TUE OLD STAG-HOUND. 213 



intercourse that took place between the Courts of France and 

 England Avhile they were on the throne, the marriage of Charles 

 the First with the daughter of the King of France, and the resi- 

 dence of Charles the Second abroad after the rebellion, I think it 

 is easy enough to see how they may have found their way 

 into the royal kennels, and there, in the royal chase of Exmoor, 

 and in Epping Forest, is the only place that we have distinct 

 evidence of them in England, though the author of " French 

 Hounds of the Mneteenth Century " asserts his belief that they 

 certainly did find their way in some numbers to both England 

 and Ireland, and in the latter country were known as Kerry 

 Beagles. If not identical — and they may, I admit, have been 

 modified by a cross of English blood, in some instances over 

 here — they were evidently very similar ; there is scarcely a line 

 written of these French hounds that would not apply to the 

 old Devonshire stag-hounds. 



Doctor Collyns, of Dulverton, who hunted with them and 

 knew them well, says, " A nobler pack of hounds no man ever 

 saw. They had been in the county for years, and had been 

 bred with the utmost care for the express purpose of stag-hunting. 

 What the exact origin of this breed was, I am unable to state 

 with accuracy. The bloodhound and old Southern hound, 

 however, were beyond doubt amongst the ancestors of the pack, 

 which, when sold, consisted of about thirty couples. In height, 

 the hounds were about twenty-six to twenty-eight inches ; colour 

 generally hare-pied, yellow, yellow and white or badger-pied, 

 with long ears, deep muzzles, large throats, and deep chests. In 

 tongue they were perfect, and, when hunting in water or on half- 

 scent, or baying a deer, they might be heard at an immense 

 distance. Even when running at speed they gave plenty of 

 tongue, and their great size enabled them to cross the long hea- 

 ther and rough sedgy pasturage of the forest without eii'ort or 

 difficulty. The hills and woods of Devon and Somerset will 

 never again ring to the melody of such a pack." 



In another place he says, in speaking of scent (and thus 



