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Dogs and All about Them
·
Robert Leighton
213
CHAPTER
XXVI
THE
BASSET-HOUND
The
Basset
was
not
familiarly
known
to
British
sportsmen
before
1863,
in
which
year
specimens
of
the
breed
were
seen
at
the
first
exhibition
of
dogs
held
in
Paris,
and
caused
general
curiosity
and
admiration
among
English
visitors.
In
France,
however,
this
hound
has
been
used
for
generations,
much
as
we
use
our
Spaniel,
as
a
finder
of
game
in
covert,
and
it
has
long
been
a
popular
sporting
dog
in
Russia
and
Germany.
In
early
times
it
was
chiefly
to
be
found
in
Artois
and
Flanders,
where
it
is
supposed
to
have
had
its
origin;
but
the
home
of
the
better
type
of
Basset
is
now
chiefly
in
La
Vendee,
in
which
department
some
remarkably
fine
strains
have
been
produced.
There
are
three
main
strains
of
the
French
Basset--the
Lane,
the
Couteulx,
and
the
Griffon.
The
Griffon
Basset
is
a
hound
with
a
hard
bristly
coat,
and
short,
crooked
legs.
It
has
never
found
great
favour
here.
The
Lane
hounds
are
derived
from
the
kennels
of
M.
Lane,
of
Franqueville,
Baos,
Seine-Inferieure,
and
are
also
very
little
appreciated
in
this
country.
They
are
a
lemon
and
white
variety,
with
torse
or
bent
legs.
The
Couteulx
hounds
were
a
type
bred
up
into
a
strain
by
Comte
le
Couteulx
de
Canteleu.
They
were
tricolour,
with
straight,
short
legs,
of
sounder
constitution
than
other
strains,
with
the
make
generally
of
a
more
agile
hound,
and
in
the
pedigree
of
the
best
Bassets
owned
in
this
country
fifteen
years
ago,
when
the
breed
was
in
considerable
demand,
Comte
de
Couteulx's
strain
was
prominent
and
always
sought
for.
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