178 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



Such were the bold features of the day, when the 

 stag was so little hampered in his movements, or 

 bound to one place, that he drank one night at a 

 rill in Glen Artney, and cooled his heated flanks 

 the next in the waters of Loch Katrine. 



Sport such as this is out of date. The horn is 

 hung up in the hall, amid the other relics of a 

 bygone time. 



In any remnant that may remain in modern 

 coursing, the better half of the chase has been 

 thrown away, and only the baser part retained. 

 What we witness is mainly a contest between the 

 deer and the hound, in which the hunter is a 

 passive, or rather excited looker-on. And, as the 

 stag is by no means so spirited an animal as its 

 progenitors were, nor so strong and speedy, nor in 

 any way so well fitted for the ordeal, it is rather 

 a poor affair at the best. A trial on unequal terms 

 is not an elevating spectacle. 



I cannot help feeling that there is a certain 

 barbarism, when man is not heated by personal 

 participation, I had almost said personal risk, which 

 degrades all such duels between animals beneath 

 the highest level of sport, and places them down 

 beside similar contests in the arena. Somehow, they 

 do not seem to fall in with our insular notions. They 



