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THE DOMESDAY BOOK OF DOGS

French Bassets.

Basset Artesien-Normand. B. A. N.

Bassets d'Artois. Bourbon, 1913

   Sadly by the start of the twentieth century all the larger, grand and briquet, versions of the native hound breeds of Normandy and Artois had become extinct. Leaving only their respective bassets behind which, themselves, were in dire straits. The two basset breeds were merged into one and, in 1911, they took the name of Basset Artesien-Normand. Three renowned breeders of  the time stood out above all others: Comte le Couteulx de Canteleu, and Messieurs Louis Lane and Leon Verrier. Over the succeeding decades breeders aimed for a less unwieldy and slothful hound gradually producing a lighter more svelte dog, causing some remorse amongst later breeders who think the 'streamlining' may have gone a little too far believing the breed now has a lack of stamina and drive.

Basset Artesien Normand. Mason, 1915.

Basset Bleu de Gascogne.

                                "For the old huntsman riddled with gout or rheumatism preventing him hunting 'a-courre', it is with a few couples of these little hounds he will rediscover his youth!"

Alain Bourbon, Les Agets, Saint-Brice. 1913.

Basset Bleu de Gascogne. Bourbon/Malher, 1913.

  When Alain Bourbon wished to resuscitate the basset bleu de Gascogne at the  turn of the 20th century he found that unfortunately the breed was apparently extinct. Requests to friends all over France received the reply "Extinct animals, impossible to find anything." Not to be too despondent, however, he tried another tack and managed to source three Bassets Saintongeois, Fatma, Nelusko and Selika, and used these to cover "the most beautiful female dogs I could find" (large Bleus de Gascogne). The reconstituted basset is effectively a dwarf version of the grand bleus having a grand voice, excellent nose and similar colouring to the larger breed. M. Bourbon reckoned he'd achieved success after fifteen years and believed the blue or 'wine lees' colour gave them a very particular cachet.

Basset Lane.

  M. Bourbon describes the Lane basset as a: "large, overly heavy dog, without elegance, although he had a very pretty head with long ears. He was crooked-legged and therefore very slow."  The Lane basset was absorbed into the Basset Artesien-Normand.

Lane bassets. c1909.

Basset Le Coulteulx.

Everett Millais' 'Model' c19875. Leighton, 1907.

  This was a slightly smaller variety of basset developed by noted dog breeder the Comte le Coulteulx de Canteleu former president of the Club du Basset Francais. M. Bourbon believed that a little beagle blood had been added to this strain with excellent results, in terms of type and hunting quality. Everett Millais' 'Model', which occurs in early Basset Hound pedigrees, was of this breeding.

Basset Saint-Hubert.  Ardennes Basset.

Basset Ardennais hunting.  P. Mahler, c.1912.

  It is generally accepteded nowadays that the Ardennes basset was absorbed into the Artesien-Normand basset.

  In the mid-twentieth century there was an, unfortunately eventually fruitless, attempt to recreate this handsome, smooth-coated, red or black and tan breed (Johnston 1979).

Breed Standard (1913).  See original in French.

Basset Saintongeois.  Basset de Saintonge.

Small pack of Basset Saintongeois hunting.  P.Mahler.  c1913

Basset Saintongeois (1913).  Original in French.

  One claim to fame for this now-extinct breed is that three dogs, Nelusko, Fatma and Selika were used in the recreation of the Basset Bleu de Gascogne by Alain Bourbon. Though he found them delicate and prone to nose bleeds (Johnston, 1979).  These three dogs were mated to Bleu de Gascone bitches (or chiennes), with further influxes of Basset Saintongeois blood successive generations of the hounds gradually reduced in height until M. Bourbon finally had the finished article.

 Basset Verrier.

Paul Malher. 1913

  "The current type of exhibition took the name of Basset Verrier, because of the perfection that this breeder brought it to, who, for more than thirty years, has selected this breed.

  The other types are disappearing and are currently very difficult to find. They had also taken the name of the breeders who had made these selections." Bourbon, 1913.

  Later became absorbed into the Basset Artesien-Normand.

Bassets Griffon Vendeen.  Rough Bassets.

Possibly a Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen. Mason, 1915.

  Everett Millais had a low opinion of the 'basset griffons' believing he'd seen five types at a recent show he'd judged and believed there was too much variation. At this time, towards the end of the 19th century, there were no restrictions on interbreeding the two size varieties of the basset griffon Vendeen. This means that the dogs would have varied between 34 cms to 42 cms. If we include any basset fauve de Bretagne that may have been imported at the time then it's possible to see where any confusion may have arisen amongst those not used to French hunting traditions. Millais said "...while we in the smooth-coated variety chose the grandest of all the types, and have brought it to perfection, our brother Griffon fanciers have not gone about their business in the same fashion and have certainly not obtained the creme de la creme of Basset Griffons. I have seen many of them, and for type and quality it appears to me that those from Vendee are the biggest, handsomest, and best fitted for the work they have to do." Lee, 1897. While referring to the basset griffons R. W. Lee chips in with: "However interesting these French hounds may be, I am afraid there is no vacancy for them in this country."  Rawdon Lee even suggests to 'improve' the type the rough bassets were being crossed with the Basset Hound.

  There are French works that mention the use of bassets in otter hunting and it's possible that the bibarhund, first mentioned in 630 AD by Dagobert I, was a basset.

  Count Jacques du Fouilloux refers to bassets in his La Venerie of 1560 but supplies no description: why should he, everybody knew what a basset was. In his translation of the work, titled The Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting (1576), Turberville translates basset as terrier.

  George Washington's Old Virginia Bench-legged Beagles may have been bassets. They were gifted to him by La Fayette. There was a gift of hounds from La Fayette to Washington in 1785 just before the French revolution but these may have been taller hounds and definitely not 'bench-legged'. It is believed half-a-dozen varieties of basset may have become extinct because of the revolution and the Old Virginia Bench-legged Beagle could have been one of these.

  The Encyclopedie Methodique from 1790 describes the Artois basset thus: 'This is the name of a species of short-legged dog, suitable for hunting rabbits and other burrowing animals. Latin authors call it "Tracking dog, but a hunter, a hunter of burrows".'

Fox hunting from Dictionnaire Raisonne, 1800.

  "Hunting the fox requires less equipment than hunting the wolf, it is easier and more amusing. All dogs have a repugnance for the wolf; all dogs, on the contrary, hunt the fox easily, and even with pleasure; for although it has a very strong scent, they often prefer it to the deer, the roe deer and the hare. It can be hunted with bassets, hounds and beagles. As soon as it feels pursued, it runs to its burrow; the crooked-legged bassets are those which slip into it most easily. This method is good for taking a whole litter of foxes, the mother with the young; while she defends herself and fights the bassets, we try to uncover the burrow from above, and we make her succumb under the deadly lead or we seize her alive with pincers: we must therefore suddenly attack the burrow, set traps in the different mouths; and as we are not always sure that the old foxes are locked in the burrow, we must also besiege the barren paths called coulees, by which they go and come to seek to live; then the necessity of feeding their young excites them to brave the danger, and their distrust is annihilated by this imperative need: without this, a fox besieged by traps in a burrow only leaves it at the last extremity. We have seen one stay there for fifteen days, and have nothing left but the skin when it decides to leave. These animals, sworn enemies of servitude, when they are caught by the foot, are quite prone to cutting it off with their teeth, being unable to find any other way to escape, and this almost certainly happens when day breaks, before one arrives. But as the burrows are often in rocks, under tree trunks and sometimes too deep underground, one does not always succeed. If the burrow is on a hillside, one must let the bassets in through the lowest holes; if on the contrary the burrows are on a mound in flat country, then one must let the bassets in from the top, because in both cases the corners of the burrow, which one will have to search, are less deep. If the burrow is in level country, it is immaterial whether the bassets enter from one place or another, because the passages are of equal depth everywhere. Care must be taken to strike hard at the burrows, because the foxes, frightened by the noise and the shaking of the earth, abandon the crossroads where they readily lie in wait to retreat into their main trench or into its casemates which are very deep.

  When it is recognized that the bassets have discovered a fox in its burrow, it is necessary to immediately block all the holes or gullies, with the exception of the one through which the basset hounds entered, into which a kind of netting will be placed so that the dogs can breathe. This is how badger hunting is done underground."

  Colonel David Hancock refers to a list from the first French dog show in 1863. The bassets of the day are split into four morphs, two coat types: short or long-haired and two types of legs: either crooked or straight: “Class XVII. Basset Hounds of all kinds.—Straight-legged short-haired Bassets, straight-legged long-haired Bassets, crooked-legged shorthaired Bassets, crooked-legged long-haired Bassets, Baden Bassets, Burgos, St. Domingo, Illyrian, and Hungarian Bassets." Ash, 1927.  The Burgos bassets were discussed by Franklin, 1887 thus: "The breed of Boulogne dogs was lost or rather altered, and they were replaced by the so-called Burgos or Burgos dogs, basset hounds a-jambes torses with elongated muzzles and hanging ears. Wolf dogs succeeded them and, under the Regency, fashion adopted Spanish dogs or spaniels." Bolognese dogs were once popular under Louis XIV (Dr. Schultz, 1903). Later on they were replaced by dogs from Burgos: "Bassets with twisted legs, elongated muzzle and hanging ears," Dr. Schultz then adds for the benefit of his German readers "a kind of dachshund." This reference to Louis XIV tells us that that the Burgos basset was in existence at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Likewise the brief mention of an Illyrian basset: possibly Napoleon's Grand Armee may have had dogs with them and when the area reverted back to Austria the bassets stayed there along with the French influence. There is no record of when the Illyrian basset became extinct.

  With these extra varieties in mind, which may or not be ancient, and along with the many varieties of dachsbrackes and niederlaufhunds it seems that achondroplasic or short-legged hunting dogs could once have been pan-European. Representatives in The British Isles may have been the Dandie Dinmont terrier, Glen of Imaal terrier, otter terrier, Sealyham terrier, Skye terrier and possibly even the turnspit.

Encyclopedie Methodique. 1790.

National Central Library of Florence. P320

Dictionnaire raissonne, universal d'histoire naturelle

Bruyset Aine and Co. 1800

A History and Description of the Modern Dogs of Great Britain and Ireland.

Rawdon Briggs Lee, 1897. Horace Cox, London.

Das häusliche Leben

Dr. Alwin Schultz. 1903

The New Book of the Dog. 1907

Robert Leighton. Cassell And Company Limited.

Nos Basset Francais.  Alain Bourbon. Artist: Paul Mahler.

LAVAL Imprimerie-Librairie V e Jl. GOUPIL. 1913.

Dogs of all Nations. W.E. Mason

Panama-Pacific International Exposition. 1915.

Dogs, their history and development. 1927

Edward C. Ash. Boston: New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Hounds of France. George Johnston.

Saiga Publishing Co; Ltd., 1979

Old French Hounds.

Ria HÖrter, Ton Populier

Researching in the origin and history of Basset Hound.

Morning Dew Sweepers

Restoring the real basset hound

Col. David Hancock. M. B. E.

Basset hounds - hunting for the real one

Col. David Hancock. M. B. E.

Hunting bassets.

Col. David Hancock. M. B. E.

Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

Basset Hounds - a request

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