120 BRITISH DOGS 



The causes of the disuse of the Deerhound in the Highlands 

 are, as is pretty well known, the greater precision of modern rifles, 

 and the great demand for, and consequent sub-division of, deer 

 forests and shootings. Years ago, when the large Highland pro- 

 prietors, or chieftains, held their vast tracks in their own possession, 

 before they had begun to realise what a gold mine their barren 

 hills and wild expanse of heather contained, it mattered little how 

 much the deer were disturbed or how far they were driven. But 

 now that forests, by sub-division, have become far more numerous, 

 and as nothing frightens away deer more than chasing them with 

 Ueerhounds, the use of the latter has died away, and, indeed, is 

 prohibited in many leases. 



Another circumstance which threatens to seriously injure and 

 coarsen the Deerhound is the modern craze that seeks to identify 

 the Irish Wolfhound, long extinct, with a gigantic Deerhound. To 

 attain the required standard, the Deerhound has been crossed with 

 various large breeds, even, I believe, with the St. Bernard ; but the 

 results have not been satisfactory, as, though bulk and coarseness 

 have been obtained, the height does not appear to have been 

 increased. Some of the animals thus bred have found their way 

 on to the show-bench as Deerhounds, and will certainly, with their 

 mixed blood, do no good to the breed if they transmit the qualities 

 for which themselves are conspicuous. 



Having now seen what the Deerhound, in my opinion, was not, 

 let us see what he is. He is doubtless the tall, rough Greyhound 

 of ancient days, appointed, as Holinshed says, to hunt the larger 

 beasts, such as stags and the like, and probably at one time as 

 common in England as in Scotland. The disappearance of the larger 

 animals in a wild state from England at such an early period con- 

 trasted with Scotland would account for his being found in the latter 

 country so long a time after he had totally died away here. There can, 

 indeed, be no doubt, from the accounts of Caius and Holinshed, 

 and those we get from others, that large * shagg-haired ' Grey- 

 hounds were used in England. This affords another inference 

 against the theory of Richardson, for, if the Irish dog had been no 

 more than a large, rough Greyhound, it would not have been in 

 any way remarkable. It was clearly a specific animal, peculiar to 

 Ireland, which merely rough Greyhounds evidently were not. The 

 Russian Wolfhound is an analogous example of the tall, rough 

 Greyhound of ancient days, yet I have never heard it claimed as 

 an Irish Wolfdog. 



Captain Graham, in 'The Book of the Dog,' says the earliest 

 record of the Deerhound is that given by Pennant, in 1769, and 

 elsewhere he founds thereon one of the chief inferences for his 

 Wolfdog theory, * that, whilst we have accounts of all the noticeable 

 breeds from a remote period, including the Irish Wolfdog, we do 



