03/05/2011

Hi Tom,
I know I have sent this to you before but I have re read it and think it is so fabulous I thought you too might like to re read it.


Dulcie has been a dream. She floated through ancient woods beside Corfe Castle . She didn't chase a herd of at least 30 deer nor rabbits nor sheep ( Barrow Down) She came to my whistle every time. I felt so proud . She links me to the ground and I feel we are all united.








Description

This section is from the book "The Dogs Of The British Islands", by J. H. Walsh. Also available from Amazon: The Dogs Of The British Islands.

The Truffle-Dog

We are far behind the Germans, French, and Italians in our knowledge of esculent fungi. Our Continental neighbours are far more skilled, both in their preservation and production. They can dry them or preserve them in oil, vinegar, or brine; and in neither case do these conserves lose much of their aroma, flavour, or nutritious quality. One Italian species is produced by scattering a shallow layer of soil upon a porous slab of stone, and occasionally moistening it with water; another, by slightly burning, and subsequently watering, blocks of hazel-wood; and a third (a species of Agaricue) is cultivated by placing the grounds of coffee in places favourable for its growth. The market returns of Rome show that as much as 40002. a year are expended on those productions; and that the peasantry of France, Germany, and Italy in many places subsist to a great extent upon them, is an established fact.

The truffle - an edible underground fungus - is classed by Berkeley with the morel, as one of the Ascomycetes, because in these the "spores," or organs of reproduction, are arranged in asci (tubular sacs, or vesicles). The best writers on fungi have arrived at this learned conclusion; but, in spite of all their discoveries, and their elaborate remarks on "spheroidal cells," and "spores," and "fructification taking place in some particular membrane," we believe attempts to cultivate the truffle have failed.

Science has ascertained that they form an intermediate link between the animal and vegetable kingdom, for they do not absorb carbonic acid from the air and give out oxygen; but, like animals, they absorb oxygen and give out carbonic acid.

The truffle is found in many districts of France, Spain, and Italy; and in other parts of these countries, doubtless (as in England), it exists, though it has not been discovered.

In this country it may be found on almost every chalky down, especially where plantations of beech flourish, and in many gentlemen's parks, and on lawns. Hampshire, Wilts, Dorset, and Kent, all these counties produce truffles of rich quality and in great abundance. Beneath the beech, the cedar, the lime, the oak, the hazel, the Scotch fir, it is frequently to be found in clusters, one, two, or three feet apart. It is known to be at Tedworth (the seat of the late Mr. T. Assheton Smith); at Charbro' Park, Dorset (the seat of Mr. Drax); at Olantigh Towers, in Kent; and at Holnest House, in Dorset (both seats belonging to the same gentleman); whilst Kingston Lacey, in Dorset (the property of the Bankeses), produces both morels and truffles. Truffles are also found at Eastwell Park, Kent; at Sir J. Sebright's, in Beechwood Park; at Lord Barrington's; at Lord Jersey's; at Longleat, Wilts; at the Countess of Bridgwater's; at Lord Winchilsea's; and, we believe, at the Earl of Abingdon's seat, near Oxford.

In some of these localities they are found in beds of twenty, thirty, or more. Sometimes they are discovered singly, in most unpromising situations and of extraordinary size; occasionally they are on the surface of the earth, half eaten by hares, squirrels, rats, mice, or rooks - their natural enemies. Sometimes they are raked up with the dead leaves by the gardener; and one of the finest we ever dug was found by a truffle dog close to an old gate post; whilst within a fortnight of the writing of this article a keeper picked up a large truffle dropped from a fir tree by a squirrel.

They are in season from November until March, and when fit for the table are nearly black. Cut open, they are of a close texture, marbled or spotted, with a grey tint. In the summer they are white inside, and give but little smell, and are unsavoury. They vary in size. Occasionally they are so minute as to be scarcely visible, frequently as large as a walnut, and they are commonly as large as a moderate-sized potato.

We have questioned two experienced truffle diggers, and gather from them the following information:

Truffle digging gives employment to many hands during winter, and in the early months of spring 1001b. a week is not an uncommon amount when a man has a good dog, and works hard; and instances have been known of a man digging 851b. or even 401b. in a day, where truffles were unsuspected, and the ground had not been "worked".

The truffle with a rough sealy coat, much resembling the fir cone, these men call a "bud truffle;" the smooth-coated variety they call a "garlic truffle." Both are equally good for the table; but there is a red-shinned truffle found deeper in the ground, which they assert to be poisonous.

Our informant stated that, some years ago, a specimen was found weighing 3 1/4lb., and "nearly as large as a half-gallon loaf." This assertion we doubt; but we do believe they are frequently met with weighing I 3/4lb. or 21b., though inferior in flavour to the smaller specimens.

In Italy this fungus is hunted with a pig (a fact confirmed by Youatt); in France (as with us) the truffle-hunter depends upon his dog. The breed is rare, and the men dislike to sell them. It is said that about two hundred years ago an old Spaniard brought two dogs into Wiltshire, and made a great deal of money by the sale of truffles which his dogs found for him; and at his death he left his money and his dogs to a farmer from whom he had received some kindness, and that the present dogs are derived from those he left the farmer.

The truffle-dog is a small poodle (nearly a pure poodle), and weighing about 151b. He is white, or black-and-white, or black, with the black mouth and under-lip of his race. He is a sharp, intelligent, quaint companion, and has the "homeing" faculty of a pigeon. When sold to a new master he has been known to find his way home for sixty miles, and to have travelled the greater part of the way by night.

He is mute in his quest, and should be thoroughly broken from all game. These are essential qualities in a dog whose owner frequently hunts truffles at night - in the shrubberies of mansions protected by keepers and watchmen, who regard him with suspicion. In order to distinguish a black dog on these occasions, the hunter furnishes his animal with a white shirt, and occasionally also hunts him in a line.

These dogs are rather longer on the leg than the true poodle, but have exquisite noses, and hunt close to the ground. On the scent of a truffle (especially in the morning or evening, when it gives out most smell), they show all the keenness of a spaniel, working their short-cropped tails, and feathering along the surface of the ground for from twenty to fifty yards. Arrived at the spot where the fungus lies buried, some two or three inches beneath the surface, they dig like a terrier at a rat's hole, and the best of them, if let alone, will disinter the fungus and carry it to his master. It is not usual, however, to allow the dog to exhaust himself in this way, and the owner forks up the truffle and gives the dog his usual reward, a piece of bread or cheese; for this he looks, from long habit, with the keen glance of a Spanish gipsy.

The truffle-hunter is set up in business when he possesses a good dog; all he requires besides will be a short staff, about 2ft. 5in. long, shod with a strong iron point, and at the other end furnished with a two-fanged iron hook. With this implement he can dig the largest truffle, or draw aside the briers or boughs in copse-wood to give his dog free scope to use his nose. He travels frequently thirty or forty miles on his hunting expeditions; and with this (to use a business term) inexpensive "plant" keeps a wife and children easily. We know personally one blue grizzled dog of the old truffle breed which supports a family of ten children.