THE OLD STAG-HOUND. 211 



his nose, cause liim to hunt in a bolder style. But the breed 

 was not quite formed yet, for the king, finding the Greffiers 

 rather deficient in stature, " increased their size by a new cross 

 with a hound called Mirand," presented to him by Admiral 

 d'Annefault. Henry the Second again modified this breed by 

 new crosses with a white hound named Barraud, which had been 

 given him by the Queen of Scotland, Mary de Guise, the 

 mother of Mary Stuart. " Thus was formed a breed stronger 

 than the original Greffiers," and " suitable hounds for a king." 

 "As tall as greyhounds, they had heads as fine as those of 

 pointers." 



Of course, as to what breed Barraud may have been, we know 

 nothing, but I think there is a strong probability that he was no 

 other than one of the fleet northern hounds, since known as the 

 English fox-hound; and if so, no doubt to him in a great measure 

 is to be attributed the pace and dash which enabled the great 

 white hounds to perform the feats recorded of them. 



These may appear apocryphal, and the following, taken from 

 the same source as what I have before said of them, would seem 

 scarcely credible, did we not remember that there are deer and 

 deer, and that a very heavy stag can scarcely live longer before 

 hounds than a fat bullock would. I have seen a brace killed 

 by the Devon and Somerset in a very short time — in fact, after 

 being tufted for, and forced into the open, they stood scarcely 

 any time before hounds ; and I once heard a good harbourer say 

 that he would be bound, when a very heavy deer was forced 

 away, to run him down with a team of Clumbers. This is no 

 disparagement to the deer ; if Mr. Grace led the life of an alder- 

 man for a time, he would scarcely be the cricketer he is. " The 

 speed of the French hounds," as stated in the J^tats de Veneriej 

 " was so great that we are astonished at it now. The most 

 vigorous stags did not last more than three quarters of an hour 

 before the hounds of Louis XIY., at the time when this king, 

 in the plenitude of his youth and health, did not object to fast 

 hunting as he afterwards did. It was no uncommon feat to run 



p 2 



