The New alaunt

The New Alaunt

"Aboute his chaar ther wenten white Alaunts, Twenty and mo, as grete as any steer, To hunten at the leoun or the deer, and folwed hym, with mosel faste y-bounde, Colered of gold, and touettes fyled rounde." Knight's Tale: CHAUCER.

Created by Welsh author and hunter D. Brian Plummer The New Alaunt is a judicious blend of Greyhound, Bullmastiff and Bull Terrier: possibly on a 75%, 12.5%,12.5% ratio. The Greyhound was, quite rightly, used as a foundation stock as DBP believed the breed to be the soundest currently extant. Gaston Phœbus the hunting-mad Count of Foix wrote Livre de Chasse between 1387 to 1388 and in it Phœbus, who died of a stroke whilst washing his hands after returning from a bear hunt, wrote "a good Alan must gallop on like a greyhound" he also opined that the Alan Gentil should be as lithe and trim as the Greyhound, but with a powerful, large square head. Presumably his breed of Alan Gentil might also be known nowadays as the Alaunt Gentil. So conformation-wise The New Alaunt appears to be spot on; although both Chaucer and Phœbus described white hounds, but "a good worker can be any colour" as they say in hunting circles. Height, up to about 27" (69cm).

Dogs in Britain by Clifford L. B. Hubbard.

Macmillan and Co., Limited

St. Martin's Street, London

The Heritage Of The Dog, Colonel David Hancock MBE

Nimrod Press Limited, 15, The Maltings, Turk Street,

Alton, Hants GU34 1DL

D. Brian Plummer.

See American Allaunt
See Bullmastiff

See Mastiff
See The Plummer Terrier