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Hound

type of hunting dog used by hunters to track or chase prey

A hound is a type of hunting dog used by hunters to track or chase prey. In 14th-century England, hound was the general word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype resembling the modern mastiff and bulldog. By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, and hound had begun to refer only to breeds used for hunting.

Whosoever loveth me loveth my hound.
—Hugh Latimer
A gentle hound should never play the cur.
—John Skelton

Quotes

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  • And through the woods, another way,
    Faint bugle-notes from far are borne,
    Where hunters gather, staghounds bay,
    Round some old forest-lodge at morn.
    • Matthew Arnold, "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse", in Fraser’s Magazine (1855)
  • A good Hound never barks on a cold trail.
  • The great slow-hounds, their throats did set a base;
    The fleet swift hounds, as tenors next in place;
    The little beagles did a trebble sing,
    And through the air their voices round did ring,
    Which made such consort as they ran along,
    That, had they spoken words, ’t had been a song.
  • And still I like to fancy that,
      Somewhere beyond the Styx’s bound,
    Sir Guy’s tall phantom stoops to pat
      His little phantom hound!
    • Patrick R. Chalmers, "Hold", in Punch (1 September 1909), p. 152
  • They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!
  • A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog.
  • Ten brace, and more, of greyhounds, snowy fair,
    And tall as stags, ran loose, and coursed around his chair,
    A match for pards in flight, in grappling for the bear.
    With golden muzzles all their mouths were bound,
    And collars of the same their necks surround.
  • And first the dame came rushing through the wood,
    And next the famished hounds that sought their food,
    And griped her flanks, and oft essayed their jaws in blood.
    Last came the felon, on the sable steed,
    Armed with his naked sword, and urged his dogs to speed.
  • The dusky Night rides down the Sky,
      And ushers in the Morn;
    The Hounds all join in glorious Cry,
      The Huntsman winds his Horn:
        And a-Hunting we will go.
    • Henry Fielding, "Hunting Song", st. 1, Don Quixote in England (1733), II
  • In dreams I see them spring to greet,
      With rapture more than tail can tell,
    Their master of the silent feet
      Who whistles o’er the asphodel,
    And through the dim Elysian bounds
    Leads all his cry of little hounds.
    • George Forrester Scott (alias John Halsham), "My Last Terrier", st. 6
  • Though Man, for centuries of care,
    Has taught the Hound to hunt the Hare,
    It's not a natural pursuit,
    For each was born a kindly brute.
    • A. P. Herbert, Silver Stream (1962)
  • Of horn and morn, and hark and bark,
      And echo’s answering sounds,
    All poets’ wit hath every writ
      In dog-rel verse of hounds.
    • Thomas Hood, The Epping Hunt (1829), st. 10
  • Whosoever loveth me loveth my hound.
  • The hindmost hound oft takes the doubling hare.
  • I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
    Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
    Follow your spirit, and, upon this charge
    Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’
  • O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
    Methought she purg’d the air of pestilence;
    That instant was I turn’d into a hart,
    And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
    E’er since pursue me.
  • A gentle hound should never play the cur.
  • O, where doth faithful Gêlert roam,
      The flower of all his race,
    So true, so brave,—a lamb at home,
      A lion in the chase?
  • Hound is hungry, hare is fearful.
  • An hounde is trewe to his lord or to his maystere and of good love or verrey, an hounde is of greet undirstondyng and of greet knowynge, a hound [is of] greet strength and grete bounte, an hounde is a wise beest and a kynde, an hounde hath greet mynde and greet smellyng, an hounde hath grete bisynesse and greet myght, an hounde is of greet wurthynes and of greet sotilte, a hound [is of greet] lightnesse and of greet pur[s]ueaunce, an hounde is of good obeysaunce, for he wil lerne as a man al that a man wil teche hym, a hounde is ful of good sport.

Proverbs

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  • The hindmost hound may catch the hare.
  • The foremost hound grips the hare.
    • James Kelly, Scottish Proverbs (1721)
  • Every hound is a pup until he hunts.

Other hunting dogs

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  • In the olden days they liked a long-legged terrier, able to run with the hunt, but such a terrier found it difficult to get to the fox. Others preferred small terriers, which they carried on the saddle. Hard-bitten little souls, with a peculiarly blunt view of pain. They helped to hold on to the saddle with their small feet, sitting there half asleep, dreaming of foxes.
    • Edward C. Ash, Dogs: Their History and Development (1972)
  • Then every nose was busily employed,
    And every nostril was set open wide,
    And every head did seek a several way
    To find the grass or track where the scent lay.
    For witty industry is never slack;
    ’Tis like to witchcraft, and brings lost things back.
  • Sixty or seventy of them, large and small, smooth and shaggy—deer-hound, boar-hound, blood-hound, wolf-hound, mastiff, alaun, talbot, lurcher, terrier, spaniel—snapping, yelling and whining, with score of lolling tongues and waving tails.
  • See how the well-taught pointer leads the way:
    The scent grows warm; he stops; he springs the prey;
    The fluttering coveys from the stubble rise,
    And on swift wing divide the sounding skies;
    The scattering lead pursues the certain sight,
    And death in thunder overtakes their flight.
  • The dog in the doghouse barks at his fleas, the dog that hunts does not feel them.
    • Jonathan Hole, More Memories (1894)
  • Till then in every sylvan chase renown’d,
    With Argus, Argus, rung the woods around;
    With him the youth pursued the goat or fawn,
    Or traced the mazy leveret o’er the lawn.
    Now left to man’s ingratitude he lay,
    Unhoused, neglected in the public way;
    And where on heaps the rich manure was spread,
    Obscene with reptiles, took his sordid bed.
  • Don’t you hear the yapping of the dogs—
    The yapping and the yelping of the dogs?
    • Henry Kendall, "After the Hunt", in Leaves from Australian Forests (1869)
  • Ἦ σεῦ καὶ φθιμένας λεύκ᾿ ὀστέα τῷδ᾿ ἐνὶ τύμβῳ
    ἴσκω ἔτι τρομέειν θῆρας, ἄγρωσσα Λυκάς·
    τὰν δ᾿ ἀρετὰν οἶδεν μέγα Πήλιον ἅ τ᾿ ἀρίδηλος
    Ὄσσα Κιθαιρῶνός τ᾿ οἰονόμοι σκοπιαί.
    • Although beneath this grave-mound thy white bones now are lying,
        Methinks, my huntress Lycas, the wild things dread thee still.
      The memory of thy deeds tall Pēlion keeps undying,
        And the looming peak of Ossa, and Cithaeron’s lonely hill.
    • Simonides, quoted by Pollux, Vocabulary, V, 47, as translated by F. L. Lucas, Poems (1935) and A Greek Garland (1939); variants: "Surely" for "Methinks", "worth" for "deeds"

Proverbs

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  • A heedless dog will not do for the chase.
    • African (Yoruba) proverb, reported in Wolfgang Mieder, Encyclopedia of World Proverbs (1992), p. 118
  • The dog who hunts foulest, hits at most faults.
    • James Howell, English Proverbs (1659)
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