being to find the foraging grounds of the animal, and then on a line
that might be two days old hunt him to his lair, often enough ten
or twelve miles off.

When this sort of hunting disappeared, and improved ideas of
fox-hunting came into vogue, there was nothing left for the Southern
Hound to do but to hunt the otter. He may have done this before at
various periods, but history rather tends to show that otter-hunting
was originally associated with a mixed pack, and some of Sir Walter
Scott's pages seem to indicate that the Dandie Dinmont and kindred
Scottish terriers had a good deal to do with the sport. It is more
than probable that the rough-coated terrier is identical with the
now recognised Otterhound as an offshoot of the Southern Hound; but
be that as it may, there has been a special breed of Otterhound for
the last eighty years, very carefully bred and gradually much improved
in point of appearance. They are beautiful hounds to-day, with heads
as typical as those of Bloodhounds, legs and feet that would do for
Foxhounds, a unique coat of their own, and they are exactly suitable
for hunting the otter, as everyone knows who has had the enjoyment
of a day's sport on river or brook.

The greatest otter hunter of the last century may have been the Hon.
Geoffrey Hill, a younger brother of the late Lord Hill. A powerful
athlete of over six feet, Major Hill was an ideal sportsman in
appearance, and he was noted for the long distances he would travel
on foot with his hounds. They were mostly of the pure rough sort,
not very big; the dogs he reckoned at about 23-1/2 inches, bitches
22: beautiful Bloodhound type of heads, coats of thick, hard hair,
big in ribs and bones, and good legs and feet.