THE ENGLISH STAG-HOUND. 325 



hound with some lighter animal of a similar species 

 (perhaps a greyhound or lurcher,) approximating 

 his form, to which conjecture his figure and dispo- 

 sition, as well as his comparative inferiority of scent, 

 appear to add strength. It is asserted in the Sports- 

 man's Cabinet, that the stag-hound " was originally 

 an improved cross between the old English deep- 

 tongued southern hound and the fleeter fox-hound, 

 grafted upon the basis of what was formerly called, 

 and better known by the appellation of, blood- 

 hound." But this assertion must have been made 

 without proper reflection ; for, in the first place, a 

 cross between the deep-tongued southern and the 

 fox-hound will not produce an animal nearly so 

 large or so strong as the stag-hound ; and, second- 

 ly, the stag-hound was known in England long 

 before the fox-hound was made use of, or, indeed, 

 before there was an animal at all resembling the 

 one which is now known by that term. 



We confess we regret the prospect of the total 

 extinction of the English stag-hound, who, although 

 his form possessed little of that symmetry we now 

 see in the English fox-hound, was a majestic ani- 

 mal of his kind, and possessed the property peculiar 

 alone to the blood-hound and himself, of unerringly 

 tracing the scent he was laid upon, amongst a 

 hundred others ; which evinces a superiority, at all 

 events a peculiarity, of nose entirely unknown to 

 our lighter hounds of any breed. The want of 

 being able to distinguish the hunted fox from a 

 fresh-found one is the bane of English fox-hunting ; 

 and there are not wanting those who think, that 



