THE OLD STAG-HOUND. 215 



work for himself, not putting his faith in his neighbour, but 

 trusting to his own nose, and that alone." Compare the follow- 

 ing from GafTet de la Britfardiere, and we shall see that they 

 were like the white Vendee hound in something more than size 

 and colour : — " I have had a life-long experience of them, not 

 only in the royal kennels, where they are exclusively kept, but 

 in all packs belonging to the princes and noblemen of my time : 

 and I can certify that when these hounds are well entered once 

 for all, you can do what you like with them. I have often seen 

 them in a hunt keep from change altogether. I have seen them 

 separate a brocket from a herd, single out an animal they had 

 chased for scarcely an hour from amongst a number of others by 

 which he was accompanied, and, having well kept his track, 

 separated him from the rest without having lost him for one 

 single moment, put him out of wind, and run him down at last. 

 At Compiegne, where the change is difficult to avoid, I have 

 seen, out of thirty couple, more than forty hounds stick to their 

 right animal, although at every minute other stags bounded 

 across their path, when they, scarcely turning their noses aside; 

 passed on, sticking closely to the right track." I fear this grand 

 race is almost extinct in France, though I have not heard what 

 efforts have been made there to recover the breed since Count 

 Conteux de Canteleu called attention to their merits. 



The Eoyal pack was sold to Colonel Thornton in 1815, 

 who took them abroad. In 1825 the Devon and Somerset were 

 sold to Mr. Shard to hunt carted deer, as I have already said ; 

 and in 1827 or 1828 they also were sold at Tattersall's, and went 

 abroad. Thus the stag-hound died out from English soil. 



Colonel Mellish, as is said above, had a pack of the lemon 

 and white stag-hounds, and hunted wild deer with them in 

 Epping Forest up to the year 1805, when they were sold to the 

 Devon and Somerset Hunt ; but a draft was left behind, and 

 they went on and hunted with them in the forest. Lord 

 Mornington was master for a time ; then they were given up for 

 a year and a half, or so; but about 1815 Mr. Bounding took 



