File:Otters and otter-hunting (1908) (14595867749).jpg

Identifier: ottersotterhunti00came (find matches)
Title: Otters and otter-hunting
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Cameron, Ludovick Charles Richard Duncombe-Jewell, 1866-
Subjects: Otters Otter hunting Hunting -- Great Britain
Publisher: London : L. Upcott Gill New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Tufts University

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information that in his day the Otter-huntingseason commenced at Shrovetide and ended at Mid-summer, instead of lasting from April to October asis now the case. King Henry VIII. of England was M.O.H.,and both Queen Elizabeth and King James VI. andI. kept packs of Otter-hounds. No mention of the use of a spear occurs in Waltonsdescription of a morning with Mr. Sadlers Otter-dogs, where the hounds did the work unaided,Sweetlips apparently bringing the carcase docilelyto Venator when called upon to do so. In Somerviles days the spear was more importantthan the hounds in the killing of an Otter, and wasused as a harpoon, being flung at the quarry in deepwater as well as employed to transfix him whendriven to cross a shallow. Apparently few houndswere taken out, and these merely to find the Otter;the spearing of him when put down being a testof skill for the huntsman and followers, akin to thatrequired for ^ pig-sticking in India to-day. Theuse of the spear was gradually discontinued, and
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Copyright by) Brown, Annan. Boatman, by Bachelor—Careless. (DumfriesshireOtter-Hounds.) 2nd Prize Winner, Crystal Palace Show, 1907. The Early History of the Sport. 33 for nearly a century—despite Sir Harry Johnstonsmarvellous effort of the imagination in his BritishMammals —it has not been used with regular packsof hounds; though one Evan Llanwensant, inGlamorganshire, employed it as an auxiliary to hissingle couple of hounds, and in this way killed, so* Otter Davies tell us, more Otters and fou-marts than all the packs in the country put together. I have not found any early authority for theuse of the spear. Turbervile makes no mentionof it in his description of Otter-hunting, and, as wehave seen, neither does Walton in his, nearly acentury later. It seems to have made its advent,like many other bad things, just prior to theeighteenth century. At any rate, it is mentioned bySomervile in 1735, ^^^ was in use in Carmarthen-shire towards the end of the century. The Otter-grains i

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