484 



CHAPTER LVII. 



FRENCH AND OTHER CONTINENTAL HOUNDS. 



" Good shape to various kinds old bards confine — 

 Some praise the Greek and some the Roman 



line : 

 And dogs to beauty make as diff'ring claims 



French Staghounds.— If hunting generally 

 is known as the sport of kings, then surely 

 is stag - hunting particularly associated 

 with memories of mediaeval courts, and, 

 although some might not perhaps expect 

 it, modem France preserves above all 

 other lands the traditions and even the 

 outward forms of the ancient chasse. In 

 many of the French forests it would be as 

 great a heresy to kill a deer otherwise than 

 before the hounds as ever it would be on 

 Exmoor, and the French hounds are especi- 

 ally bred to the sport. 



The range of the stag is restricted to 

 certain forests in the north, north-east, and 

 west, as well as in isolated parts of Burgundy. 

 Elsewhere the quarry of the hound is 

 roe deer, boar, fox, or hare, the first named 

 in the south-west, the last in the south. 

 The remaining deer forests of France, once 

 royal domains, are now the property of the 

 state, leased every nine years to the highest 

 bidder, whether representing a private or 

 subscription pack. The late Due d'Aumale 

 owned until his death one of the finest, the 

 domain of Chantilly ; but it passed by his 

 will to the French Academy, though the 

 hunting rights are vested in his heir, the 

 Due de Chartres, Master of the Chantilly 

 Staghounds. The death of the Prince de 

 Joinville broke the pack of Boarhounds that 

 he kept up in the forest of Arc en Barrois ; 

 but this forest, as well as that of Amboise, 

 remains, though leased to private individuals, 

 royal property. 



The chief packs of French Staghounds 

 meet in the neighbourhood of Paris, in such 

 forests as those of Rambouillet (Duchesse 

 d'Uzes), Chantilly (Due de Chartres), 



As Albion's nymphs and India's jetty dames. 

 Immense to name their lands, to mark their 



bounds, 

 And paint the thousand families of hounds." 



TiCKELL. 



Villers Cotterets (Comte de Cuyelles), and 

 Fontainebleau (Due de Lorge). 



The pack owned by the Due de Lorge 

 has been considered one of the finest in 

 France, hunting red and roe deer alternately. 

 Previous to the reign of Louis XV. the 

 packs were composed of pure French hounds, 

 but from the early years of the nineteenth 

 century it became the custom to cross these 

 with English Foxhounds, the resulting packs 

 being known as Batards. The contemporary 

 pack has this mixed blood, for in the 'sixties 

 M. Paul Caillard turned into the then 

 Duke's kennels twenty hounds that were a 

 cross between a Toulon bitch and a fine 

 Foxhound out of the Pytchley kennels. 

 Only in matters of detail, in the uniforms 

 of the huntsmen, and in certain rules and 

 forms jealously preserved from other cen- 

 turies, does the sport at Fontainebleau 

 differ from the more modern outings at 

 Cloutsham and on the Quantocks. 



The day before a meet, a warrantable 

 stag has to be harboured, and this is accom- 

 plished with the help of Limiers, two chosen 

 hounds of superior intelligence and wonderful 

 powers of scent. The slot of the stag is the 

 indication of its size, and the Limiers, 

 worked on a cord, show exactly where the 

 animal is lying up. A leafy bough is then 

 placed so as to indicate the spot, and next 

 morning hounds meet. Ordinary Foxhounds 

 are used for this work in Britain, but the 

 French hounds are larger and more powerful 

 animals, with the same proportion of red, 

 white and black markings. 



It is all done as in the vanished daj/s of 

 great pageantry. The Sologne is now, as. 

 then, the classic home of French venery. 



