THE DEERHOUND 97 



Driving was commonly resorted to in the extensive forests, 

 but nowadays when forests are sub-divided into limited shoot- 

 ings the deer are seldom moved from their home preserves, 

 whilst with the use of improved telescopes and the small-bore 

 rifle, stalking has gone out of fashion. With guns having a 

 muzzle velocity of 2,500 feet per second, it is no longer necess- 

 ary for sportsmen stealthily to stalk their game to come within 

 easy range, and as for hounds, they have become a doubtful 

 appendage to the chase. 



Primarily and essentially the Deerhound belongs to the 

 order Agaseus, hunting by sight and not by scent, and although 

 he may indeed occasionally put his nose to the ground, yet his 

 ; powers of scent are nol remarkable. His vocation, therefore, 

 has undergone a change, and it was recently ascertained that 

 of sixty deer forests there were only six upon which Deerhounds 

 were kept for sporting purposes. 



Happily the Deerhound has suffered no decline in the 

 favour bestowed upon him for his own sake. The contrary is 

 rather the case, and he is still an aristocrat among dogs, 

 valued for his good looks, the symmetry of his form, his 

 grace and elegance, and even more so for his faithful and 

 affectionate nature. Sir Walter Scott declared that he was 

 " a most perfect creature of heaven," and when one sees 

 him represented in so beautiful a specimen of his noble race 

 as St. Ronan's Rhyme, for example, or Talisman, or Ayrshire, 

 one is tempted to echo this high praise. 



Seven-and-twenty years ago Captain Graham drew up a list 

 of the most notable dogs of the last century. Among these 

 j were Sir St. George Gore's Gruim (1843-44), Black Bran 

 (1850-51) ; the Marquis of Breadalbane's King of the Forest, 

 said to stand 33 inches high ; Mr. Beaseley's Alder (1863-67), 

 bred by Sir John McNeill of Colonsay ; Mr. Donald Cameron's 

 Torrum (1869), and his two sons Monzie and Young Torrum ; 

 and Mr. Dadley's Hector, who was probably the best-bred 

 dog living in the early eighties. Torrum, however, appears 

 to have been the most successful of these dogs at stud. He was 



