The Staghound. 77 



good legs, with strong loins are a sine qua non in 

 both. 



The staghound does not undergo the operation of 

 having his ears rounded. He can boast of having 

 taken part in extraordinary runs, one in Essex, 

 continuing for seventy miles before the deer was 

 killed. But this must have been nothing to one 

 that is said to have occurred in Scotland and 

 Cumberland, sometime in the year 1333 or 1334, 

 when Edward Baliol, King of Scotland, went to hunt 

 with Robert de Clifford, in his domain at Appleby 

 and Brougham. It is said that a single hound 

 chased a "hart of grease" (an eight year old 

 stag) from near Penrith to Red Kirk, in Scotland, 

 and back again, a distance that could not be less 

 than eighty miles, even by the straightest road. 

 The stag, in attempting to regain Whinfell Park, 

 from whence it started, just managed to leap the 

 wall, when it fell dead, the noble hound also falling 

 lifeless, on the other side the fence. 



This may be true or not, possibly not. Some early 

 writers said the dog was a greyhound that took 

 part in this wonderful run. Others have said it was 

 a deerhound, but it is more likely to have been an 

 ordinary hound of the country, answering to our 

 present staghound, than anything else. The bones of 

 the stag were, it is said, placed in a large oak tree 



