THE DEERHOUND. 



171 



standing over thirty inches in height. It 

 was at this period that Sir Edwin Landseer 

 was industriously transferring to canvas his 

 admiration of the typical Deerhound. Sir 

 Walter Scott had already done much to 

 preserve public interest in the breed, both 

 by his writings and by the fact that he kept 

 many of these dogs at Abbotsford ; but it 

 is saddening to note that although his 

 Torrum was the son of a true Glengarry sire, 

 yet his famous Maida was a mongrel by a 

 Pyrenean W'olfdog. Xot\\-ithstanding the 

 sinister bend, however, Maida was a mag- 

 nificent animal, partaking of the appearance 

 of his Deerhound dam, but having height 

 and power from his sire. The cross was of 

 benefit to the breed, and from Maida many 

 of our best modem Deerhounds are de- 

 scended. Washington Irving described him 

 as a giant in iron grey. Landseer's portrait 

 of him (p. 169) shows him to have been a 

 white dog with a grey saddle mingled with 

 black, extending into patches on the thighs. 

 He had a white blaze up the face, and a 

 white muzzle and collar, and his dark ears 

 seem to have been cropped. The com- 

 panion hound sitting behind him in the 

 picture is of better type. 



Scrope's neglected 

 but delightful book 

 on deerstalking was 

 written when the 

 sport was at its 

 zenith, and it con- 

 tains fascinating de- 

 scriptions of the 

 glories of pursuing 

 the red deer in the 

 wilds of the forest of 

 AthoU, and of the 

 performances of such 

 hounds as Tarff and 

 Derig and Schuloch. 



The Deerhounds 

 were used in two 

 ways. In the one 

 case the}' coursed the 

 deer from first to last 

 without the aid of 

 man. In the other, 

 they held the 



wounded stag at ba3\ In the former 

 case a hound of superior strength, speed, 

 and courage was required. So soon as 

 the herd were in sight, the hunters, getting 

 as near as they could, slipped the hounds 

 and the race began. On the roughest 

 ground the strong-legged, hard-footed dogs 

 could hold their owti, while on the flat they 

 overhauled their quarry. They stuck 

 staunchly to the chase, and when within 

 seizing distance would sometimes spring 

 at the leg in order to confuse and encumber 

 the stag until there came a better oppor- 

 tunity of springing at the neck. If the stag 

 stood at bay, woe betide the hound whose 

 courage led him to make a frontal attack ; for 

 he would surely pay for his ^•alour with his 

 Ufe or sustain terrible injuries. If, however, 

 the attack was made from behind, -the hunter 

 would generally come up to find the deer 

 dead, while the hounds were unharmed. 

 Their duty was not to kill their victim but 

 to keep him at bay until the hunters arrived. 

 Two historic feats of strength and en- 

 durance illustrate the tenacity of the Deer- 

 hound at work. A brace of half-bred dogs, 

 named Percy and Douglas, the property of 

 Mr. Scrope, kept a stag at bay from Saturda}- 



CH. BLAIR ATHOL BY CH. selwood dhouran- 



BRED AND OWNED BY MRS. W. C. GREW. 



