CHAPTER XIV. 



THE PACK. 



Two dogs of black Saint Hubert's breed, 

 Unmatch'd for courage, breath, and speed, 

 Fast on his flying traces came. 



Scott {The Lady of the Lake). 



One cannot help wondering with what hounds our 

 ancestors hunted the stag in the middle ages, how 

 they were bred, and how they would compare for 

 size, nose, and pace with the modern hound. In this, 

 as in so much relating to staghunting, there is but 

 little to help one, and one is driven to eke out the 

 small amount of information derived from old writers 

 by pure conjecture. 



Britain was celebrated for its hounds even before 

 the Christian era, and, according to Gratius (B.C. 

 17), though having little in the way of looks to 

 commend them, yet when hard work and courage 

 were wanted they were equal to the wonderful dogs 

 of Molossus. Strabo notes them as being exported 

 to Gaul on account of their excellence in the chase. 

 Oppian, in his " Cynegaticon " (book i., 468), writing 

 in A.D. 264, says : " There is beside an excellent 

 kind of scenting dogs, though small yet worthy of 



