In short, there is no doubt that, for purposes of shooting, Bassets, of whatever breed, are pre-eminently excellent. They run very true, and are more easily taught the tricks of game than full-sized hounds. This I have found out by experience. The average large hound, once in full swing on a scent, runs on like a donkey. But Bassets seem to reason, and when they come to an imbroglio of tracks, purposely left by the quarry to puzzle them, they are rarely taken in, but, slowly and patiently setting to work, they unravel the maze, and eventually pick up again the wily customer's scent. Hence, for the man who can only keep one or two hounds to be used with the gun, there is no breed likely to suit him better than Bassets, for they are sure not to lose the scent, whatever takes place, and their low size enables them to pick it up when it is so cold that a larger hound would, perhaps, not even notice it.

They have also a good deal of pluck, to which they add a sort of reasoning discretion. To illustrate my meaning, I will give an instance to the point - viz. very few hounds of any kind take readily to hunting wolves, and when they do take to it, they hunt in a pack, each hound countenancing the other. Now, some well-bred Bassets will hunt a wolf singly. I have stated already that I have had myself the pleasure of killing two wolves that were, individually, hunted by one Basset. This, therefore, shows extraordinary pluck on the part of the little hound ; for be it known that, as a rule, any hound or dog who comes for the first time on the scent of a wolf forthwith bolts home, or hides behind his master for protection. On the other hand, Bassets are cautious. When they by chance come near a wolf, or a wild boar, or a stag, or any other wild animal on whom they could make but little impression, but who is, on the other hand, likely to do them an irretrievable injury, they never run the risk, but bay at him from a distance. As long as he chooses to stop they will not leave him; they will resume hunting him as soon as he will start, but they will only run at him when the decisive shot has been fired.

Some Bassets are used for vermin-killing (badger, fox, etc.); others are employed for pheasant-shooting, woodcock-shooting, and partridge-shooting, besides their legitimate employment in hunting ground game. When used for birds, they are frequently called to, to keep them within range, and, generally, a bell or a small brass grelot is fastened to their collar, that the shooter may know where they are. Some men make their Bassets retrieve, even from water; and most Bassets will go to ground readily to fox or badger.

Finally, some peasants use their extraordinary powers of scent to find truffles. Their training for that sort of business is wonderfully simple. The hound, when young, is kept a day without food, and a truffle being shown to him, the peasant throws it into some small covert, or hides it in stones, or buries it lightly in the ground, and makes the dog find it; when he has done so, he gives him a piece of bread - this sort of thing being repeated until the Basset looks readily for the truffle. He is then taken to those places in the neighbourhood of which truffles are known or suspected to be, and the peasant, pretending to throw away the usual truffle, tells the dog, ' Cherchez! - cherchez!" ('Seek! - seek!'), whereupon the little hound, diligently ferreting about the ground, soon comes upon a truffle scent, and begins digging for the tuber. At the first sign of that process the peasant relieves him, and digs out the precious fungus; and so on. There are some other species of dogs also used for that sort of work; but the Basset, owing to his acute power of scent, is mostly preferred by the professional chercheurs de truffes. Some of these men, however, use pigs for the purpose.

Concerning those French Bassets which have from time to time been exhibited at our shows, some of them have shown fair points, but none of them have had the very long ears which one will notice with the Bassets in the foresters' kennels on the Continent. Moreover, in the classes set aside for Bassets, I do not remember having seen a good Basset a jambes torses, though there were one or two fair specimens of half-crooked and straight-legged Bassets. If my memory serves me right, the Earl of Onslow's were straight-legged, half rough-coated Bassets, with remarkably short ears. Mr. Millais' Model was a black, white, and tan, smooth-coated Basset, with very fair properties - the best I had seen in England so far - and a Vendean Basset was a regular Griffon. I forget now the state of his legs, but his coat was just the sort of jacket for the rough woods of Brittany and Vendee.

On the other hand, in the classes for Dachshunds I have seen some first-rate black-and-tan and also red Bassets a jambes torses, all smooth-coated. No doubt, eventually, classes will be set apart for each individual breed, and in such a case there is a very fine field yet open for an enterprising exhibitor wishing to produce Bassets in open court."

Since the foregoing was written the Basset-hound has, by importation and breeding, greatly increased in this country; and to all frequenters of shows this quaint animal, with his short, bandy legs and heavy body, has now become familiar; and a better knowledge of his intrinsic qualities has secured for him admirers, even among those who, on his first introduction, scoffed at him as a deformity, a disproportioned beast, with the clumsy gait and the abnormal strength often found in misshapen dwarfs.

This better acquaintance and closer study of the Basset have compelled a change in the view taken of the breed, and most unprejudiced persons are now ready to admit that these hounds possess characteristics worthy of the admiration of both the sportsman and the dog-lover; consequently, they are no longer looked upon - as when Mr. Millais first exhibited Model, at Wolverhampton, in 1875 - as oddities or curiosities, only fit for a place in a museum of the Canidce, and, as the rector's wife said of Di Vernon, "of no use in the 'varsal world."

Fig. 52. - The Late Sir Everett Millais's Smooth Basset Model.