246 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



that a lightness of loin and lengthy flat sides are the 

 criticisms generally passed on the old pack of stag- 

 hounds which were sold in 1825, as represented in 

 the picture in the " The Chase of the Wild Red 

 Deer." 



Nothing is said in " The Master of Game " as to 

 the size of these hounds, and the drawings are not 

 sufficiently trustworthy to enable one to form more 

 than a rough guess by comparing them with the 

 men, horses, and other dogs portrayed. The raches 

 are considerably smaller than the alaunts and 

 mastiffs, and shorter on the leg, as well as less long 

 in the body than the greyhounds, one of which, in 

 one of the numerous monochrome reproductions, is 

 apparently grey, with a long coat like a Scottish 

 deerhound. Assuming the height of men to be about 

 normal, and that of horses to be from 14.2 to 15 

 hands, which Mr. Dale, in his learned and convincing 

 work on polo ponies, asserts is the normal stature of 

 a horse, the raches would appear to have stood 

 somewhere about 24 to 25 in. 



The Comte le Couteulx de Canteleu enumerates 

 and describes seventeen distinct breeds of French 

 hounds, ancient and modern, but says he agrees 

 with Charles IX. in his " Traite de Chasse " : "que 

 toutes les races de chiens courants venaient des 

 quatre races royales : St. Hubert ; grands chiens 

 blancs du roi ; chiens fauves de Bretagne ; chiens 

 gris de St. Louis." Which of these breeds is the 

 nearest to the "raches" represented in Gaston de 



