Complete Hounds Dogs Information and Breeds

The Talbot hound is known to us visually today for it is pictured from time to tune on signs outside public houses. The Talbot was much like the Bloodhound and differed only slightly from what were called the Southern and Northern Hounds. All were deep-mouthed and heavy, the Northern having a more slender head, longer foreface and more shallow flews than the Southern, which was found in the south of England, in Devon and in Wales.

Just before the middle of the nineteenth century several Southern Hounds were kept in the village of Aveton Gifford in Devon, where several wealthy farmers each kept two or three hounds. They had an excellent sense of smell and could trail a scent for longer V and get in to places fox-hunting 9    hounds could not reach.
The Talbot is variously described by different early authors, but seems to have been a breed mid-way between a Northern and Southern Hound. It had a large head, very broad nose and pendulous ears, with a rather rough coat. Its color was usually pure white, but there are other reports of it having been pied. Although it appears that hounds showing white were preferred to other colors. In early manuscript illuminations the Talbot was not portrayed as being particularly large, but according to most accounts it did attain considerable stature. There is also indication that it was kept more for 'show' than for use.

The ancient house of Shrewsbury had very strong connections with the Talbot, a breed used on the family's coat of arms, and the head of this breed also formed the crest of several old princely families in Germany. The St Hubert Hound, too, was either the same as the Talbot or closely allied. In 1867 there were still several packs of very slow hounds in Devon, Yorkshire, Svissex and South Wales, but there was then doubt that these were truly representative of the original stock. In 1931 an eminent canine author, Edward Ash, said that at one time keepers in the New Forest were required to keep a couple of' Bloodhounds' on their walk. He also says that these particular 'Bloodhounds' were known as Talbots. One of the keepers claimed that Talbots had been in his family for over 300  years. Certainly there is every likelihood that the Talbot Hound was the oldest scenting hound in Britain but is sadly no longer in our midst.