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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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.
For breaking a pointer or setter, get a check collar, with a line nearly
twenty yards long. Peg the dog down, and give him the word (“Take
heed!”) or any other, make him drop, and let him lay a quarter of an
hour, walking round, and using the word; afterwards walk up and give him
a small piece of cheese. Take the dog upon a slack line, drop him, and
act as above every morning for a fortnight, until he perfectly knows the
word; then hunt him at first single; when on a strong haunt of birds,
use the word, and stop him; reward him as above with a piece of cheese,
and so encourage him until he knows his game: serve each dog in the same
way for fourteen days; then take two or three dogs upon check collars,
peg down one before the other, give the word, and make them back each
other four mornings successively; afterwards hunt them together.
To teach pointers or setters to bring their game, get a rabbit’s skin
stuffed; begin by throwing it in a room, and let the dog have a small
line on his collar; when he takes up the skin, bring him to you with a
gentle pull, with the skin in his mouth; encourage him three or four
times, and then take the line off; when the dog begins to enjoy it, take
a small line and run it through a pulley fixed at the top of a room; tie
the rabbit’s skin to one end of the line, keep the other in hand, fire a
pistol, and let the skin drop; the dog will soon be fond of the sport,
and readily bring every head of game that is shot. Break all the dogs in
this way, and then take two or three together into a room, fire the
pistol, and order first one, and then another dog, to bring the skin,
and they will soon be perfect.
To break a wild spaniel, fasten a wide leather strap, about four feet
long, to his collar, with a swivel; this he will tread on, and throw
himself over, and will, by that means, soon be checked, and rendered
handy and obedient. Spaniels may be taught to bring the game by the same
mode of instruction as the pointers or setters; there should, however,
be but one spaniel in a team that does this; if more, they will break
the game in struggling which shall carry it.
* * * * *
The keepers in the west of Ireland commonly break their dogs by using a
pole of about five feet long perforated with a small bicket, about a
foot from the end—to this bicket they affix the _check-collar_, and by
pegging the dog down, secure him at his point as long as they please. By
reversing the pole when it is necessary to chastise the animal for
misconduct, the dog is effectually secured from escape or resistance;
and, with this simple apparatus, an Irish breaker will stop the wildest
setter, and subdue the most refractory.
* * * * *
Some sportsmen, however, object to the use of the pole on the score of
severity, and allege that timid dogs are frequently blinked by using it.
But for a violent setter, nothing will conquer his obstinacy so soon or
so effectually as this implement.—_Thornhill, &c._
BREAM, _s._ The name of a fish.
[Illustration]
The bream is a well-known fish, and yields good diversion to the angler;
it is found in slow running, deep rivers, but is chiefly met with in
extensive ponds, where, although it grows tardily, it will attain the
weight of three or four pounds (they have been known to weigh eight),
and if the water and air suit him, will get very fat: they are great
breeders, for it is observed the melter has two melts, and the spawner
two large bags of spawn, from which is deposited upwards of 130,000 ova.
Very few wish to stock their waters with them, as they increase so
rapidly, as to consume all the sweet feed, and starve other fish, and
are only fit to be put into ponds as food for pike, perch, &c.
The bream is broad, with a small head, smooth at the top, big eyes, a
small leather mouth, no teeth, but a lozenge-like bone to help its
grinding; the palate is soft and fleshy, resembling that of the carp; it
is covered with curious net-work scales, on which it sometimes has
abundance of minute whitish tubercles; has a hog back, of a colour
between blue and black; the sides of the largest are yellowish, and the
belly, inclining to red, is extremely deep, and thin in proportion to
its length; the tail is very large, and something in the form of a
crescent.
The flesh is soft and clammy, yet by some reckoned of easy digestion,
and of better nourishment than that of a carp; the choice parts are the
belly and head; what renders it unpleasant for the table is the
multitude of bones, and the best way of preparing him is by pickling it
like salmon. The French, however, esteem this fish highly, and
proverbially say, “he that hath breams in his pond is able to bid his
friend welcome.”
The baits used are the red paste; also paste made of brown bread and
honey, gentles, waspings, flag-worms; and they are great lovers of
red-worms, especially such as are found at the root of a great dock, and
lie wrapt up in a round clue: the common red-worms should be used two
small ones at a time. Green flies under water, the grasshopper with the
legs cut off in June and July; but the best bait for the full-grown
bream is a large red worm without a knot, which is to be found in garden
walks or chalky commons after rain; put the worms with moss well washed
and picked, and the water squeezed from it, into an earthen pot set dry;
change the moss every four days for three weeks; they will then be
clear, lively, and at the best.
The following directions have been generally given for taking the bream,
and as being also equally certain of tempting that shy fish the carp.
The bait to be a large red worm, the rods long; the lines silk, or silk
and hair, and the floats, goose or swan quills; a piece of lead of the
form of an upright brass weight, with a hole at the top, is to be
fastened to the low end of the lines; then fasten the hook-link also to
the lead, allowing ten inches or a foot between lead and hook, which
should be No. 4: the lead must be sufficiently heavy to sink the float
quite level with the surface, and not for the float to bear up the lead,
which must lie on the ground; by which means the worm will crawl up and
down so far as the lead will allow, which to the fish is a great
enticement. The line for two yards at bottom should be of strong round
gut, and the link next the hook as small as you dare use, for fear of
pike or perch (who will assuredly visit the hooks), and till they are
taken, neither carp or bream will come near to bite: this fineness will
admit the worm to draw the hook to and fro with less difficulty.
For the ground-bait, get a peck, or peck and a half, according to the
greatness of stream and depth of water, of sweet gross ground malt, or
unground wheat, which is thought preferable; boil it very little, and
strain it through a bag: when cold, at night, cast in two parts of it
squeezed hard between the hands, so that it may rest in the precise spot
where you mean to angle; and if this be repeated for two or three times,
it will more certainly attract the fish. Recollect in a stream, to throw
it at least a yard above the place where you mean your hook to be, or
the stream will carry it too far down; some sew worms for the fish to
feed on, upon a turf of short grass, nearly to cover the turf, which is
then fastened to a round board, with a hole through that and the turf,
where a cord runs, and is tied to a pole to let down to the bottom.
Bream generally choose the broadest and deepest part of a river, and in
hot weather are easily seen swimming in shoals; there, or thereabouts,
with a clear bottom, take the exact depth, making some mark that shall
explain if any rise or fall has taken place in consequence of
watermills, &c.
The ground thus baited, the worms and tackling prepared, by three or
four in the morning, with great caution approach the place, so as not to
be seen by the fish; some of them are frequently at the top of the
water, whilst the rest are feeding beneath. Having baited the hook that
the worm can move at bottom, cast it, and by drawing it gently to you,
let the lead rest about the middle of the ground bait; a second rod
should be a yard or two above, and a third a yard or two below it;
retire from the water so far as just to perceive the top of the floats;
when there is a bite the top of the float will sink suddenly; remain
quiet until the line goes clear away, then creep to the water-side, and
give as much line as possible; if it be a good carp or bream it will go
to the farther side of the river, strike gently, and hold the rod at the
proper bend, that it may tire him; for if both pull together, either
line, hook, or hold, will break, and the fish will be lost. The bream is
strong, and runs hard when first struck; but after two or three turns,
he will fall on his side, which enables you easily to land him: the carp
is far stronger and more mettlesome than the bream; it is advisable to
use a reel upon the rods for carp, barbel, or bream; the length of line
kills the fish with ease, and increases the angler’s amusement.
This sport may be continued from four till eight in the morning, and
from four until the same hour in the evening. The following morning, for
the same hours, your diversion will be perhaps the best; if it is gloomy
and windy, they will bite all day long, especially if the water is a
little thick after rains; during the time of fishing, and at that of
quitting the water, throw in more of the ground-bait. After two or three
days, the place should be baited and left quiet; the fish will otherwise
get too cunning to touch the hook-bait.
Another mode of catching the bream, is, after plumbing the depth, put
one or more shot a foot below the float, to balance it, which is a way
to take the shyest fish; the bait a large red-worm, which must be laid
in, and let sink very gradually to the ground-bait. When the fish bites,
strike gently that very instant.
A third is the running line, with a bullet and hole through it, and a
small shot to hinder the bullet falling on the hook; let this run on the
bottom with the current into holes, and equally as for the bream, it
will be found to answer for all other fish that bite at the
bottom.—_Daniel._
BREAST, _s._ The middle part of the human body, between the neck and
the belly; the part of a beast that is under the neck, between
the fore-legs.
BREATH, _s._ The air drawn in and ejected out of the body; life;
respiration.
BREATHE, _v._ To draw in and throw out the air by the lungs; to
live; to rest; to take breath.
BREECH, _v._ To fit any thing with a breech, as to breech a gun.
BREED, _v._ To procreate, to generate; to bring up, to take care of.
To bring young; to raise a breed.
BREED, _s._ A cast, a kind, a subdivision of species; progeny,
offspring; a number produced at once, a hatch.
BREEDER, _s._ One that produces any thing; a female that is
prolific; one that takes care to raise a breed.
_Breeding Dogs._—Never breed from an old dog and old bitch; if one party
must be aged, it had better be the latter; but age on either side should
be avoided if possible.
Winter whelps of all sorts of dogs are best, although the difficulty in
rearing the produce and the loss of the use of the bitch for some weeks,
are strong reasons against it, in the opinion of many; but the few that
survive and are reared, amply recompense these obstacles. At three or
four days old, part of the sterns should be twisted off, and the dew
claws be cut off with a sharp pair of scissors. Puppies will soon learn
to lap milk, which will relieve the mother; at six weeks old they may be
separated, and should then be wormed.
The dog, to be complete in his form, should have round small feet, legs
strong, straight, and muscular; the shoulders fall properly into the
back, not upright; chest let down; loins good; back not too long; elbows
play finely in their action, and come well in; thighs and gaskings broad
and strong.
* * * * *
In our selection of parents for multiplying a breed a variety of
circumstances should necessarily engage our attention; as, whether we
are continuing a race already established, improving a defective one, or
altogether forming a new variety. In either case, but particularly in
the two latter, one or two propagations are not sufficient to enable us
to judge of the merits or demerits of the products: anomalies may occur,
monstrosities appear, or dogs may breed _back_. It should likewise be
always present to us, that, in despite of all our care, and in face of
the most favourable opportunities for selection, still _perfect
specimens_ to propagate from are unattainable; and as, therefore, we are
necessarily to expect defects, it should be our care to well examine
that we do not select our male and female parents with each the same
faulty form or property; for, however perfect they may be in other
respects, they are, in such a case, totally unfit to breed from
together. We may, for instance, suppose an otherwise eligible pair of
pointers, of the purest blood, but that each, from early and constant
confinement, had contracted long, weak, spreading phalanges or toes,
instead of a round, cat-like form of foot. By choosing a mate for each
of these whose feet were unusually small, round, and firm, we might
remedy this defect, and preserve their excellencies; but it would be
only propagating deformity to breed from them together. We can only
expect to prove successful in rearing a superior race of any domestic
animal, when we make our selection of parents with a careful reference
to the merits and defects in each, by balancing the one against the
other, and by thus combining their different properties. It is by
inattention to these circumstances that so many persons, after giving
immense prices for animals of particular stocks, have found themselves
foiled in their attempts at rearing any thing beyond mediocrity, which
animals, under the judicious management of a Russell, a Coke, or an
Ellman, among cattle, or an Orford, a Meynell, a Rivers, or a Topham,
among dogs, would have produced unrivalled forms.
_Breeding In-and-In._—Among the practical and systematic breeders of all
domestic animals, and among none more than those sportsmen who devote
themselves to the improvement of the dog, a great diversity of opinion
has always existed on the subject of _consanguineous breeding_, or of
that between near relations, characterised by the term _In-and-In_. The
conflicting authorities on the subject are numerous, and the testimonies
contradictory; and it is more than probable that they will remain so,
until a long course of experiment is undertaken by a body or society of
scientific and observant breeders on various domestic animals, for the
express purpose of arriving at the truth in this particular.
Sir John Sebright says, “a breed cannot be improved, or even continued
in the degree of perfection at which it has already arrived, but by
breeding from individuals, so selected as to correct each other’s
defects, and by a judicious combination of their different properties (a
position that I believe will not be denied); it follows that animals
must degenerate by being long bred from the same family, without the
intermixture of any other blood, or from being what is technically
called _bred in-and-in_.”
To Mr. Meynell’s opinion to the contrary, he replies—“Mr. Meynell’s
fox-hounds are quoted as an instance of the success of this practice (i.
e. _the in-and-in_); but, on speaking to that gentleman upon the
subject, I found that he did not attach the meaning that I do to the
term in-and-in. He said, that he frequently bred from the father and the
daughter, and the mother and the son. This is not what I consider as
breeding in-and-in; for the daughter is only half of the same blood as
the father, and will probably partake, in a great degree, of the
properties of the mother.” Again: “I have tried many experiments by
breeding in-and-in upon dogs, fowls, and pigeons; the dogs became, from
strong spaniels, weak and diminutive lap-dogs; the fowls became long in
the legs, small in the body, and bad breeders.”
Sir W. C——n, in his _Treatise on Greyhounds_, is unfavourable to
breeding a kin. He says, “If continued for some litters, a manifest
inferiority of size, and a deficiency of bone, will soon be visible, as
well as a want of courage and bottom; though the beauty of the form,
with the exception of the size, may not be diminished.”—_Blaine._—_Sir
John Sebright._