18TH CENTURY

Packs of hounds for foxhunting or coursing had been trained and kept in England from as early as about 1600, and English hunting hounds were famous as hunting dogs within Europe. As the English East India companies began to trade in the Far East English hounds became an important commodity for them too. In 1614 Captain Saris wrote recommending a "...fine greyhound..." as tribute for the Daimyo of Hirado and the same year the Governor of Surat requested from the East India Company "...looking glasses, figures of beasts or birds made of glass, mastiffs, greyhounds, spaniels and little dogs..." (See W. Heinemann, Dogs of China and Japan in Nature and Art, London 1921.)