Deerhounds in Sri Lanka

Worldly travelled and around the globe tales with Rogue . . .

. . . well maybe not I, but I know the humans I share home with have travelled, infact to the country of todays deerhound tale - Lakdiva or Serendib or Taprobane or as it is more comonly known Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka or Ceylon as it was called, under the Pink on the Map, British Empirical days, was one of the locations where many Scots Soldiers, serving out in Asia and the Far East, were sent for a spot of leave, when they were feeling homesick. The reason being, that the mountainous region was similar in appearance to that of Scotland and it was not quite as long a journey as a return to Scotland would be. Infact, many of the areas were named after Scottish locations and can still be found amongst the Tea Plantations of today - Such as Glen Garry and Campletown etc.

Anyway - to the point.

The tale of which I speak today comes from the 1850s and is entitled

‘The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon.’
by Samuel White Baker.

Interestingly it is about Hunting exploits in Ceylon and features some interesting extracts, including the image above and reference to the Scottish Deerhound . . .

. . . ’Next in rotation in the chronicles of seizers appears `Lena,' who is still alive, an Australian bitch of great size, courage, and beauty, wire-haired, like a Scotch deerhound.
`Bran,' a perfect model of a greyhound.’

Interestingly named after the Huntress, and a dog from Ossian - yet again!

The far reaching Scottish Deerhound is most likely to have existed in this location, in association with the troops that were stationed here and the Celtic breed would have been so part of the Scottish culture of the period.

This takes us back almost 200 years to a period when Darwins theory of breed types in which, labeling and identifying of dogs became so important.

To read the full tale of the The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon simply click the title and follow the links.

As always, I would like to spend more time on this article - but I think you should read the tale and simply enjoy.

ps See how many times you can find mention of Rogue - spooky that eh?