Whereupon we may conjecture that (by the Grace of God) all Good Huntsmen shall follow them into Paradise.

 

Chapter 5.

Of Black Hounds anciently come from Saint Hubert's Abbey in Ardennes.

The hounds which we call Saint Hubert's hounds are commonly all black, yet nevertheless their race is so mingled at these days that we find them of all colours. These are the hounds which the abbots of Saint Hubert's have always kept some of their race or kind in honour and remembrance of the saint, who was a hunter with Saint Eustace.

Whereupon we may conjecture that (by the grace of God) all good huntsmen shall follow them into paradise. 

To return unto my former purpose, this kind of dog has been dispersed through the countries of Hainault, Lorraine, Flanders and Burgundy. They are mighty of body; nevertheless, their legs are low and short, likewise they are not swift, although they be very good of scent, hunting chases which are far-straggled, fearing neither water nor cold, and do more covet the chases that smell as Fox, Boar, and such like than other, because they find themselves neither of swiftness nor courage to hunt and kill the chases that are light and swifter. 

The Bloodhounds of this colour prove good, especially those that are coal-black, but I make no great account to breed on them or to keep the kind, and yet I found once a book which a hunter did dedicate to a prince of Lorraine who seemed to love hunting much, wherein was a blazon which the same hunter gave to his Bloodhound called Souyllard, which was white. 

My name came first from holy Hubert's race,
Souyllard my sire, a hound of singular grace.

Whereupon we may presume that some of the kind prove white sometimes, but they are not of the kind of the Gressiers or Baux, which we have at these days.