Primarily and essentially the Deerhound belongs to the order
_Agaseus_, hunting by sight and not by scent, and although he may
indeed occasionally put his nose to the ground, yet his powers of
scent are not remarkable. His vocation, therefore, has undergone a
change, and it was recently ascertained that of sixty deer forests
there were only six upon which Deerhounds were kept for sporting
purposes.

Happily the Deerhound has suffered no decline in the favour bestowed
upon him for his own sake. The contrary is rather the case, and he
is still an aristocrat among dogs, valued for his good looks, the
symmetry of his form, his grace and elegance, and even more so for
his faithful and affectionate nature. Sir Walter Scott declared that
he was "a most perfect creature of heaven," and when one sees him
represented in so beautiful a specimen of his noble race as St.
Ronan's Rhyme, for example, or Talisman, or Ayrshire, one is tempted
to echo this high praise.

Seven-and-twenty years ago Captain Graham drew up a list of the most
notable dogs of the last century. Among these were Sir St. George
Gore's Gruim (1843-44), Black Bran (1850-51); the Marquis of
Breadalbane's King of the Forest, said to stand 33 inches high; Mr.
Beaseley's Alder (1863-67), bred by Sir John McNeill of Colonsay;
Mr. Donald Cameron's Torrum (1869), and his two sons Monzie and Young
Torrum; and Mr. Dadley's Hector, who was probably the best-bred dog
living in the early eighties. Torrum, however, appears to have been
the most successful of these dogs at stud. He was an exceedingly grand
specimen of his race, strong framed, with plenty of hair of a blue
brindle colour. Captain Graham's own dog Keildar, who had been trained