MASTER OF BUCK-HOUNDS. 427 



teentli century, we find a nearer approach to the 

 tbx-hound. In a portrait of the Duke of Mon- 

 mouth, the natural son of Charles II., there is a 

 part of a hound introduced, which, both in colour 

 and make, bears the strongest resemblance to the 

 stag-hound of the last century. That the hound 

 of those days was stout in the field, we have sin- 

 gular proof, in the record of a chase preserved at 

 Thorndon, in Essex, the seat of Lord Petre. This 

 account was given by Mr. Robert Nunn, the hunts- 

 man, and dated August, 1684."' After describing 

 the immense space of country over which the deer 

 ran, having been turned out at Swinley, in Wind- 

 sor Forest, and taken in Lord Petre's Park at 

 Thorndon, the account thus proceeds : — " The 

 Duke of York, who rid the whole chase, (said to 

 be 70 miles,) with five persons more, was in at the 

 death ; his Royal Highness dined at the Lord 

 Petre's, and lay there that night ; the next morn- 

 ing he returned, and, when he came to Court, re- 

 lated all that was done to the King.'" 



" The buck-hound, in the days of George III.," 

 continues Mr. Davis, " was tall, loose, and ill put 

 together, with a well-formed head and large ears, 

 not rounded ; its colour was a yellow pie, more in 

 spots than is usual in hounds. Its pace for half 

 an hour was very fast ; after the first stop there 

 was little difficulty in keeping with them."' 



" The hunting establishment of the olden time 

 was maintained in great state and magnificence. 

 In the yeoman-prickers of later days some remains 

 of it might be traced. They were originally men 



