Heyer question

[truepenny]

I'm rereading The Reluctant Widow and am wondering: does anyone have a good photo-reference for Bouncer? I know roughly what a Mastiff looks like, and by lurcher, I imagine Heyer most probably means a Greyhound-Collie cross, but I'm having a rather difficult time imagining how the three would go together. Aside from the part where Bouncer is clearly a Very Large Dog.

Since it seems unlikely that anyone out there actually has a Greyhound/Collie/Mastiff cross and has put pictures of same on the internet (although this is the internet and one never knows), speculation is also welcome!

Comments

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I tend to picture Bouncer as a sort of hairy Great Dane (in Heyer's day mastiffs tended to be taller on the leg than are bred today, and the Great Dane, which is still classified as a mastiff-type, is probaby the nearest modern equivalent). By 'lurcher' she almost certainly meant a greyhound/collie cross - the term 'lurcher' indicates that the dogs had the intelligence to 'lurch' across the corners to catch running prey, rather than coursing (following the path of the hare) in which the objective was sport rather than actually catching the hare for the pot...

I can't immediately find the reference, but countrymen also had a specific name for the whippet/terrier cross used for both digging out and catching rabbits, though these days you'll also find this cross incorrectly called a 'lurcher'.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Okay. I can sort of, if I mentally squint, imagine a hairy Great Dane, and that does indeed seem about right.

Thank you!

(Also, I love your icon.)