Dogs and All about Them

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.