CHAPTER VII. 

 THE DEERHOUND. 



FAILING any further information on the subject 

 than we at present possess, it will always be a moot 

 point whether the hounds used for Queen Elizabeth's 

 delectation at Cowdray Park, in 1595, that " pulled 

 down sixteen bucks in a laund," were the ordinary 

 greyhounds or the Scottish deerhounds. The latter 

 were likely enough to be fashionable animals at the 

 close of the sixteenth century, for they had already 

 been described by Boece, in his History of Scotland, 

 published in 1526; and, thirty-four years later, 

 Gesner, in his " General History of Quadrupeds," 

 gives an illustration of three Scottish dogs, one of 

 them answering to our modern deerhound in general 

 appearance. The drawing for this was supplied by 

 Henry St. Clair, Dean of Glasgow at that time, 

 whose family kept the breed for very many years, 

 an interesting story in connection therewith being 

 told on another page. 



Good Queen Bess was fond of her dogs and the 



