This variety is smaller than the greyhound, with its limbs stronger
and shorter, the head less acute, with short, erect, and half-pricked
ears: the whole body and tail are covered with rough coarse hair; it
is grizzly about the muzzle, of a pale sand-colour, or iron-grey, and
of sullen aspect.
The lurcher is supposed to have been originally a cross between the
greyhound and the shepherd's dog, re-crossed with the terrier; hence
the quickness of his scent, his speed, and intelligence. The habits of
this dog lead him to concealment and cunning, and he is seldom found
in the possession of honourable sportsmen. He is often employed by
poachers in killing hares and rabbits in the obscurity of night; and
when taken to the warren, he lies squat, or steals out with the utmost
precaution, and on seeing or scenting the rabbits, darts upon them
with exceeding quickness or runs them down at a stretch, without
barking or making the least noise. He is trained to bring the booty to
his master, who often waits at some distance to receive it. One of
these dogs will kill a great many rabbits in the course of a night.
Col. Hamilton Smyth says, "The lurcher occasionally makes great havoc
among sheep and deer, and acquires the wild scent of game. Sometimes
these dogs become feral, when their owners happen to be captured and
imprisoned. They have been regularly hunted with hounds, but seldom
destroyed, because when the chase came up with them, the pack seemed
to be surprised at finding that it was only a dog they had followed.
At other times, however, when a lurcher had snapped up, or attacked
the game the pack was hunting, the dogs on coming up have torn him to
pieces, as if he had been a wild beast."
Bewick says that in his time this breed was so destructive that it was
proscribed, and is now almost extinct. "I have seen a dog and bitch of
this kind," he observes, "in the possession of a man who had formerly
used them for the purpose above described. He declared, that by their
means he could procure in an evening as many rabbits as he could carry
home."
"In the year 1809," says Capt. Brown, "I resided for some time on Holy
Island, coast of Northumberland, and had occasion one day to be in
Berwick at an early hour. I left the island on horseback at low-water,
by moonlight. When I reached Goswick-warren, I came upon two men
sitting by the side of a turf-dyke. I spoke to them; and while I was
in the act of doing so, a dog of this breed approached with a rabbit
in his mouth, which he laid down and scampered off. Being convinced
they were engaged in rabbit-stealing, I entered into conversation
respecting the qualities of their dogs, which I was anxious to learn;
and upon my declaring that I was a stranger, and that I would not
divulge their delinquency, they readily gave me a detail of them.
They had scarcely commenced when another dog made his appearance with
a rabbit, and laid it down, but did not, like his companion, make off
when he had done so. One of the men said to him, 'Go off, sir,' when
he immediately left them; and he told me he was a young dog, little
more than a year old. They informed me, that such was the keenness of
the older dog, and another which had shortly before died, for hunting
rabbits and hares, that they would frequently go out of their own
accord, when it was inconvenient for their owners to attend them, and
that they invariably fetched in a hare or rabbit. Indeed, their ardour
was such, that they would sometimes go to a rabbit-warren, at a
distance of eight miles from their dwelling, in pursuit of game; in
consequence of which it became necessary for their masters to chain
them every night when they did not accompany them in this pursuit. The
dogs never attempted to leave home during the day, for which reason
they were allowed to go at full liberty. When the men intended on an
evening to hunt rabbits, they threw down the sacks in which they
carried their booty in a corner of their house, when the dogs lay down
beside them, and would not stir till their masters took them up. These
dogs scarcely ever barked, except on the way either to or from this
plunder; on which occasions they always preceded their owners about
fifty yards. If they met any person coming, they invariably made a
noise, but never were known to bite any one. I asked them if this was
an instinctive property, and they informed me they were trained to it.
As they found it necessary in various places to leave the highway to
avoid villages, their dogs never failed to quit the road at the very
places where they usually deviated, although at that distance before
them. Sometimes one of the dogs would return back to the party while
on the road, and wag his tail, but they seldom or never did so
together; and if he showed a desire to remain by his master, the
latter had only to say, 'Go on, sir,' when he set off at full speed to
his post as one of the advanced guard. During the time I was
conversing with them these dogs brought in seven rabbits."
The following curious relation, in which a lurcher signalised himself
characteristically but fatally, we had from a sporting clergyman of
one of the midland counties. A gentleman kept a pack of
five-and-twenty couple of good hounds, among which were some of the
highest-bred modern foxhounds, and some as near to the old bloodhound
as could be procured. They were high-fed and underworked; of course,
somewhat riotous. One day, after a sharp run of considerable length,
in which the whole field, huntsman, whipper-in, and all, were suddenly
thrown out, Reynard, in running up a hedgerow, was espied by a
lurcher, accompanying the farmer his master. The dog instantly ran at
the chase; and being fresh, chopped upon it as he would have done upon
a rabbit or hare. The fox turned and fought bravely; and whilst the
farmer was contemplating with astonishment this singular combat, he
was destined to behold a spectacle still more remarkable. The hounds
arrived in full cry, and with indiscriminate fury tore both the
combatants to pieces; the whipper-in, and the proprietor of the pack,
and two or three gentlemen the best mounted, arriving in time to whip
the dogs off, obtain the brush, and pick up some scattered remnants of
the limbs and carcase of the poor lurcher.