to her 
 boudoir, free from all insanity, affectionate towards 
 her, its coat like silk, its eyes as bright as ever ; 
 and then she looked ba-ck to the horrors that 
 mistaken advice had impressed upon her mind, 
 and thanked tlie hand that had saved her dog, 
 and, through the dog's safety and return to her, 
 relieved her mind from anv lino-erino- doubt or 
 hesitation. Tlie "hand" needed no tltanks — the 
 
3-i8 FACT AGAINST FICTIOX. 
 
 head and lieart were only too liappy to have 
 assisted in so merciful a result. 
 
 Then let nie again and again implore erery soul 
 alive to have mercy on '^ man's firmest friend, tlie 
 first to Avelcome, foremost to defend." Let him 
 not die '' imhonoured, denied in heaven the soul 
 ho hold on earth," condemned to a cruel death 
 by those ^^vain insects wlio hope to he for- 
 given, and claim themselves a sole exclusi^'e 
 heaven." 
 
 The panic now raging in England has extended 
 to France. ^^ Put but a little water in a spoon, 
 and it shall serve to stifle up " such villaincjus 
 advice as at the present time desecrates the sober 
 columns of the local, London, and country 
 papers. 
 
 The time irill come when men will be asliamed 
 of the fears that now possess them, and the truth 
 will Ije manifest that all this madness, arising (it 
 the cKstonico'i/ seaso)L for distemper^ is attributable 
 to a very palpable origin. Its origin is in tlie 
 conmion distemper. The bite of dogs so insane 
 has nothing infectious or deadly in the teetli ; and 
 if tlie great fact established by Dr. Jenncr, 
 
DIFFICULTY OF DEALING WITH TANICS. '340 
 
 its power aclministerecl by liis oum hand to liis 
 own dogsj is establislicd tlirougliout all kennels, 
 and scientifically carried out, madness arising from 
 the distemper will be mdaiown, and the human 
 mind relieved from the most frightful apprehen- 
 sion. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
LONDON : PRINTED BY 
 
 EDWARD J. FKANCIS, TOOK S COUivT, 
 
 CHANCERY LANE, E.C. 
 
Webster Famify Library of Veterinary Medicine 
 Cummings School of Veterinary iV'iedicine at 
 Tufts University 
 200 Westboro Road 
 Nortti Grafton, MA 01536 
 
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