THE BLOODHOUND
And hark! and hark! the deep-mouthed bark
Comes nigher stilly and nigher;
Bursts on the path a dark bloodhound,
His tawny muzzle tracked the ground,
And his red eye shot fire.
Scott.
OF all the Saints in the calendar the sportsman has most reason to remember the goodly Abbot of the Ardennes, St. Hubert, after whom were named two strains of mighty hounds, the black and the white. Devotion to the memory of the founder of the Abbey induced successive Abbots to cherish the hounds, from which are descended the line varieties found in France and Great Britain unto this day. William the Conqueror had the honour of introducing the bloodhound into this country, where he has remained ever since under several styles—-lyme hound, sleuth hound, etc. Right down the pages of history we find him popping up, sometimes with sinister import, as when he nearly succeeded in bringing Robert Bruce into the hands of his pursuers. The fugitive escaped by the familiar device of wading along a burn:
