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HOUNDS IN FRANCE
By David Hancock

  Story of hunting, past and present, in the great country sports nation: France. Firstly, Jean-Michel Lepeudry, writing in his Hunting Dogs from around the World of 1995: “Without a doubt, France is the pre-eminent country of hounds. It is the cradle of hunting. The practice of hunting went beyond the level of simple entertainment for the nobility and reached the level of a veritable art.”

And in his introduction to Johnston and Ericson's 'Hounds of France' (Spur Publications, 1979), Dr Emile Guillet, Master of the Hounds of the Rallye Kereol, wrote: "With six or seven hundred thousand hounds, divided into 40 breeds or varieties used by 400,000 hunters, France possesses a national heritage unique in the world." How sad for British sportsmen, especially those who risked their lives to free France over half a century ago, to note that we have lost much of our sporting heritage, whilst they have retained just about all of theirs. It's worth noting that with over 8% of the vote, against our 2% of the vote here, the French countryman still has a political voice. It is worth noting too that hunting is enshrined in the laws of the French constitution; we hunt within the law, they hunt by it. It is therefore hardly surprising that their hunting heritage perpetuates itself down the years, encompassing succeeding generations and extending its coverage.

 Just as sad is that two of our national assemblies, those of Scotland and Wales, seem almost keener than Westminster to destroy our rural ways. There is a stark difference between say Brittany and Wales in attitudes to hunting with dogs. Yet the historic connections between Brittany and Wales are many; the rough-coated Welsh Hound has a distinct 'griffon' look to it. The chestnut Basset of Brittany, or Basset Fauve de Bretagne, now established here, has that griffon look too, with a harsh dense flat coat. Betty Judge has now brought in the Grand Griffon Vendeen and the smaller Briquet Griffon Vendeen (recreated using Harrier blood after the Second World War), to reinforce the Vendeen Bassets already here. Our favouring of smooth-coated scent hounds has left us just with the Otterhound of our packhounds with a griffon flavour, although I suspect that the French would have named our Airedale, not a terrier but a griffon.

Wide Range of Breeds

French scenthounds like the quaintly named Billy, the Francais Tricolore and the Poitevin resemble our Foxhound, which has often supplied new blood to the French packs. There has long been exchanges of sporting dogs between Britain and France. Ear length sometimes distinguishes French scenthounds from ours, as the Porcelaine demonstrates. But their native Bassets, such as the Artesien-Normand have much shorter ears than our show type of Basset Hound. There are nearly thirty breeds of French scenthound and nearly all of them are little known here. The Vendeen Griffons and the Grand Bleu de Gascogne are now making progress here but most of the others are restricted to France and the Franco-Swiss border country, like the Bruno de Jura, a handsome black and tan breed. I was told of a hound breed I’ve never seen listed: the Rouge de Commings. There are over 300 packs of hounds in France: 35 staghound, 73 foxhound, 61 roebuck, 114 hare-hound and 14 packs of boar-hound. Much of their hunting is conducted in woods not over pasture as here.

Hunting in France continues the ancient and aristocratic attitude to 'venery', the exercise of the art and science of hunting. It is divided into two types, depending on the quarry: la grande and la petite venerie. The former, with quarry of stag, roebuck and boar, is steeped in tradition, with a pageantry and formality passed down from a bygone aristocratic era; it is supported by over 100 packs. The wolf was hunted until its extinction in the 1930s. Most packs of la petite venerie hunt the hare, but 20% hunt the fox. The French breeds of hound have great voices, pace and nose but have been accused of lacking drive and stamina. This has led to infusions of Foxhound blood from here. Some packs are Anglo-Francais, but most have retained the old breeds, preserving the great ringing cry of the classic French scenthound.  But just as the blood of our Foxhound has been used to the benefit of French hounds, so too has the blood of theirs been used here.

 In his Hounds for a Pack of 1882, Comte Elie de Vezins wrote: “Several types of hound are used for hare-hunting in the South of France; they present many variations, according to their origins, but can be placed in the following three categories:

1. The pure-blooded grand chien or chien d’ordre, whether of Gascony, Saintonge or Bordeaux.

2. The Briquet (a harrier-sized hound, of much the same breeding as the various breeds of French hounds but often cross-bred and sometimes not even entirely of hound blood).

3. The cross-bred hound or the improved briquet.

The chien d’ordre or pure hound, which only a few enthusiasts have, with great  trouble, preserved in all its original purity, has some fine qualities…” We favour pure-bred hounds, with outcrosses for better performance; the French have long favoured admixtures or batards, even in titles, and cared less about conserving their chiens d’ordre.

European Stock

  It has been argued that, without the Norman Conquest, we would be without our scenthounds. It has been argued too that all the scenthounds in the world come from either British or French stock, or a blend of the two, as in the United States. Hound expert Sir John Buchanan-Jardine has argued that the Norman Hound, now extinct as such, acquired the name here of Talbot Hound, citing the words of Gervase Markham, Delabere Blaine and TB Johnson (Hunting Directory, 1826) as evidence. Markham wrote that 'The shag-haired Talbot, preferably grizzled, were ...chosen to hunt the fox, badger and other hot scents.' The Bresse breed from Eastern France was brought here to form the basis of Welsh hounds; they were shaggy and grizzled. The Griffon-Nivernais would be today's equivalent.

 The St Hubert hounds have also been dubbed Talbots, a name which some believe is an English misuse of Taillebois, the Abbot of St Hubert's Monastery in the seventh century. Because of their scenting prowess, the St Huberts were distributed to the French aristocracy in all parts of France, were bred with local stock but played a major role in the development of scenthounds on both sides of the channel. In early days each local breed of French hound was found in three versions: chiens d'ordre or full-sized, chiens briquets or medium-sized and chiens bassets. The latter were sub-divided into three sub-types, according to the structure of the foreleg: straight-legged, half-crooked and full crooked. Nowadays we tend to think wrongly of all true Bassets being only the full crooked foreleg version. The contemporary straight-legged English Basset, achieved with the help of Harrier blood, is therefore a quite legitimate Basset, not a modern innovation.

Hound Competitions

It is good to know of hound competitions being conducted in France, an activity once held here, especially in the early to mid-19th century; a revival would be valuable here nowadays. A brevet de chasse, with over 100 held each season, is organized by a hound breed club and is held for breeders; a concours is held for hunting people. Each pack is scored out of 200 points, based on such basic aspects as voice (prized by the French) and ability to hunt as a pack. At a brevet, each hound is examined and judged individually as well. At for example, one such concours, the hunt would be on foot, the quarry roe deer, with around 20 ‘packs’ of between two and four couples each, made up of a wide selection of breeds: Bleu de Gascogne, Porcelaine, Anglo-Francais, Griffon Nivernais, Ariegeois (solid white), Griffon Vendeen (the type resembling our Otterhound), Griffon Bleu, Beagle (used on deer in the south-west) and Beagle Harrier. This one could be followed by another one on hare that might attract some 30 ‘packs’; The event is social too, with scores being allotted to the various huntsmen as well! The camaraderie engendered at such events is immense. 

Hound Conformation

  In his ‘The Queen’s Hounds and Stag-hunting Recollections of 1897’, Lord Ribbesdale wrote: “The French judges do not like our catlike feet – a Saintonge hound has a hare’s foot – and the lameness which besets English hounds after four or five season’s work in France is attributed to the shape of our foxhounds’ feet.”  The arguments over whether a round compact foot is preferable to the oval hare-foot in scenthounds have gone on for two centuries. In his contribution to The Lonsdale Library’s Deer, Hare & Otter Hunting of 1929, the Earl of Stradbroke, Master of the Henham Harriers, had this to say about feet and pasterns: “I have found that the hounds that last the longest, and go out on the greatest number of days in the season, are the lighter built hounds, often, too, those with what we all try to breed out, ‘hare-feet’!…I cannot help thinking that in advocating so strongly a short joint we go too far, and there should be a little more length, than is generally considered to be the perfection aimed at. Greater length gives the necessary elasticity to save a jar to the shoulder, when landing from a jump.” If, however, you look at the breed standards of the hound breeds, hunting by scent, recognized by the KC you find considerable variation between them. A Beagle’s feet must not be hare-footed; the Otterhound’s and the Foxhound’s feet have to be round; the Grand Bleu de Gascogne’s feet have to be long and oval; the Norwegian Elkhound’s feet have to be slightly oval; the Finnish Spitz’s feet need to be round; the Basset Bleu de Gascogne’s feet should be oval. No wonder the breeders of these breeds and those who judge them in the ring get confused by conflicting instructions.

  Lord Ribblesdale also wrote in his already referenced book: “Here is another bit of news about necks and shoulders; the experience of an expert. It appears that the English insist upon a hound with a long neck, so that he can stoop to a scent; this is a proof, according to the oracle, that most of our foxhounds have not very good noses. The Saintonge hound – an ancient and eminent French breed – hunted with his head up (le nez au vent), without deigning to stoop. This is still a characteristic of a well-bred hound – both in pointers and hounds – but M. de Chabot goes on to say that he has often remarked slow-looking hounds keep right up at the lead, and throw their tongues admirably owing to the way they carried their heads and the way their heads were put on. In our love of drive and pace the French think we have sacrificed nose…”. This is a significant difference when using and just as important, judging French hound breeds.

Lost Breeds –Safe Hands

Strangely, the French, with their great passion for hunting, have never developed their own sighthound, although to be fair neither has any mainland northern European country, with coursing long banned. Lost too are the scenthound breeds of Saintongeois (purebred), Limiers Francais (their ‘tufters’), Levesque, Bresse, Artois, du Haut Poitou, Normandie, Virelade, de Franche-Comte and Gris de St Louis, (mostly subsumed into other packs, as some pack titles denote). Their best and most carefully bred packs hunt roe deer, one of the hardest animals to run down with hounds, thereby presenting the bigger challenge to the genuine hound man. The sincere affection in France for rural France, together with its distinct way of life, is in stark contrast to urban attitudes here, where ignorance, indifference and even hostility to country traditions prevails. The hounds of France are in safe hands; ours, despite their global respect amongst real hunting people, are threatened - from within. One French pack, very appropriately, enjoys the freedom of hunting near a British cavalry war cemetery; fighting for ancient freedoms is of little account in Britain these days. RIP British cavalrymen.