Part 13

One of the principal uses in which the blood-hound was employed by our ancestors, was in recovering game that had escaped wounded from the hunter. And he was taught also to pursue felons, which he would do through thickets, and the most secret coverts; and, if they had lately escaped, they were almost certain of being retaken. For this reason there was a law in Scotland, enacting, that whoever denied entrance to one of these dogs, in pursuit of stolen goods, should be deemed an accessory. And they were also much used on the borders, between England and Scotland, which were greatly infested by robbers and murderers; and a tax was laid on the inhabitants for keeping and maintaining a certain number of these animals. The arm of justice is now, however, so effectually extended over Great Britain, and cultivation so general, that there are no secret haunts where villany can be concealed; which renders this part of the services of the blood-hound no longer necessary. In Scotland this dog was called the sleuth-hound. A few of this race are still kept in the royal forests for the purpose of finding deer that have been previously wounded; and even lately they have been employed in tracing deer-stealers, which they do from the blood which issues from the wounds of the animal.

The blood-hound is tall and most beautifully formed, and is usually of a reddish or brown colour, and exceeds in size, weight, strength, and courage, every other variety of hound. He possesses a kind of sagacious, or serious solemn dignity, admirably calculated to impress the marauder with dread and awe; and at one period, when he was destined to a single pursuit, he was kept a stranger to every other. Much care was taken to prevent those dogs from following the sports of the field, and they were scrupulously taught to trace the footsteps of man alone. At the time they were so much in use, deer-stealing was extremely prevalent in Great Britain, which rendered a constant vigilance on the part of park-keepers, necessary; and when necessity required, in their nocturnal watching, to trace a depredator, when once laid upon the scent, they so closely and keenly pursued, that they infallibly traced and discovered the offending party. Somerville finely describes the manner in which these animals pursue the nightly poacher.

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To try whether a young blood-hound was well instructed, a nobleman caused one of his servants to walk to a town four miles from thence. The dog, without seeing the man he was to pursue, followed him by the scent to the above-mentioned places, notwithstanding the multitude of people going the same road, and of travellers that had occasion to cross it. When the hound came to the chief market-town, he passed through the streets, without noticing any of the people there, till he got to the house where the man he sought was, and there found him in an upper room.

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Blood-hounds were formerly employed by the Spanish chasseurs in the island of Cuba, for hunting down maroons and fugitive slaves. Mr. Dallas thus describes them:—

“The dogs carried out by the Chasseurs del Ré are perfectly broken in, that is to say, they will not kill the object they pursue, unless resisted. On coming up with a fugitive, they bark at him till he stops; they then crouch near him, terrifying him with a ferocious growling, if he stirs. In this position they continue barking, to give notice to the chasseurs, who come up and secure their prisoner; each chasseur, though he can hunt only with two dogs, properly is obliged to have three, which he maintains at his own cost, and that at no small expense. These people live with their dogs, from which they are inseparable. At home the dogs are kept chained, and, when walking with their masters, are never unmuzzled, or let out of ropes, but for attack. They are constantly accompanied with one or two small dogs, called finders, whose scent is very keen, and always sure of hitting off a track. Dogs and bitches hunt equally well, and the Chasseurs rear no more than will supply the number required. This breed of dogs, indeed, is not so prolific as the common kind, though infinitely stronger and hardier. The animal is the size of a very large hound, with ears erect, which are usually cropped at the points; the nose more pointed, but widening very much towards the upper part of the jaw. His coat, or skin, is much harder than that of most dogs, and so must be the whole structure of the body, as the severe beatings he undergoes in training would kill any other species of dog. There are some, but not many, of a more obtuse nose, and which are rather squarer set. These, it may be presumed, have been crossed by the mastiff; but if by this the bulk has been a little increased, it has added nothing to the strength, height, beauty, or agility, of the native breed.”—_Brown_—_Boyle_—_Dallas._

BLOTCH, _s._ A spot or pustule upon the skin.

BLUE, _a._ One of the seven original colours.

_To dye Blues and Greens._—You must have two pickling crocks that well hold eight quarts each; fill them with clean urine, let them stand for eight days. Pound two ounces of Spanish indigo, separate. Put it into a small flannel bag, each ounce; put a bag into each crock, and carefully squeeze out the indigo; let it stand two or three days; stir it each day, and when you see a shining scum on it, it is in order to work. It will dye feathers, mohair, or hog’s fur; any hackles, or fur dyed with this must be brightened with a solution of liquid blue made with boiling water, with a little of the liquid poured into it for each shade.

_To make liquid blue._—A pound of the oil of vitriol and an ounce of the best Spanish indigo pounded very fine and sifted; pour the vitriol into a three-pint delft bowl, put the indigo in, and stir it with a clean stick for half-an-hour; add of soft water by little and little one pint, stirring it all the time till the fermentation is over; then bottle it for use. This gives the finest blues and greens, _but they fade_; you are not to touch your blueing vat with any thing that is yellow.

_For blues._—You ought to get the finest of whites, and prepare them well; have the urine vat in good order. Stir up the vat, throw in the feathers in as many bunches as you intend to have shades; lift them out now and then to strike the air. When a middling bright blue, take out a bunch; let the second lie in for double the time and more, and air them as directed. When you see a fine full blue, take out another bunch. You may let the third bunch lay in for two or three days; but as soon as you take out each bunch, you should have about six drops of solution blue in a bowl with a pint of boiling water; rinse them well in that, and it will clean them. If you see it wants it, add in a few drops more, and it will still add to the brightness. Put them instantly into cold water, and wash them well. Do the same three or four times; thus you will have fine deep blues, bright and fast.

_Powder blues._—Follow the same process, but do not leave them till done; draw and air them every half-hour; and when of a proper colour, have some boiling water, and from four to six drops of solution to rise and brighten them; and if you see it requires it, add a few drops more. Wash, &c., as before.

_A very bright blue._—Ground richly with an archill. Wash in stale urine; put your feathers into the urine vat for half-an-hour; take out and air them, and do as with all the rest. Boiling water, solution water, &c.—_Old Recipes._

BLUE-BOTTLE, _s._ A fly with a large blue belly.

BLUENESS, _s._ The quality of being blue.

BLUE-STONE, BLUE VITRIOL, or SULPHATE OF COPPER, _s._ A mild caustic, and, when dissolved, a mild detergent and astringent lotion. By the addition of any of the mineral acids it becomes a strong caustic. When in solution with vinegar and water, it makes a good wash for the foot-rot in sheep. When very weak it may be applied to the eye. It is a tonic used in _diabetes_ and _farcy_.

BLUNT, _a._ Dull on the edge or point; not sharp.

BOAR, _s._ The male swine.

BODY, _s._ The material substance of an animal; matter; strength—as, wine of a good body.—The coating or wool of an artificial fly.

BOG, _s._ A marsh, a fen, a morass.

BOLE, _s._ The body or trunk of a tree.

BOLE ARMENIA, _s._ Little used but as an application to ulcers, where the discharge is thin and acrimonious.

BOLT, _s._ An arrow; a dart; a thunderbolt. Bolt upright, that is, upright as an arrow; the bar of a door; an iron to fasten the legs.

BOLT, _v._ To spring out with speed and suddenness. To gib, or diverge from the course.

BOLUS, _s._ A medicine made up into a soft mass larger than pills.

BONE, _s._ The solid parts of the body of an animal.

The bones of birds are nearly all hollow, and communicating with the lungs, are thence filled with air, so as to render them more buoyant for flight. The breast bone (_sternum_) extends much lower than in quadrupeds, and is distinguished by a ridge like the keel of a ship, except in the ostrich, &c., which do not fly. The bones of the wings are similar to the fore-legs of quadrupeds.—_Rennie._

BOOM, _v._ To rush with violence. To make a noise like a bittern.

BOONK (_Ardea minuta_, LINN.), _s._

This is a very rare bird, and few instances only are recorded of its being killed in England. A male was shot near Bath, in the autumn of 1789, perched on the stump of a tree on the bank of the Avon. In the month of May, 1808, a female was shot contiguous to the river Creed, and Dr. Fleming tells us that one was shot at Sunda, Orkney, in 1805. It is more frequent in some parts of the European continent, particularly in Switzerland, and, as Temminck informs us, in Holland.—_Montagu._

BOOT, _s._ A covering for the leg.

All boots for going in the wet, answer much better if kept at least half a year before they are worn; and they should afterwards never be suffered to get too hard. Water boots should be invariably worn over an extra pair of coarse yarn stockings, without which you do not give them a fair trial.

So far from being hard to the feet, they are the softest possible wear, and may be made very light. They should always be made to draw, when required, very far above the knees, in order to protect them from cold or wet.

Various dressings are recommended, though, perhaps, almost any grease may answer; but the first and most effectual application might be tar, tallow, and bees’ wax, melted, (not too warm) and then poured into the boots; which, after having this shaken into every part of them, should be hung up to let it run out. By this dressing, and the sacrifice of the first pair of stockings that follows it, we may walk in the river with more comfort than a Bond-street lounger would cross the street after a shower.

This recipe, however, though a double defence, I do not mean to say is absolutely necessary.

As another good recipe, I should prefer the following one:—

RECIPE.

Drying oil 1 pint Yellow wax 2 ounces. Turpentine 2 ounces. Burgundy pitch 1 ounce.

Melt those over a slow fire, and then add a few drachms of essential oil of lavender (or thyme). With this your boots are to be rubbed with a brush, either in the sun, or at some distance from the fire. The application must be repeated as often as the boots become dry again, until they are fully saturated.

Melt three ounces of spermaceti in an earthen vessel, over a slow fire, to which add six drachms of India rubber cut into thin slices, and when dissolved, add eight ounces of tallow, two ounces of hog’s lard, and four ounces of amber varnish, which, when well mixed, is fit for immediate use. Two or three coats applied with a common shoe-brush makes the leather water-proof, and produces a polish equal to the best puffed-off blacking in the kingdom.

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Fishermen use a preparation for their boots, of bees-wax, burgundy pitch, and clean turpentine, each two ounces, clear rendered tallow, four ounces, all melted together, and applied over a weak flame until the leather fills; the boots should be perfectly dry before being liquored, and apply the liquor by degrees so that one portion may be dried in, before another is laid on.

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The following is an approved recipe:—If the boots are new, half a pound of bees wax, a quarter of a pound of rosin, and the like quantity of mutton suet or tallow; boil them up together, and anoint the boots well with the preparation luke-warm. Should the boots have been used, beef suet is to be substituted for the mutton.—_Hawker_—_Sport. Mag._

BOOT OF A COACH, _s._ The place under the coach-box.

BOOT-HOSE, _s._ Stockings to serve for boots.

BORAX, _s._ An artificial salt, prepared from sal ammoniac, nitre, calcined tartar, sea-salt, and alum, dissolved in wine.

Borax is sometimes applied in a solution of water to the mouths of young horses when cutting teeth, but alum is cheaper and more effectual.

BOTT, _s._ Small worms in the entrails of horses.

BOTTLE, _s._ A small vessel of glass, or other matter; a quantity of wine usually put into a bottle—a quart; a quantity of hay or grass bundled up.

BOTTOM, _s._ The lowest part of any thing; the ground under the water; a ball of thread wound up together. The constancy or durability of a man, horse, or dog.

BOUND, _s._ A limit, a boundary; a leap, a jump, a spring.

BOUND, _v._ To jump, to spring.

BOURGEON, _v. obs._ To sprout, to shoot into branches.

BOW, _s._ To bend, or incline, in condescension.

BOW, _v._ An instrument of war, or of the chase; a rainbow; the instrument with which stringed instruments are played upon.

The _cross-bow_ is an instrument of great antiquity, formerly used in projecting bolts or short arrows, for which, in modern times, bullets have been substituted.

Rooks, although pertaining to no species of game, yet the custom of shooting them being adopted by many gentlemen who use the cross-bow for that purpose, and since upon the proper regulation of this instrument, the whole of its execution depends, directions are therefore here given to render it useful.

Cross-bows employed formerly as weapons in war, and also to kill animals in the field, (where great nicety of vision was required, to find those sorts of game that kept upon the ground, for the cross-bow was always used at motionless objects), were of somewhat the shape as those of the present day, at least those that now throw what is termed a bolt. The bullet-bows are of modern and much neater construction, and their accuracy, when once set, is astonishing; the splitting a ball upon the edge of a knife, however extraordinary it may sound, is to be performed by a novice, at a distance of from fifteen to twenty yards, and the bow, once regulated, will throw the ball with the same unerring certainty for fifty times successively.

_Directions._—When shooting where the trees are lofty, try the bow at fourteen yards upon a level, stopping all the holes in the sight but one; if it shoots too high, raise the bead higher on the fork; if too low, the contrary: should it carry to the right, turn the bead round to the right; if to the left, the contrary.

When the ball does not come within the notches of the fork, open another hole in the sight; if it shoots too high, open one lower; if too low, the reverse.

Should the spring within the lock happen to fail, take care to place the open part of the new one toward the butt end of the bow; if it be put in the wrong end forward, the bow will be useless.

Never keep the bow long in full tension, rather shoot the ball waste.

If the string frets or unravels, close up the defective places with bees-wax.

Care is necessary to hold the bow steady in charging; if let slip whilst drawing up the string, it will assuredly break the stock, and probably the lath and string at the same time.—_Daniel._

BOWELS, _s._ Intestines, the vessels and organs within the body; the inner parts of anything.

The bowels of the dog are very frequently disordered. Dysentery, as an idiopathic affection in dogs, is very rare; but an irritation productive of morbid and inordinate mucous discharge is produced by various causes. A principal one is the consequence of long-continued diarrhæa, which is so common to distemper. Another is the result of bilious inflammation. A third cause is the introduction of poisons. Super-purgation will bring it on, as noticed with enteritis and diarrhæa: the presence of worms will likewise occasion it.—See WORMS.

BOWL, _s._ A vessel to hold liquids; the hollow part of anything; a basin; a fountain. A round mass rolled along the ground.

BOWL, _v._ To play at bowls; to throw bowls at anything.

BOWLER, _s._ He that plays at bowls.

BOWLING-GREEN, _s._ A level piece of ground, kept smooth for bowlers.

BOWMAN, _s._ An archer.

BOWSTRING, _s._ The string by which the bow is kept bent.

BOWYER, _s._ An archer; one whose trade is to make bows.

BOX, _s._ A tree; the wood of it. A case made of wood, or other matter, to hold any thing.

“A tin box is sometimes preferred for carrying fly tackle, as the flies are not pressed in it, as they are in the book.”—_Daniel._

BRACE, _v._ To bind, to tie close with bandages; to strain up.

BRACE, _s._ Cincture, bandage; that which holds anything tight. Braces of a coach, thick straps of leather on which it hangs.

BRACH, _s._ A bitch hound.

BRACHIAL, _a._ Belonging to the arm.

BRAG, _s._ A game at cards.

_Brag_ is not so much in vogue as formerly; it is played with a whole pack of cards, and rather variously conducted by different parties, but the following is given as one of the most scientific methods:—As many persons as the cards, leaving a few for stock, will supply, may play at a time, all of whom are to lay down three stakes a piece, one for the best whist card turned up in the deal; the second for the best brag-hand, and the third for the eldest hand obtaining thirty-one, or the next number under that. The dealer is to give three cards at once to every player turning up, all round, the last card belonging to each player, and the best card reckoning from ace downwards amongst those so turned up, wins the first stake; if two or more superior cards of a sort be turned up, the eldest hand, of course, has the preference, except in case of the ace of diamonds, which at this part of the game takes place of every other.

The second stake is won by the person possessing the best brag-hand, or often rather by the boldest bragger, who sometimes only pretends to hold good cards, such as pairs, flushes, sequences of flushes, and so on, similar to cribbage, excepting fifteens. In this state of the game there are usually two favourite cards; viz. the knave of clubs and the nine of diamonds, which are reckoned with any others to form pairs-royal or pairs; that is, the two favourites combined together with one, or either of them with two aces, kings, &c., are styled a pair royal of such cards, or singly, either of the favourites with another card ranks as a pair; only natural pairs-royal are to precede artificial ones, as three aces, kings, &c., take place before a pair-royal, formed by assistance of the two favourites, though a natural pair does not supersede an artificial one made by the help of a favourite, into which situation only the knave of clubs is admitted by some companies. The principal sport of the game is occasioned by any player _bragging_ that he holds a better hand than the rest of the party, which is declared by saying, _I brag_, and staking a sum of money; if no one answer by a similar or larger deposit, then the bragger wins the second stake; but should any one reply, either by putting down the same or a greater sum, and the first bragger decline the contest, the answerer then takes both the money put down and the second stake: should the first bragger go on, and he says _Again_, and ventures another sum, whether similar to that laid down by the opponent or not, is of no consequence, provided it is not smaller; and if the other should reply in like manner _again_, the parties continue betting, each putting down a sum not less than that last ventured by his adversary, till one or other of them, frightened, gives up the contest, by which the player holding out longest gains all the money wagered, including the second stake; or either party may lay down a stake, saying, _Let me see you_, or _I’ll see it_, in which case both the hands are to be shown, and the strongest wins. When more than one person wishes to answer the first bragger, the eldest has the preference.

The third stake is obtained by the eldest player, who may hold, either from the cards dealt, or obtain by drawing in addition from the stock, thirty-one, or the highest number under that; each ace, king, queen, and knave being calculated as ten, and the rest according to their pips; any one drawing above thirty-one loses of course.

The player who is so fortunate as to gain all the three stakes in one deal, is, strictly speaking, entitled to three more from each of his antagonists, though in some companies this is declined, as savouring too much of gambling.—_Hoyle._

BRAKE, _s._ Fern, brambles. A carriage for training horses.

BRAKY, _a._ Thorny, prickly, rough.

BRAMBLE, _s._ Blackberry-bush, dewberry-bush, raspberry-bush; any rough prickly shrub.

BRAMBLING, _s._ A bird, called also the mountain chaffinch. A small worm.

BRAN, _s._ The husks of corn ground.

BRANCH, _s._ The shoot of a tree from one of the main boughs; any distinct article; any part that shoots out from the rest; a smaller river running into a larger. The offspring, the descendant; the antlers or shoots of a stag’s horn.

BRANCH, _v._ To spread in branches, to spread into separate parts; to have horns shooting out.

BRANCHER, _s._ One that shoots out into branches. In Falconry, a young hawk. A young rook.

BRAND, _s._ A stick lighted, or fit to be lighted; a mark made by burning with a hot iron.

BRANDLING, _s._ A particular worm.

BRANDY, _s._ A strong liquor distilled from wine.

BRANK, _s._ Buckwheat.

BRASIL, or BRAZIL, _s._ An American dye-wood, commonly supposed to have been thus denominated, because first brought from Brasil.

BRASS, s. A yellow metal made by mixing copper with lapis calaminaris; impudence.

BRAWN, _s._ The fleshy or muscular part of the body; the arm, so called from its being muscular; bulk; muscular strength; the flesh of the boar; a boar.

BRAWNER, _s. obs._ A boar killed for the table.

BRAY, _v._ To pound, or grind small. To make a noise as an ass.

BRAZE, _v._ To solder with brass.

BREAD, _s._ Food made of ground corn; corn in general.

BREAK, _v._ To part in two; to bruise by dashing, as waves upon a rock; to open and discharge matter.

BREAKER, _s._ He that breaks dogs.

_Breaking Dogs._—There are three kinds commonly used in shooting; the setter, the pointer, and the spaniel. It is not designed in this work to enter into minute directions for breaking them; that is a province few gentlemen choose to undertake, and very properly have their dogs made to understand their business, before they will take them into the field; however, a method will be here concisely mentioned, and which the experience of one, who has broke as many, and as capital dogs as any man of his age, in this or any other country, always led him to adopt.