2 OS COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



CHAPTEE XXL 



THE OLD STAG-HOUND. 



How the chorus peal'd and gather'd 



To an organ's tone ! 

 How the horses steara'd and lather'd, 



But to hold their own ! 

 Like a burst of angry weather 



In the tempest's frown, 

 How the pack at head together 



Swept across the down ! 



It may appear somewhat ridiculous to waste space on a hound 

 which has for something like fifty years ceased to exist amongst 

 us ; nevertheless, as there are enthusiastic stag-hunters still, it 

 may interest some of them to know with what manner of hound 

 our ancestors pursued this, the noblest of all the beasts of chase. 

 Moveover, so much mystery has already been thrown around 

 the character and pedigree of these once-celebrated animals, that 

 it cannot be altogether uninteresting to real lovers of the dog to 

 endeavour to unravel the skein of fiction which has been woven, 

 and endeavour to tell them what kind of hound the stag-hound 

 really was, and from what source he was originally derived. 

 As far as I have been able to learn, all writers on hounds who 

 have mentioned him in this century assert, as with the fox- 

 hound, that he is the result of a cross, and the hypothesis set 

 forth by some of them is ridiculous enough — in fact, according to 

 their account, he must have been the most vile mongrel in 

 existence, and no sane man could have expected to get three 

 puppies alike from the same litter. 



