320 SIR WILLIAM ST. CLAIR'S DOGS. 



dog had taken steaks from the living haunches, after the 

 fashion of Abyssinia, and was already amazingly turgid. 

 His name was Hannibal. 



" Expende Annibalem, quot libras in duce summo 

 Invenies ? " 



I gave him a pretty considerable drubbing for this his 

 luxurious propensity : but even under the lash, it was 

 sometime ere 



" La bocca sollevo dal fiero pasto 

 Quel peccator." 



After this perpetration, I changed his name, by a very 

 easy transition, from Hannibal to Cannibal ; but, Hannibal 

 or Cannibal, I never suffered him to pass the Scotch alps 

 with me a second time. 



There is an interesting story mentioned in the notes of 

 the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," taken from a manuscript 

 " History of the Family of St. Clair," which is so apposite 

 to this subject, that I cannot forbear transcribing it. 



It seems to prove that the chief reliance for sport was 

 formerly placed in the dogs, who were accustomed to pull 

 down and kill deer without any aid from the huntsmen ; 

 and that nobles, and even kings, prided themselves upon 

 the fleetness and courage of their hounds. 



" King Robert Bruce," says Augustin Hay (canon of 

 St. Genevieve), "in following the chase upon the Pentland 

 Hills, had often started f a white faunch deer,' which had 

 always escaped from his hounds ; and he asked his nobles, 

 who were assembled around him, whether any of them had 

 dogs which they thought might be more successful. No 

 courtier would affirm that his hounds were fleeter than 

 those of the king, until Sir William St. Clair of Eoslin 



