FATAL EUSH OF A HART. 245 



fill ; for if they were fairly laid on, no hart could escape 

 them. They are now nine or ten years old ; and his lordship 

 informs me they are still able to bring the stoutest hart in 

 his forest to bay, and are altogether perfect. 



These dogs, in point of shape, resemble the greyhound ; 

 but they are larger in the bone, and shorter in the leg: 

 some of them, when in slow action, carry their tails over 

 their backs, like the pure foxhound. Their dash in making 

 a cast is most beautiful ; and they stand all sorts of rough 

 weather. 



As the above is, I think, the best cross that can possibly 

 be obtained for the modern method of deer-stalking, so it 

 should be strictly adhered to : I mean that, when you wish 

 to add to your kennel, you must take the cross in its 

 originality, and not continue to breed from the produce 

 first obtained ; for if you do this, you will soon see such 

 alarming monsters staring around you, as the warlike 

 Daunia never nourished in her woods and thickets, or as 

 cannot even be surpassed by the sculptured ones at the 

 villa of Prince Palagonia, near the shores of Palermo. 



The late celebrated sportsman, Glengarry, crossed oc- 

 casionally with a bloodhound instead of a foxhound : his 

 famous dog Hector was probably bred in this way; and I 

 believe Maida, the dog he presented to Sir Walter Scott, 

 had also a distant cross of the bloodhound in him. Two of 

 these small bloodhounds he generously gave to me, though 

 he was chary of the breed ; but they ran away from my 

 kennel, and were unfortunately lost. 



A cross with the bull-dog was once tried in the forest of 

 Atholl, to give courage ; but the produce was slow, as might 

 have been expected ; and the thing was overdone, for they 

 all got killed by attacking the deer in front. High-couraged 

 dogs, indeed, of every breed, are subject to accidents : they 

 get wounded, and even killed, by the harts ; are maimed 

 for life, or meet their death by falling over precipices in 

 their reckless pursuit, particularly in rounding a corner. 



It is very seldom that the deer themselves suffer from 

 precipitous falls, being well acquainted with their ground, 

 and studious in selecting it. Once, however, when I was 

 out, it happened that a hart, being wounded by me, and 



