172 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



night to Monday morning ; and the pure 

 bred Bran by himself pulled down two un- 

 wounded stags, one carrying ten and the 

 other eleven tines. These, of course, are 

 record performances, but they demonstrate 

 the possibilities of the Deerhound when 

 trained to his natural sport.. 



In Scrope's time driving was commonly 

 resorted to in the extensive forests, but 

 nowadays when forests are sub-divided 

 into limited shootings 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 

 necessary for sportsmen stealthily to stalk 

 their game to come within easy range, and 

 as for dogs, they have become so doubtful 

 an appendage to, the chase that we have 

 an experienced deerstalker like Cameron 

 of Lochiel soberly putting the question : 

 " Ought dogs to be used in a forest at 

 all ? " * 



Obviously they ought still to be of use 

 in enabling the sportsman to secure his 

 wounded deer, which may not be crippled 

 beyond the possibility of successful flight. 

 Admitting that dogs are thus helpful in 

 tracking, Cameron of Lochiel discusses the 

 question as to the breed best adapted for 

 this sport, and, with all a Highlander's love 

 for the Deerhound, he yet reluctantly 

 decides that these magnificent dogs are not 

 by any means the most suitable. " For 

 use on the hill," he adds, " nothing beats the 

 Collie. He is possessed of instinct one 

 may almost call it sense in a higher degree 

 than any other breed, and he is more 

 tractable he will run by sight or by scent, 

 loose or on a cord ; he will keep close to his 

 master, requiring no gillie to lead him ; he 

 can be taught to lie down, and will even 

 learn to crawl when necessary ; and at any 

 rate his motions are those of an animal 

 who knows that he is trying to approach a 

 prey unobserved. But the chief merit in 

 a Collie over all other dogs for following a 



" The Red Deer." Fur and Feather Series 

 (Longman and Co., 1896). 



wounded deer consists in his wonderful 

 faculty for distinguishing between the track 

 of a wounded and that of a cold stag." 



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 not 

 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 Talis- 

 man, or Ayrshire, one is tempted to echo 

 this high praise. 



In recent years the Deerhound has been 

 fashionable at exhibitions of dogs, and 

 although the number brought into com- 

 petition is never very great, yet it is always 

 apparent that the true type is being steadily 

 preserved and that in many respects decided 

 improvements are achieved. The oldest 

 strain is probably that of Chesthill, on 

 Loch Tay, established by the Menzies over 

 a hundred years ago. It is no longer kept 

 in its integrity by the Menzies family, but 

 Mr. R. Hood Wright, whose name must 

 always be intimately associated with this 

 breed, came into possession of some of the 

 strain, and bred from them to a considerable 

 extent. Mr. G. W. Hickman, of Selly Hill, 

 made similar efforts, his Morni and Garry 

 being of true Chesthill descent. Cameron 

 of Lochiel had also a venerable strain, of 

 which his Torrum, exhibited at Birmingham 

 in 1869, was a notable example. Other 

 strains which have entered largely into 

 our present day Deerhounds are those of 

 Morrison of Glenelg, McNeil of Colonsay, 



