CHAPTER III. 



THE STAGHOUND. 



As this hound is neither more nor less than a fox- 

 hound under another name, but trained for a different 

 purpose, I would rather he followed the latter than 

 preceded him, though older associations and modern 

 customs might entitle the so-called staghound, or 

 buckhound, to the premier position. 



He has been used, or, at any rate, a somewhat 

 similar animal to him has long been used, for stag- 

 hunting, and we are told by historians that, in the 

 times of the Normans, villages were depopulated, 

 and places for divine worship overthrown, in order 

 that the nobles might have their parks in which to 

 keep their deer. Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, was 

 one of these, and, according to Stowe, the first of 

 its kind in England. So great a hold had hunting 

 on those whose position allowed them to enjoy the 

 pastime, that Edward HI., when at war with France, 

 took with his army a pack of sixty couples of stag- 

 hounds ; and in the reign of Elizabeth a pack was 



