tration: DEER-HOUNDS.]

"His bulk and beauty speak no vulgar praise.

* * * *

Oh had you seen him, vigorous, bold, and young,
Swift as a stag, and as a lion strong;
Him no fell savage in the plain withstood,
None 'scap'd him, bosomed in the gloomy wood;
His eye how piercing!"
POPE.

THE IRISH AND HIGHLAND WOLF-DOG.

A certain degree of romance will always be attached to the history of
the Irish wolf-dog, but so contradictory are the accounts handed down
to us respecting it, that, with every disposition to do justice to
the character of this noble animal, the task is one of no small
difficulty.

This dog seems to have flourished, and to have become nearly extinct,
with the ancient kings of Ireland, and, with the harp and shamrock, is
regarded as one of the national emblems of that country. When princely
hospitality was to be found in the old palaces, castles, and baronial
halls of fair Erin, it is hardly possible to imagine anything more
aristocratic and imposing than the aspect of these dogs, while
attending the banquets of their masters. So great, indeed, was their
height, that it has been affirmed, that when their chieftain was
seated at table these dogs could rest their heads on his shoulders.
However this may have been, it is certain that the bold, majestic, and
commanding appearance of the animal, joined to the mild and softened
look with which he regarded those to whom he was attached, and whom he
was always ready to defend, must have rendered him worthy of the
enthusiasm with which the remembrance of him is still cherished by the
warm-hearted people of Ireland.

The following anecdote, which has been communicated to me by an
amiable Irish nobleman, will at all events serve to show the peculiar
instinct which the Irish wolf-dog was supposed to possess.

A gentleman of an ancient family, whose name it is unnecessary to
mention, from his having been engaged in the troubles which agitated
Ireland about fifty or sixty years since, went into a coffee-room at
Dublin during that period, accompanied by a noble wolf-dog, supposed
to be one of the last of the breed. There was only one other gentleman
in the coffee-room, who, on seeing the dog, went up to him, and began
to notice him. His owner, in considerable alarm, begged him to desist,
as the dog was fierce, and would never allow a stranger to touch him.