THE DEERHOUND. 



171 



standing over thirty inches in height. It wounded stag at bay. In the former 



was at this period that Sir Edwin Landseer 'case a hound of superior strength, speed, 



was industriously transferring to canvas his and courage was required. So soon as 



admiration of the typical Deerhound. Sir the herd were in sight, the hunters, getting 



Walter Scott had already done much to as near as they could, slipped the hounds 



preserve public interest in the breed, both and the race began. On the roughest 



by his writings and by the fact that he kept ground the strong-legged, hard-footed dogs 



many of these dogs at Abbotsford ; but it 

 is saddening to note that although his 

 Torrum was the son of a true Glengarry sire, 



could hold their own, while on the flat they 

 overhauled their quarry. They stuck 

 staunchly to the chase, and when within 



yet his famous Maida was a mongrel by a seizing distance would sometimes spring 



Pyrenean Wolfdog. Notwithstanding the at the leg in order to confuse and encumber 



sinister bend, however, Maida was a mag- the stag until there came a better oppor- 



nificent animal, partaking of the appearance tunity of springing at the neck. If the stag 



of his Deerhound dam, but having height stood at bay, woe betide the hound whose 



and power from his sire. The cross was of courage led him to make a frontal attack ; for 



benefit to the breed, and from Maida many he would surely pay for his valour with his 



of our best modern Deerhounds are de- 

 scended. Washington Irving described him 

 as a giant in iron grey. Landseer's portrait 



life or sustain terrible injuries. If, however, 

 the attack was made from behind, the hunter 

 would generally come up to find the deer 



of him (p. 169) shows him to have been a dead, while the hounds were unharmed. 



white dog with a grey saddle mingled with 

 black, extending into patches on the thighs. 

 He had a white blaze up the face, and a 

 white muzzle and collar, and his dark ears 

 seem to have been cropped. The com- 

 panion hound sitting behind him in the 

 picture is of better type. 



Scrope's neglected 

 but delightful book 

 on deerstalking was 

 written when the 

 sport was at its 

 zenith, and it con- 

 tains fascinating de- 

 scriptions of the 

 glories of pursuing 

 the red deer in the 

 wilds of the forest of 

 Atholl, and of the 

 performances of such 

 hounds as Tarff and 

 Derig and Schuloch. 



The Deerhounds 

 were used in two 

 ways. In the one 

 case they coursed the 

 deer from first to last 

 without the aid of 

 man. In the other, 

 they held the 



Their duty was not to kill their victim but 

 to keep him at bay until the hunters arrived. 

 Two historic feats of strength and en- 

 durance illustrate the tenacity of the Deer- 

 hound at work. A brace of half-bred dogs, 

 named Percy and Douglas, the property of 

 Mr. Scrope, kept a stag at bay from Saturday 



CH. BLAIR ATHOL BY CH. SELWOOD DHOURAN KATRINE. 



BRED AND OWNED BY MRS. W. C. GREW. 



