Packs of phantom hounds were believed to pass overhead on dark, cloudy nights, heard yelping but seldom seen. In the north they were Gabriel’s Hounds, in Devon the Wisk, Yesk or Heath Hounds, in Wales the Cwn Annwn, and in Cornwall the Devil and his Dandy-dogs. Hearing them was taken as a warning of a death nearby, and Chambers quotes a Sheffield sonnet on the belief as held in Yorkshire.
Gabriel’s Hounds
11 October · Northern England, Yorkshire
Lore and belief
they are always supposed to be evil spirits hunting the souls of the dead, or, by their diabolical yelping, to betoken the speedy death of some person.
From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 2, p. 435. Read the original
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