The Deerhound. 207 



McKenzies, Macraes, and Macleods, were all of 

 considerable reputation. The pedigrees were care- 

 fully guarded, and it is said that Dr. Ross, parish 

 priest at Kilmonivaig, was prouder of the blood of 

 some of his hounds, which were said to be of a pure 

 and rare strain originally possessed by the Duke of 

 Gordon, than he was of his own ancestry, traceable 

 to the Earls of Ross. 



A favourite sporting author from my earliest boy- 

 hood days has been Charles St. John, who, in 

 his " Highland Sports," writes so charmingly and 

 naturally of all he saw and shot and caught during his 

 excursions. He wrote but eight years after Scrope, 

 still he says that the breed of deerhounds which 

 '' had nearly become extinct, or, at any rate, was very 

 rare a few years ago, has now become comparatively 

 plentiful in all the Highland districts, owing to the 

 increased extent of the preserved forests and the 

 trouble taken by different proprietors and masters of 

 mountain shootings, who have collected and bred 

 this noble race of dogs regardless of expense and 

 difficulty." Not a word about Macneill's crosses or 

 of those of Glengarry ; and I am happy in the belief 

 that our present race of deerhounds does not contain 

 the slightest taint of bloodhound or foxhound blood. 

 If it did, surely the black and tan colour and the 

 greyhound markings would continually be appearing. 



