PRESENTED BY
THE DOMESDAY BOOK OF DOGS
English Wolf-Hound
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| English Wolf-Hound, by Paulus Potter circa 1652 |
In 1281 Edward I decreed that wolves should be exterminated in England and by the fifteenth century the wolf had become extinct in England. The English actually changed the environment in an attempt to make the country undesirable and less habitable to wolves: many woodlands were coppiced and some woods were even razed to the ground. The demise of the wolf was the death knell for these tall, leggy dogs and the 'breed' naturally followed the wolf into oblivion. All was not entirely lost, however, as a number of individuals from the kennels at Flixton, Stackston and Folkstone found their way into Coursing Greyhound pedigrees (Plummer 1995).
As some of these dogs were kennelled in Yorkshire, and as they would always have been hunted in conjunction with various scent hounds, it's at least slightly possible, though likely improbable, that the 'northern' sighthound used to give the emergent seventeenth century foxhound greater speed could have been dogs of this breeding: a relict population maybe.
As some of these dogs were kennelled in Yorkshire, and as they would always have been hunted in conjunction with various scent hounds, it's at least slightly possible, though likely improbable, that the 'northern' sighthound used to give the emergent seventeenth century foxhound greater speed could have been dogs of this breeding: a relict population maybe.
