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The spectre-hound under various names is familiar in folk-lore:

• The Demon of Tedworth, the Black Dog of Winchester and the Padfoot of Wakefield all shared the characteristics of the Barghest of York.

• In Wales its counterpart was Gwyllgi , the Dog of Darkness, a frightful apparition of a mastiff with baleful breath and blazing red eyes. A Welsh variant is the Cwn Annuis, or dogs of hell.

• In Lancashire the spectre-hound is called Trash or Striker.

• In Cambridgeshire and on the Norfolk coast it is known as Black Shuck or Shock.

• In the Isle of Man it is styled Mauthe Doog. People believe that anyone who sees the dog clearly will die soon after the encounter. It is mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in The Lay of the Last Minstrel--

"For he was speechless, ghastly, wan

Like him of whom the Story ran

Who spoke the spectre hound in Man."

• In Jersey folklore, the Black Dog of Death is called the Tchico, but a related belief in the Tchian d'Bouôlé (Black Dog of Bouley) tells of a phantom dog whose appearance presages storms. The story is believed to have been encouraged by smugglers who wanted to discourage nocturnal movements by people who might witness the movement of contraband.

The barghest was essentially a nocturnal spectre, and its appearance was regarded as a portent of death. Its Welsh form is confined to the sea-coast parishes, and on the Norfolk coast the creature is supposed to be amphibious, coming out of the sea by night and travelling about the lonely lanes.

The derivation of the word barghest is disputed. Ghost in the north of England is pronounced guest, and the name is thought to be burh-ghest, town-ghost. Others explain it as German Berg-geisl, mountain demon, or Bar-geist, bear-demon, in allusion to its alleged appearance at times as a bear. The barghest has a kinsman in the Rongeur d'Os of Norman folklore.

1 See also

• Dip (Catalan myth)In Catalan myth, Dip is an evil, black, hairy dog, an emissary of the Devil, who sucks people's blood. Like other figures associated with demons in Catalan myth, he is lame in one leg. Dip is pictured on the escutcheon of Pratdip. See also Black Shuck Bar
• The Hound of the BaskervillesThe Hound of the Baskervilles is a crime novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, originally serialised in the Strand Magazine in 1901 and 1902, which is set largely on Dartmoor. At the time of researching the novel, Conan Doyle was a General Practitioner in Plym
• Wild HuntThe Wild Hunt was a folk myth prevalent in former times across Northern Europe and Britain. The fundamental premise in all instances is the same: a phantasmal group of huntsmen with the accoutrements of hunting, horses, hounds, etc. in mad pursuit across

2 References

• Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880); Notes and QueriesNotes and Queries (originally subtitled a medium of inter-communication for literary men, artists, antiquaries, genealogists, etc is a correspondence magazine where scholars and interested amateurs exchange miscellaneous knowledge. It was first published, first series, ii. 51;
• Joseph RitsonJoseph Ritson ( October 2, 1752 September 23, 1803), was an English antiquary. He was born at Stockton-on-Tees, of a Westmorland yeoman family. He was educated for the law, and settled in London as a conveyancer at the age of twenty-two. He devoted his sp, Fairy Tales (Lond. 1831), p. 58;
• Lancashire Folklore (1867);
• Joseph Lucas, Studies in Nidderdale (Pateley Bridge, 1882).

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica Legendary creatures