The following article is from the pen of "Snapshot" (a frequent contributor, under that signature, to The Country, and also well known as "Wildfowler" of the "Field "), who is the author of numerous canine articles and works, including "Wildfowling," "General Sport at Home and Abroad," "The Various Breeds of Foreign Hounds and other Sporting Dogs," etc. His experience with continental sporting dogs has been considerable, which gives weight and value to his article on bassets. He says:

MR. E. MILLAIS' FRENCH BASSET "MODEL" (K.C.S.B. 7854).

"Any hound which stands lower than 16in. (no matter his ' provincial' breed) is called in France and in Belgium a basset. The derivation of the expression basset is clear, i.e., has means low; and, therefore, basset means low set, a very appropriate denomination as applied to these diminutive hounds.

"The vast army of French and Belgian bassets may be divided into three grand classes, viz., bassets a jambes droites, straight legged; ditto, a jambes demi-torses, with forelegs half crooked; and ditto, a jambes torses, forelegs fully crooked. And in each of these classes will be found three varieties of coats, viz., the bassets a poil ras, smooth coated; those & poll dur, rough coated; and a class half rough half smooth coated, which is called half griffons.

"The types vary for almost each province, but the general characteristics remain throughout pretty well the same. All well-bred basseta have long, pendulous ears, and hounds' heads; but the crooked-legged breeds show always better points in these respects than the straight-legged ones, simply because, when a man wishes to breed a good basset a jambes torses, he is obliged to be very careful in selecting the stock to breed from if he does not wish his experiment to end in failure; for, should there be the slightest admixture of foreign blood, the ' bar sinister' will be at once shown in the forelegs. Hence, the bassets a jambes torses show, as a rule, far better properties than their congeners.

"In build the basset a jambes torses is long in the barrel, and is very low on his pins; so much so, that, when hunting, he literally drags his long ears on the ground. He is the slowest of hounds, and his value as such cannot be over-estimated. His style of hunting is peculiar, inasmuch that he will have his own way, and each one tries for himself; and if one of them finds and 'says ' so, the others will not blindly follow him and give tongue, simply because he does (as some hounds, accustomed to work in packs, are apt to do), but, on the contrary, they are slow to acknowledge the alarm given, and will investigate the matter for themselves. Thus, under covert, bassets a jambes torses following a scent, go in Indian file, and each one speaks to the line according to his own sentiments on the point, irrespective of what the others may think about it. In this manner it is not uncommon to see the little hounds, when following a mazy track, crossing each other's route without paying any attention to one another; and, in short, each of them works as if he were alone. This style I attribute to their slowness, to their extremely delicate powers of scent, and to their innate stubborn confidence in their own powers.

Nevertheless, it is a fashion which has its drawbacks; for, should the individual hounds hit on separate tracks of different animals, unless at once stopped and put together on the same one, they will each follow its find, and let the shooter, or shooters, do his or their best. That is why a shooter who is fond of that sort of sport rarely owns more than one or two of these hounds. One is enough, two may be handy in difficult cases, but more would certainly entail confusion, precisely because each one of them will rely only on the evidence of his own senses.

"I have now several clever bassets jambes torses, in my mind's eye, and their general description would be about as follows: Height between 10in. and 15in. at shoulder, longish barrels, very crooked forelegs, with little more than an inch or two of daylight between the knees, stout thighs, gay sterns, conical heads, long faces, ears long enough to overlap each other by an inch or two (and more sometimes) when both were drawn over the nose, heavy-headed rather, with square muzzles, plenty of flews and dewlap, eyes deep set under heavy wrinkles, forepaws wide and well turned out, markings hare-pied and white, black-tan and white, tan and white, black with tan eyebrows, and tan legs and belly, etc. - in short, all the varieties of hound markings will be found among them. They have excellent tongues for their size, and when in good training and good condition they will hunt every day, and seem to thrive on it. They are very fond of the gun, and many are cunning enough to ' ring' the game, if missed when breaking covert, back again to the guns until it is shot.

Some of these bassets are so highly prized that no amount of money will buy them, and, as a breed, it may safely be asserted that it is probably the purest now in existence in France. They hunt readily deer, roebuck, wild boars, wolves, foxes, hares, rabbits, etc, but if entered exclusively for one species of quarry and kept to it, they never leave it to run riot after anything else. I have seen one, when hunting a hare in a park, running through fifty rabbits and never noticing them. They go slowly, and give you plenty of time to take your station for a shot - hence, their great value in the estimation of shooters. They are chiefly used for smallish woods, furze fields, and the like, because if uncoupled in a forest they do not drive their game fast enough, and though eventually they are bound to bring it out, yet the long time they would take in so doing would tell against the sport. Moreover, large forests are cut about by ditches, and here and there streamlets, boulders, and rocks intervene, which difficulty the short crooked-legged hound would be slow in surmounting.