Chapter XII: Part 12

A passage which Wase supposes to allude to the canis Gallicus of Arrian; whose impetuosity of course, and entire want of scent, his peculiar characteristics, resemble the heedless, rash, and head-strong ardour of the Gallic character in general, (Ælian. V. H. L. +xii.+ c. 23.) and particularly of the Gallic soldiers of Lucan’s Pharsalia:

[Sidenote: Lucan. L. +i.+ p. 19. Ed. Farnab.]

quos ille timorum
Maximus haud urget lethi metus; inde ruendi
In ferrum mens prona viris, animæque capaces
Mortis: et ignavum redituræ parcere vitæ.

But an allusion to the war-dogs of Celtica, the “diversi Celtæ” of vs. 156. of the Cynegeticon, seems equally tenable. At the same time, it is not impossible but that both passages may refer to greyhounds, under the names of Galli and Celtæ.

[321] In the muster-roll of Actæon’s pack by Gratius’s contemporary, amidst various sorts of hounds culled from various countries, the same characteristic distinctions predominate: we have a

[Sidenote: Ovid. Met. L. +iii.+ 211.]

_trux_ cum Lælape Theron,
Et _pedibus_ Pterelas, et _naribus_ utilis Agre.

[322] The same threefold division runs through many of the modern semi-classical Cynegetica—being founded, as of course it is, in the essential qualities of the canine race:

[Sidenote: Joan. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Nunc age quis villæ melior, gregibusque tuendis;
Quæ volucri soboles cursu, nasove sagaci
Sit potior; nec enim solers dedit omnibus unum
Natura ingenium.

[Sidenote: De Quad. Digit. Vivip. L. +iii.+]

Ulysses Aldrovandus, in the section of his elaborate work which treats of the canine race, uses the very words of Seneca before cited, to mark the “tres præcipuæ canibus venaticis proprietates—_sagacitas, cursus, audacia_.”

[Sidenote: Vanierii Præd. Rust. L. +iv.+]

Sed non una canum species: pars nata domorum
Excubiis, gressum et mensam sectatur herilem:
Venandi studiosa feras pars alite cursu
Insequitur, vel nare sagax vestigat odorâ.

[323] Painter’s Palace of Pleasure amusingly works out the points of resemblance in the field-array of an army and a hunt;—“... by the pursuite of Beastes, sleyghts of warre bee observed: The Houndes be the square battell, the Greyhoundes be the flanquarts and Wynges to follow the enimy, the horseman semeth to gieve the Chase, when the Game speedeth to covert, the Hornes be the Trumpets to sounde the Chase, and Retire, and for incouragement of the Dogges to run. To be short, it seemeth a very Campe in battayle, ordayned for the pleasure and passetyme of noble youth.”

[324] This fragment, highly Gratian in its style and subject, but long mis-appropriated to Ovid on the erroneous authority of Pliny, (L. +xxxii.+ c. 2.) is now considered, on the strength of internal evidence, by Vlitius and Wernsdorf to belong to Gratius.

[325] Spirited representations of the different chases are given in Montfaucon’s Antiquities, Tom. +iii.+ Liv. +iii.+ from ancient gems, the Sepulchre of the Nasoni, Arch of Constantine, &c. See also the Venationes Ferarum of a later date by Strada and Galle, already referred to.

[326] κύκλους, the _rings_ of Gervase Markham, Countrey Contentments, Book I. +i.+ c. 1.

[327] For further particulars, see Xen. de V. c. +x.+ Oppian. Cyn. +iii.+ vs. 379. Adrian. Venat. vs. 55. (Edit. Ald.) Natalis Comes de Ven. L. +iii.+ v. 342. (Edit. Ald. F.) Cæsar. Borgiæ Ducis Epiced. per H. Strozam. P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. +iv.+ p. 104. and Iac. Savary, Syothera L. +i.+ A capital wood-cut of a boar bayed by ferocious hounds is given by I. A. Lonicer in his Venatus et Aucupium, Tab. Aper. and others in the Venationes Ferarum of Strada and Galle. See also the =Mayster of Game; of the wylde boor=, c. +vii.+

[328] The reader will find descriptions of many of the different chases, for which I have no room here, in the Latin Cynegetica of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, cited under the boar-hunt of Calydon. For “the chiefe huntyng of the valiaunt Grekes and noble Romaynes,” see “The boke named The Governour, devised by Sir Thomas Elyot, Knyght.” B. +i.+ c. +xviii.+

[329] The lines of this animated picture, which describe, in the language of experience, the different degrees of restraint to be imposed on the Limiers, the Molossians, the Cretans, and Spartans, are here omitted: inasmuch as they will be more appropriately cited by us, when we come to speak of the family of _limiers_, the _canes inductores_ of classical antiquity.

[330] If the appropriation of the Oppianic portrait to the Vertragus of Arrian alone be deemed too scrupulously exclusive,—inasmuch as it leaves the Spartan hound of Xenophon undescribed by the Greek poet,—I will allow that preference of the Celtic type to all others may have influenced my decision; and am willing, with the reader’s approval, to admit the hound of Lacedæmon into a participation of the honour bestowed on the Vertragus.

[331]

[Sidenote: Venatio Novantiqua.]

In addition to this triple view, a farther distinction of the canine race is founded by Oppian on purity and commixture of blood. The mongrel or mixed breed is again divided into two varieties, the one constituted of dogs of different countries crossed with each other; the other of dogs crossed with various wild animals, θηρομιγῆ, as tigers, lions, wolves, and foxes;—whence in the opinion of the ancient cynegetical writers originated many varieties of hybrid races; which later experiments have proved to be founded in fable; with the exception of those produced between the wolf and dog, and the jackal and dog. It is not improbable that the latter hybrid production may have given rise to the fabled progeny of the dog and fox, the ἀλωπεκίδες of Xenophon; as the Canis _aureus_ and common dog readily breed together; but we have no very well authenticated case of a litter from the Canis _vulpes_ and dog—to which assumed cross, the attention of John Hunter, “magnus ille naturæ indagator,” had been directed before his death, but not advanced to actual experiment, as in the other crosses of the wolf and jackal with the domestic dog. Dr. Caius, it is true, speaks of the vulpi-canine cross as an established one, “quasi protritum aliquid,” says Vlitius, “quod ego rumore tantùm,” continues the latter, “et vix ita compertum habeo,”—but of this, more anon.

[332]

[Sidenote: Lucian. adversus Indoctum.]

Of these the most important are hereafter mentioned under the same or different names: The Παίονες, are Pannonians—the Αὐσόνιοι probably identical with the Tuscan—and those of the town of Tegea, (where Lucian tells us, the inhabitants exhibited the hide of the Calydonian boar—δείκνυσιν Τεγέαται τοῦ Καλυδωνίου τὸ δέρμα,) must of course be considered Arcadian sub-varieties. The rest are of the Molossian character. Instead of Ἐπειοὶ Bodin and Belin de Ballu read Ἀμοργοὶ; but of the hounds of Amorgos, one of the Cyclades, I know nothing.

[333] Under the sanction of antiquity, and scarce inferior to the purest poet of the Augustan age, Ioannes Darcius comprehends under the terms Molossi and Lacones _all_ dogs of chase;

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Quæ generosa canum soboles, quis cultus alendo
Sit catulo, unde suos Epirus clara Molossos,
Audacesque sibi commendet Sparta Lacones,
Diva refer.

[334] Such was the Pard of Ercole Strozzi;

[Sidenote: Cæsar. Borgiæ Ducis Epiced. per H. Strozam.]

Pardus ad hæc genitrice Lacon, genitore Molossus,
Non extrema canum fama, et spes acris Opuntî.

[335]

[Sidenote: Bulletin Universel.]

M. Desmoulins is of opinion that the modern numerous races of domestic dogs must be referred, each in its own country, to different unreclaimed species; and if so, allowing somewhat for emigration with man, and somewhat again for crosses among the varieties of each region, we must suppose that those, which manifest remarkable distinctive qualities, derived them originally from the wild _indigenæ_ of each particular region. Exclusive of the jackal, he considers that there are three wild species in Europe, and Western Asia, which have contributed to produce the varieties of our domestic dog, at present known.

[336] We may suppose the muzzle in this class more or less truncated, and the capacity of the cranium diminished. But the sketches of physical structure are too superficial in the ancient cynegetica to found a classification on the principle of M. F. Cuvier.

[337]

[Sidenote: De Quad. Dig. Vivip. L. +iii.+]

Aldrovandus explains color _helvus_ as “medius inter rufum et album”—_fawn_.

[338] The epithet “diversos” may indicate remoteness of birth-place as explained by Johnson; or difference of character as hinted by Wase—Gallia being far distant from Media, and the Celtic dog being sagacious as well as pugnacious, and therefore differing from the “indocilis Medus,” whose character was that of mere truculency, unredeemed by the least sagacity.

[339] Belin de Ballu appears to consider the Oppianic Κελτοὶ Segusian hounds of scent, and not war-dogs. See his Animadversiones in Oppian. L. +i.+ vs. 373. Did the poet include under the term Κελτοὶ all the various sorts of hounds supposed indigenous of Celtica—the war-dogs, the Vertragi, Segusii, and hybrids of Pliny? No country of antiquity affords such numerous varieties of the canine species as Gaul; and as the inhabitants are by the Greeks called Κελτοὶ, by the Romans Galli, and sometimes synonymously with the latter, Celtæ; so may Oppian, an eastern Greek, include under the term Κελτοὶ the various subdivisions of the canine tribe, throughout the whole territory of Gaul, however distinguished by earlier writers, either as indigenous of peculiar localities, or characterized by dissimilar qualities.

[340]

[Sidenote: La Vénerie de Jaques du Fouilloux. c. +i.+]

The high antiquity of the Canes Venatici of Gaul, espoused by Jaques du Fouilloux in the first chapter of his Vénerie—“De la race et antiquité des chiens courans, et qui premièrement les amena en France,” will amuse such of my readers as may think his work worth referring to. Deducing the breed from the kennel of Brutus, (the son of Sylvius, the son of Ascanius, the son of Æneas) under whose fostering care _les chiens courans et lévriers_ were exported from the Trojan territory, Fouilloux exhibits the very vessel of transportation, with its canine cargo aboard.

[341]

[Sidenote: Venatio Novantiqua.]

It is a generally received opinion that the pugnacious and sagacious dogs of Britain were constantly exported to Gaul; and Janus Vlitius remarks that the same practice continued within his knowledge.

[342]

[Sidenote: Vulgar Errors, &c. B. +i.+]

“Wherein,” says Sir Thomas Brown very justly, “are contained many things suspicious, not a few false, some impossible.”

[343] To this dog Priscian alludes in his Periegesis, vs. 706.:

[Sidenote: Poetæ Latini Minores. Tom. +v.+ p. +i.+ Wernsdorf.]

Hic sunt Albani bellaces marte feroci;
Unde canes nati superant genus omne ferarum.
Magnus Alexander missum sibi viderat inde
Victorem barrique canem, rapidique leonis:—

[Sidenote: De Nugis Curialium L. +i.+ c. +iv.+]

and John of Salisbury celebrates the race in his Policraticus; the merits of the breed losing nothing of its lustre, but rather gaining, in the prose narration;—“Albani quidem in Asiâ canes habent leonibus fortiores: eos virtute canum, et suæ gentis artificio, quasi imbelles bestiolas populantur. Canibus quidem illis nulla ferarum fortior, nulla animosior est. Hos Hercules, tergemino Geryone victo, ab Italiâ trajecit in Asiam, eis virtutem quâ leones sternerent, quasi hereditariam derelinquens,” &c.

[344]

[Sidenote: Pind. Pyth. L. +ii.+ 85.]

Arcadia boasted not these as her only ferine crosses—φῦλα θηρομιγῆ—for in the country of Lycaon, too, in all their glory, rode the στρατὸς θαυμαστὸς of semi-human centaurs, lords of the chase, around mount Pholoë,

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +ii.+ 5.]

ἀμφὶ πόδας Φολόης ἀνεμώδεος ἄγρια φῦλα
θηρομιγῆ, μερόπων μὲν ἐπ’ ἰξύας, ἰξυόφιν δὲ
ἵππων ἡμιβρότων.

[345]

[Sidenote: Exercitat. 202.]

Scaliger denies the inference—“Possunt quidem lupi mitiores fieri, sed nunquàm lupinam formam, et totalem feritatem exuent, quemadmodum et plantæ novo cultu mitescunt.”

[346]

[Sidenote: H. C. Agrippa de Incert. et Van. o. s. et a.]

Both these hybrid productions are alluded to, in his wonted strain of disgust, by the misanthropic Agrippa, in his 73rd chapter, de Agriculturâ.

[347]

[Sidenote: La Chasse du Loup. c. +viii.+]

In the rare tract of Jean de Clamorgan, I find a practical remark to the point: “Noterez que j’ay veu quelquefois que les levriers font difficulté de prendre une loupe chaude, ains la veulent saillir et covrir comme une chienne: mais s’il y a aux cours quelque bonne levrière, elle la prendra par envie et jalousie.”

[348]

[Sidenote: Wase’s Illustrations, &c. of Gratius. p. 67.]

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 167.]

Blondus, in his ‘Libellus de Canibus et Venatione,’ remarks on the breed of demi-wolves, as they are called by Shakespeare, that this cross was not had recourse to in his days, because it was not _wanted_—“tantâ feritate et astutiâ non egemus:” but Wase bears testimony to its historical notoriety. “From the experience of this country,” says he, “that _semifera_ proles, or whelps, that come of the commixture of a bitch with a dog-wolf, is verified, called anciently _lyciscæ_; and this ill quality they find inherent to that sort of dogs, that they can by no way of bringing up be restrained from preying upon cattle—‘sed præceps virtus ipsâ venabitur aulâ’—by which they have merited to be esteemed criminal before they be whelped; and there is a law in that behalf, which straitly enjoins, that if any bitch be limed with a wolf, either she must be hanged immediately, or her puppies must be made away: this may serve to avouch somewhat, all that character which Gratius gives of the semiferous mongrels, of his Hyrcanian and the Tiger.”

[Sidenote: Parry’s 1st Voyage of Discovery. Appendix.]

By the occurrences which took place at Melville Island, recorded in the Appendix of Capt. Parry’s 1st Voyage, we have clear proof that even an undomesticated wolf, in its natural and wild state, will have intercourse with a domestic dog.

[349] The contiguity of India to Hyrcania, and the latter abounding with tigers, may be the cause of the same tale being told by Aristotle and Pliny of the tigri-canine cross of India, as by Gratius of that of Hyrcania. Both are of course purely fabulous. Whatever loss the fierce dog of Irak may occasion to pastoral property, herds and flocks—he is still to be cherished for his superior prowess in the savage hunt:—

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 167.]

Sed præceps virtus ipsâ venabitur aulâ:
Ille tibi et pecudum multo cum sanguine crescet;
Pasce tamen, quæcunque domi tibi crimina fecit,
Excutiet silvâ magnus pugnator adeptâ.

[Sidenote: De curand. Græc. affect. Serm. +ix.+ De leg. p. 128.]

The people of Hyrcania fostered their savage race of dogs for the express purpose, amongst others, of devouring the bodies of the dead—a practice noticed by Theodoret as being discontinued by them and the Caspians after their conversion to Christianity.

[350]

[Sidenote: Numismata Siciliæ et Magnæ Græciæ T. +xxvi.+ T. +xxxv.+]

The hare on the reverse of Locrian numismata cannot be considered as proof of the pursuit of such quarry being the popular diversion of the country, nor as militating against the Locrian hound’s introduction here;—for the same impression occurs on other coins—on those of the Falisci, a colony of Argos, and others—having reference to historical or mythological subjects, unconnected with the field sports of the country.

[351]

[Sidenote: De Nat. Anim. L. +vii.+ c. +xxxvii.+]

[Sidenote: Plin. L. +viii.+ c. 40.]

Οἱ Μαιάνδρῳ παροικοῦντες Μάγνητες. The same are mentioned by Ælian, in his work de Naturâ Animalium, in conjunction with the Hyrcanians, as being attended to battle by canine auxiliaries—καὶ ἦν καὶ τοῦτο συμμαχικὸν ἀγαθὸν αὐτοῖς καὶ ἐπικουρικόν. And Pliny, speaking of the Colophonii and Castabalenses, says they had “cohortes canum—fidissima auxilia, nec stipendiorum indigna.”

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

His Colophoniacæ (si vera est fama) phalanges
Auxiliis, hostem valido fregêre duello:
Infaustoque olim cecidissent Caspia marte
Agmina, ni tali defensa cohorte fuissent.

[352]

[Sidenote: De Naturâ Animalium L. +vii.+ c. +xxxviii.+]

Ælian tells us of a war-dog, perhaps an Epirote, συστρατιώτην κύνα—who so distinguished himself with his Athenian lord at the battle of Marathon, as to be honoured with an effigy on the same tablet with his master.

[353] For a fine representation of the Canis Molossus Venaticus, see De la Chausse, Museum Romanum, Tab. +lxiv.+ and Montfaucon Antiquité expliquée, _Chasse au Sanglier_, Tom. +iii.+ pl. 179. Several hunters are returning from the chase with the Magister Venationis, bearing in his hand a shield;—a cart drawn by oxen conveys a dead boar, on which lies a huge dog apparently killed in the fray, and by the side walks a second hound of the type alluded to. See also the Venationes Ferarum of Stradanus and Galle, plate +viii.+ and the Genii hunting, from Maffei, at the beginning of this Appendix, where a Molossian-like hound is on the point of seizing a wild boar.

[354] Lucan has “ora levis clamosa Molossi”—and Claudian “Molossi latrantes”—and into the error of his poetical predecessors Cardinal Adrian has fallen, in his Venatio ad Ascanium Cardinalem;—as if the Molossi were _remarkably latrant_, whereas _closeness_ of mouth was their more distinctive quality: unless indeed this Cardinal of St. Chrysogonus refer to two different sorts of Molossi, the one latrant, the other mute and sagacious:

[Sidenote: Poetæ Tres, p. 40. Ed. Ald. 1534.]

Deducunt alii canum phalanges.
Latrantes abeunt simul molossi
Mox indaginis unicæ sagaces:

for he subsequently slips some boar-hounds, “per invia lustra _mussitantes_,” and others again are distributed about the covert by the harbourers or huntsmen; the latter being denominated “feros molossos.”

[355] Refer to Surflet’s translation of _Maison Rustique_, good reader, if you have it, and smile at the portraiture of the watch-dog, the joint execution of _my_ medical brethren, “Charles Stevens and John Liebault, Doctors of Physicke.” C. 27. p. 168.

[356]

[Sidenote: Xenophon Memorab. L. +ii.+ c. +vii.+]

The answer of the Canis Pastoralis (ὅτε φωνήεντα ἦν τὰ ζῶα) to the dissatisfied sheep is beautifully illustrative of his services in the economy of pastoral life:—ἐγὼ γάρ εἰμι ὁ καὶ ὑμᾶς αὐτὰς σώζων, ὥστε μήτε ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων κλέπτεσθαι, μήτε ὑπὸ λύκων ἁρπάζεσθαι· ἐπεὶ ὑμεῖς γε, εἰ μὴ ἐγὼ προφυλάττοιμι ὑμᾶς, οὐδ’ ἂν νέμεσθαι δύναισθε, φοβούμεναι μὴ ἀπόλησθε—thereby making good his claim to a share of his master’s food.

[357] Statues and pictures of κύνες φρουροδόμοι were sometimes exhibited on the entrance doors, or walls of vestibules—of which kind were the dogs wrought of gold and silver by Vulcan for Alcinous, Δῶμα φυλασσέμεναι μεγαλήτορος Ἀλκινόοιο—and the Canis Catenarius of Petronius Arbiter—“ad sinistram intrantibus non longè ab ostiarii cellâ, canis ingens catenâ vinctus in pariete erat pictus, superque quadratâ literâ scriptum, _CAVE CAVE CANEM_.”—Even Mercury himself was sometimes there exhibited—upon the principle, I suppose, of _setting a thief to catch a thief_.

[358] Aristotle alludes to Porter dogs in his Nicomachean Ethics, L. +vii.+ c. +vi.+ introducing them in a very pertinent illustration of the difference between incontinency of anger, and incontinency as to pleasure: anger seems to listen to reason, though it does not hear it distinctly, &c.—καθάπερ οἱ κύνες, πρὶν σκέψασθαι εἰ φίλος, ἂν μόνον ψοφήσῃ, ὑλακτοῦσιν· οὕτως ὁ θυμὸς, διὰ θερμότητα κ. τ. λ.

[359]

[Sidenote: Valerii Maximi L. +ix.+ c. 13.]

On which the indignant historian observes with warmth, “quò tam latè patens imperium? quò tantus liberorum numerus? quò denique tam arctâ benevolentiâ constricta Romana amicitia, si ad hæc tuenda nihil canino latratu ac morsu valentius duxit?”

[360]

[Sidenote: Minshæi Emendat. p. 451.]

The duke considers alauntz primarily derived from Spain, not natives of Britain; “As men clepyn greihoundes of England of Scotland and of Bretayn right so the alauntez and the houndes for the hawke cometh out of Spayn.” Minsheu deduces Alani “à regione quadam Epyri, quæ Albania dicitur, undè primùm advecti creduntur hi canes.” But they probably were bull-dogs in the common acceptation of the term.

The reader will remember the Alauntes of Chaucer, on which Dryden has bestowed _rejuvenescence_ under the type of greyhounds, attendants of “the surly king of Thrace:”

[Sidenote: Palamon and Arcite. B. 3.]

Ten brace, and more, of greyhounds, snowy fair,
And tall as stags, ran loose, and cours’d around his chair;
A match for pards in flight, in grappling for the bear.

[361]

[Sidenote: Cuvier Regn. Animal.]

[Sidenote: Description of Britaine. B. +iii.+ c. 13.]

It has been observed by an eminent living naturalist, that the cerebral capacity of the bull-dog is sensibly smaller than of any other race: and it is doubtless to the decrease of the encephalon that we must attribute his inferiority to all others, in every thing relating to intelligence. He is scarcely capable of any education, and is fitted for nothing but ferocious combat. In the ancient translation of Caius’s libellus by Holinshed, this savage brute is sketched to the life, as “an huge dogge stubborne, ougly, eagre, burthenous of body (and therefore but of little swiftnesse,) terrible and feareful to behold, and more fearse and fell then any Archadien curre.” Nor is our estimate of his might in conflict weakened by Raphael’s statement that “alone and wythout anye help at al, he pulled downe first an huge beare, then a parde, and last of al a lyon, each after other, before the Frenche King in one day.”

[362]

[Sidenote: Pegge in Archæolog. vs. +x.+ p. 156.]

Amongst the coins of Cunobelin is a representation of a dog, probably of this native variety, tall enough, according to Pegge, and of sufficient strength “to carry a lady.” And in Thoresby’s Museum is a British coin “exhibiting a dog under a man on horseback.” (p. 338.)

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xviii.+ fol. 69.]

The mastiff is at present principally used in this country as a watch-dog; and such appears to have been his vocation of old. “His office is for to kepe his maistre’s beestis,” says Duke Edmund, “and his maistre’s hous. and it is a good nature of houndis for thei kepen and defenden at her power al her maister goodes. thei byn of cherlich nater and of foule shap &c.”—“ther byn many good for men that hunten for profit of housold as for to gete fflesh. Also of maystifs and of alauntis ther byn many good for the wilde boor;”—but “it is of no greet maistrie ne of grete redynes the huntyng that thei do for here nature ys not tendre nosed in harde nor in sandy nor in dusty grounde.” For the etymology of the term _mastiff_, the reader is referred to Dr. Caius, Minsheu, Skinner, and Holinshed—and for that of _ban-dog_, a variety of the same, to Skinner in voce. The _Mandatarius_, _Sarcinarius_, _Defensor_, &c. of Caius, the _custos curtis_, _pastoralis_, _porcaritius_, _ursaritius_, _catenatus_, &c. of Spelman and others, are all probably Canes Mastivi.

[363] The existence of these noxious beasts of prey, in the sylvan fastnesses of our islands, is too well authenticated by ancient records to be doubted.

[Sidenote: Book of St. Alban’s.]

Foure manere bestis of Venere there are:
The fyrste of theym is the harte: the seconde is the hare.
The boore is one of tho: the wulfe and not one mo.

[Sidenote: The Governour. B. +i.+ c. +xviii.+]

On referring to Blount’s ancient tenures, we find many estates held _per serjantiam_, whereby the possessor was compelled to furnish these dogs for the destruction of wolves. See A. T. p. 15. p. 52. p. 60. p. 94. “But Almighty God be thanked,” in the ejaculatory language of Sir Thomas Elyot, “in this realme be no such cruel beastes at present to be pursued!”

See Wase’s Illustrations, c. +vi.+ “of the Styles of Hunting different from the English, both Antique and Forreigne.”

[Sidenote: Memoirs of the Celts or Gauls. Note, p. 161.]

Mr. Ritson, in a posthumous work on the Celts, has left it on record that “the Britons, in the last decade of the eighteenth century, made use of Spanish dogs in a war with the Maroon negroes; having no longer any of their own fit for the purpose.”

[364]

[Sidenote: Hist. Natur. L. +viii.+ c. +xl.+]

In Pliny’s animated description of the Indian or Albanian dog’s assault, we observe the crafty wiles or _fraudes_ of the Illyrian and Acarnanian breeds. “Horrentibus quippe per totum corpus villis, ingenti primùm latratu intonuit: mox inruit assultans, contraque belluam exurgens hinc et illinc artifici dimicatione quà maximè opus esset, infestans atque evitans, donec assiduâ rotatum vertigine afflixit.” Indeed all the _bellicosi_ thus attack their prey—but generally in silence. The Indian was latrant, it seems, the Acarnanian mute.

Athamania, called also Illyricum, bordered on Thessaly and Acarnania.

[365]

[Sidenote: Geography of Gratius.]

_Acyrus_, says Wase, is “suspicious of corruption;” which Gronovius proposes to amend by reading _Epirus_, Vlitius substitutes _Taygetus_, and Heinsius _Argivus_.

[366]

[Sidenote: Apollon. Rhod. L. +i.+ vs. 50.]

Pheræ was situate between Demetrias and Pharsalus in Thessaly, near the lake Bœbe—ὑπὸ σκοπιὴν ὄρεος Χαλκωδονίοιο. I am not aware of the dogs of these several places being mentioned by any other author. Pheræ was probably celebrated for its breed of game; for, being one of the many haunts of Dian, it bestowed on the Goddess the local name of Pheræa:

[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Dian. vs. 259.]

Πότνια, μουνυχίη, λιμενοσκόπε, χαίρε, Φεραίη.

[367] This class appears to answer to the second of M. F. Cuvier, having the head and jaws shorter than those proper to our third class of _pedibus celeres_, but not so much truncated as in the _canes bellicosi_. The parietal bones, in such types as are supposed to resemble those of antiquity, do not approach each other above the temporal fossæ, but widen so as to enlarge the cerebral cavity of the forehead.

[368] Perhaps Xenophon’s τὰ δὲ γένη τῶν κυνῶν ἐστὶ δισσὰ may not have so confined an application as here stated. The Καστόριαι and ἀλωπεκίδες may comprehend all the Canes Venatici of the Athenian’s day collectively—at least all such as were used by him in hare-hunting at Scillus.

[369] With some of the descendants of the κυνοσουρίδες, the latrant sagacious Lacouni of the modern Votizza, Mr. Hobhouse reports that he enjoyed the sport of coursing with his Grecian host in the Morea. See Journey through Albania, Letter +xvii.+

[370]

[Sidenote: Xenophon de Venat. c. +x.+]

A limehound—ἡ δὲ κύων ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ ἀφίξεται τόπον ὑλώδη ἰχνεύουσα——...—ἐπειδὰν δ’ ἀφίκηται ἐπὶ τὴν εὐνὴν, ὑλακτεῖ, κ. τ. λ.

[371]

[Sidenote: Illustrations of Shakspeare. Vol. +i.+ p. 66.]

A term borrowed, according to Mr. Douce, from the Spaniards, who call the wild cat _gato-montes_.

[372] Hagnon Astylides—as the Cretans used ἀγνεῖν, according to Hesychius, for ἄγειν, ὁ ἀγνῶν may stand for ὁ κυνηγός. See Wernsdorf, Excursus +iii.+ ad Gratii v. 215. Poetæ Latini Minores, Tom. +i.+ p. 242.

[373]

[Sidenote: J. Caii de Canibus Brit. Libell.]

Caius’s love of the marvellous in natural history surpasses (considering the age in which he lived) that of Ælian and Albertus Magnus. Under the heads of Urcanus and Lacæna, this credulous correspondent of the acute Conrad Gesner notes, seemingly in good earnest, that the former is the offspring of the Canis Catenarius and bear, the latter of the dog and fox, “quos, licèt inimicos, pruriens tamen libido sæpè ita hic conjungit, ut alibi solet.” The truth, however, of the latter maybe doubted, after the impossibility of the former.

[374]

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 259.]

We may suppose the far-famed hound of Sparta, the foxite harrier, “vulpinâ specie,” not very unlike the prick-eared, or at least semi-pendulous-eared lurcher of modern days, employed by a poaching shepherd to guard his flock, and too often to catch at force, κατὰ πόδας, his master’s hares, or drive them into the wily laqueus or snare:

[Sidenote: Theocriti Idyll. +i.+ vs. 110.]

ἐπεὶ καὶ μᾶλα νομεύει,
καὶ πτῶκας βάλλει, καὶ θηρία τ’ ἄλλα διώκει.

[Sidenote: Cowper’s Task. B. +v.+]

Shaggy, and lean, and shrewd, with pointed ears,
And tail cropp’d short, half lurcher and half cur;

he is too well known by his depredations in the hare-warren to need a fuller delineation.

Janus Vlitius considers the Spartan a long-eared hound, and proposes to read ὦτα μακρὰ instead of μικρὰ in Xenophon’s minute description of the type of excellence in this breed: but Horace’s “aure sublatâ” would rather favour the notion that the ear was small and _pricked up_ in pursuit of game, as we see in lurchers, and such-like poaching tikes:

[Sidenote: Hor. Od. L. +v.+ Ode +vi.+]

Nam qualis aut Molossus, aut fulvus Lacon,
Amica vis pastoribus,
Agam per altas aure _sublatâ_ nives
Quæcunque præcedet fera.

on which Dacier observes, “plus les chiens sont courageux, plus ils dressent les oreilles en courant;” a quality for which a prick-eared sharp-scented lurching cur might be praised—which is characteristic of the Molossus, but odious in the genuine well-bred greyhound, with which the “veloces catuli” and “fulvus Lacon” of the contemporary poets of Rome have been ignorantly identified by monkish annotators.

[375] This quality Aristotle justly attributes to the length of the nostrils of the Spartan hound, affording a more extensive surface for the distribution of the minute branches of the olfactory nerves—ὅσων οἱ μυκτῆρες μακροὶ, οἷον τῶν Λακωνικῶν, ὀσφραντικά.

[376] To Darcius of Venusium we owe the following description of the ardour of the Spartan pack;

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Inde suos etenim Lacedæmon Achaica laudat,
Assueti quoniam sylvis, cupidique ferarum
Præcipiti fervore ruunt, perque invia lustra,
Convallesque cavas, et sentibus horrida duris
Arva, et vulnificis dumeta rigentia spinis
Dente rotant prædas, indefessique sequuntur
Quod semel emissum est. Illos non obvius amnis
Vicinos dirimens sinuoso gurgite colles,
Sistit, nec rapidos lato tenet obice cursus.
Et licet assiduo frangantur anhela boatu
Ora, trahantque ægros afflictis viribus artus,
Assequier tamen est animus, &c.

[377]

[Sidenote: Solini Polyhistor. c. +xi.+]

Solinus and Pliny, while they admit the religious adoration of Diana by the natives of Crete, deny to the soil many of the common beasts of chase. “Ager Creticus,” says the former naturalist, “sylvestrium caprarum copiosus est, cervo eget. Lupos, vulpes, aliaque quadrupedum noxia nusquam educat.”

[378]

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 231.]

This canine name is not found in any other Cynegeticon. From the construction put on the passage by Wernsdorf, it appears that he would derive the Metagon from a Spartan and Cretan cross: but how, let me ask, could the huntsman breed a _mute_ inductor, whose essential attribute was _closeness_, “ne voce lacesseret hostem,” from the union of two such latrant races?—A litter, so bred in Actæon’s pack, was any thing but mute, “Labros, et Agriodos, et _acutæ vocis_ Hylactor,” as above cited. Wase’s interpretation of the passage is more correct—see his version, vs. 211. where the lines of Gratius are differently rendered than in the chapter on the geography of the poem, p. 38.

[379] Claudian bestows the title Molossian on the entire pack, to designate, it may be, their ferocity:

[Sidenote: In Rufinum L. +ii.+]

Sic mons Aonius rubuit, cum Penthea ferrent
Mænades; aut subito mutatum Actæona cornu
Traderet insanis Latonia visa Molossis.

[380]

[Sidenote: Dryden. Palamon and Arcite. B. +ii.+]

The stag Actæon in the stream had spied
The naked huntress, and, for seeing, died:
His hounds, unknowing of his change, pursue
The chase, and their mistaken master slew!

[381] The loud _latrancy_ of the tribe escaped not the notice of the bard of Avon, who has cleverly appropriated much of the borrowed shape and κλαγγὴ of a modern pack (Sir Thomas Lucy’s, perhaps, or other Warwickshire squire’s) to our classic breed of the olden time:

[Sidenote: Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act +iv.+]

I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay’d the bear
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seem’d all one mutual cry: I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

With Angelio’s description of the Cretan hounds, the more striking features of which are drawn from passages already cited, I close their portraiture.

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]

Est eadem facies, et eidem proxima formæ
Corpora: membrorum sed non æquantia molem
Dictæis, animus tamen, et constantia pugnax,
Quandoquidem serus litem si fortè diremit
Vesper, et obtentis umbrantur rura tenebris;
Nusquam abeunt, nusquam vestigia pressa relinquunt,
Verùm hærent vigiles, &c.

[382]

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +viii.+ vs. 272.]

The dog, which sits at the foot of the noble statue of Meleager, is, probably, a representation of the animal which assisted the hero of Calydon in his attack of the wild boar—(“infestæ famulus, vindexque Dianæ”)—that had laid waste the domain of his father Œneus. (See F. Perrier, Tab. 51. and 52. ex Ædibus Pichiniis, and Montfaucon Antiq. Expliq. Tom. I.) He is apparently a boar-hound, and perhaps of the type of Etolia or Calydon—the names being indifferently applied to the same dog, from Calydon, (the rocky Calydon of the Homeric catalogue, Iliad +ii.+ 640.) the capital of the state, over which the sons of Œneus once reigned.

[383] Such a sire was most likely to correct the “vanæ linguæ vitium” of the Calydonian breed; and from such parentage may have been deduced the Glympicus of the son of Astylus. No dam could cross more appropriately with a Molossian sire, contributing, on her part, the important qualities of speed, sagacity, and unwearying ardour of pursuit; and receiving, from the male side, courage, strength, and closeness of mouth. The cited lines of Gratius, carefully perused in connexion with those which follow in the text, will, I think, warrant the parentage assigned to the hound in question; and such a view will materially assist the general understanding of a somewhat obscure part of the Cynegeticon.

[384] Without such auxiliaries all the hunter’s toil will be fruitless, says Bargæus:

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. L. +i.+]

Ni tecum canis acer eat, qui naribus auras
Ducat odoratas, et nusquam impressa ferarum
Insistat cupidè vestigia: nec tamen ullos
Latratus, vocesque hilari de pectore mittat,
Cum latebræ non longè absunt, fidique recessus.

[385] See the mode of _breaking-in_ the limier, _chien de traict_, in J. Savary’s rare work, Venationis Cervinæ Leges, L. +ii.+ sub initio.

[386] The Ascrean Poet’s hunting-picture on the shield of Hercules is rather a chase at speed, than trailing after leporine game;

[Sidenote: Hesiod. Scut. Hercul. vs. 302.]

τοὶ δ’ ὠκύποδας λαγὸς ᾕρευν
ἄνδρες θηρευταὶ, καὶ καρχαρόδοντε κύνε προ
ἱέμενοι μαπέειν, οἱ δ’ ἱέμενοι ὑπαλύξαι.

[387] “Umber is here,” says Wase, “the _Bracco_ of Italy; and as their dog is timorous, so their bore is not very courageous. Whence the poet,—Thuscus aper generosior Umbro.”

[388] A close-mouthed hound, probably, with much of the pugnacious disposition of our first class, added to his sagacity. Many of the limehound tribe, at least those used in trailing after fierce prey, must have had a strong dash of the same daring spirit—not so, however, the uncrossed Umbrian and Gelonian.

[389]

[Sidenote: Wase’s Illustrations, &c. c. +vi.+ p. 61.]

“The hunting used by the ancients was much like that way which is at present taken with the Raindeare which is seldome hunted at force, or with hounds, but onely drawne after with a blood-hound, and forestall’d with nets and engines. So did they with all beasts; and therefore a dog is never commended by them for opening before hee hath by signes discover’d where the beast lyeth in his layre, as by their drawing stiffe our harbourers are brought to give right judgment. Therefore I doe not finde that they were curious in the musique of their hounds, or in a composition of their kennell and pack, either for deepenesse or lowdnesse, or sweetnesse of cry like to us,” &c.

[390] The Canis _ductor_, or lime-hound of the middle ages, the ἐμβιβαστὴς and μηνυτὴς of ancient glossaries, “qui odorisequâ nare spelæa ferarum, et diverticula deprehendit,” was strongly allied to, if not identical with, the _Sleut-hound_ of Scotland, the blood-hound, _lyme-dog_, or _limer_ (from the _lyam_ or leash with which he was led) of authors, employed in the pursuit of animals of chase, and the discovery of murders and ambuscades. See the Glossaries of Spelman and Ducange, in voce.

[Sidenote: Etymolog. Ling. Anglic.]

[Sidenote: De Canibus Britannicis Libellus.]

[Sidenote: Venationis Cervinæ Leges L. +ii.+]

Skinner defines the _Limmer_ “Hybris, i. e. canis vilior ex cane sagace venatico cum Molosso copulato prognatus,”—and such probably was the parent stock of this much-famed dog. The _Lorarius_ of Caius must have been a more nimble animal than the Sleut-hound—“propter velocitatem et gravius feram urget, et citiùs capit.” The _Lymer_ is fully treated of in De Langley’s curious manuscript intitled =Mayster of Game=, c. +xx.+ et seqq. Much also will be found relative to him in the Book of St. Alban’s, Fouilloux, Turberville, and Blome: and he is particularly described by the Latin poet of Caen, under the title of “Canis armillaris.”

The following portrait by the poet of Barga is worthy of exhibition:

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]

Ille quidem multâ virtute insignis, et usu
Venandi, saltum si quando ingressus apertum est,
Evinctus loro dominum trahit. Atque ubi signa
Invenit, aut auras acer persentit odoras,
Pergit iter, rostrum et pressâ vix tollit ab herbâ,
Huc illuc volvens oculos, et singula solers
Scrutatur: donec subter virgulta latentem
Conspexit leporem, et constrata cubilia fronde.
Tum vero gressum caudâ blanditus, et ore
Accelerat, montemque omnem latratibus implet.

He is the “Prævius it loro catulus devinctus” of Vanière’s Prædium Rusticum, L. +xvi.+ Great, however, as was his celebrity in the sporting field of the classic and middle ages, and even till a century and a half ago,—

[Sidenote: G. Douglas’s Palace of Honour.]

syrchand to and fra,
To hunt the harte, the bare, the da, the ra,—

the _Limier_, in a state of pure blood, is considered almost extinct.

[391]

[Sidenote: Minshæi Emend. in voce.]

_Hound_ is sometimes applied to _all_ dogs, as if Minshew’s and Junius’s derivation of the term were correct—à κυνίδιον dim. à κύων: but in England the term most commonly signifies a hunting-dog, to which sense the A. S. _huntian_, _hent-an_, to pursue, to search after, affords a more probable root.

[392]

[Sidenote: Hist. Nat. L. +i.+ 255. Gloss. Arch. p. 114.]

[Sidenote: Ejusd. p. 7. Wase’s illustrations.]

The etymology of the term _Petronius_ is not of easy solution. By critics it has been fancifully derived from the firmness, strength, and hardness of the feet of this variety of dog; in consequence of which he was enabled to run over rough and rocky ground without injury—κύων εὔπους. Gesner mentions a tributary stream of the Tiber called Petronia, “quòd per petras fluat.” Spelman, in his Glossary, gives _Petrunculus_ as a synonym of _Petronius_, citing the above passage of Gratius; and under _Acceptor_, explains _Petrunculus_ in a marginal note by “_a brachet_.” The Spanish use _Perro_, says Wase, as their common appellation of a dog.

[393]

[Sidenote: Arrian. de Ven. c. +iii.+ in not.]

Schneider substitutes Ἑγουσίαι for Ἐγουσίαι, (_spiritu mutato_)—the Latin term being Segusii, as ἓξ, _sex_. Σεγουσίαι, Blancard.

[394]

[Sidenote: The Countrey Farme, by G. Markham. c. +xxii.+]

“Greyhounds are onely for the coursing of all sorts of wilde beasts by main swiftnesse of foot; they doe not any thing more than their eies govern them unto, being led by a natural instinct or hatred which they beare to all sorts of wilde beasts.”—“Hounds are those which by vertue of their scents, smells, or noses, do find out all manner of wilde beasts,” &c.—See the distinctions of the two races admirably drawn by G. Markham, p. 673. of Surflet’s version of La Maison Rustique.

[395] It is my opinion that these _veloces_ were greyhounds,—which having been exported from Gaul, their native soil, into Britain, were thence again sent to Italy;—and therefore I have nothing to say about them here. The passage is not of easy application—some commentators interpreting it as having reference to one variety of hound, and some to another:—

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +iii.+ vs. 255.]

pars invenit utraque causas.

See some further remarks under the Vertragus of Class III.

[396] Of what country were the Canes Petronii indigenous?—Vlitius claims them, without proof, for Belgium—denies all knowledge of them to Italy, beyond mere report—unceremoniously disallows the pretensions of Gaul—and, for reasons equally inadequate, those of Britain. But the latter, in my opinion, has as well-founded a claim to the breed as Belgium.

[397]

[Sidenote: Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadrupedum.]

Under the _Canis venaticus sagax, ferarum indagator et sectator_, the primary definition of Ray, we may place the modern sub-varieties; the _Sanguinarius seu furum deprehensor_ of Ray, the _Leverarius_ of Caius, and _Venaticus minor_ of Ray.

The _Sanguinarius_, or blood-hound, is the _Canis Scoticus, ane Sleuth-hound_, of Gesner’s Appendix; briefly therein described from Hector Boethius; and answering to the _Inductor_ of the Classical ages more nearly than to any other ancient type. He is beautifully described by Somerville, and faithfully by Caius, and Holinshed; nor is Tickell’s sketch, in his fragment on hunting, unworthy of perusal.

The second sub-variety of the British hound of chase, the _Leverarius_, harrier or fox-hound, (“sunt ex his,” says Caius, “qui duos, ut vulpem atque leporem, variatis vicibus sequi student,”) is the _Canis Scoticus sagax, vulgò dictus ane Rache_ of Gesner’s Appendix; “the racche the whiche that men clepen the Rennyng hounde” of the =Mayster of Game=, c. +xiiii.+ fo. 62.

Of the third sub-variety I shall presently speak under the Agassæus.

[Sidenote: Countrey Contentments, Booke +i.+ c. +i.+ Glossar, in voce.]

For further particulars the reader is referred to Gervase Markham’s clear, accurate, and entertaining portraits of “the slow,” “the middle-sized,” and “nimble hounds,” copied by this laborious compiler from the earlier work of Duke Edmund of York, above cited. He may also consult Ducange’s Canis _latrabilis_.

[398]

[Sidenote: Etymolog. Ling. Anglic.]

I am happy to refer to the Historian of Manchester, in corroboration of this opinion. Skinner derives the name of the Talbot from the position of his tail—“Canis caudâ reflexâ præditus, credo ab A. S. _Tægl_, nobis _Tail_, cauda, et _Butan_ extrà, ultrà, foràs!”

[399]

[Sidenote: Xenophon De Venat. c. +vi.+]

Ancient sportsmen were equally aware with their modern descendants of the necessity of keeping hounds, when once entered, steady to their particular game. Plutarch (περὶ πολυπραγμοσύνης) alludes to the attention they paid to this point of field discipline: οἱ κυνηγοὶ τοὺς σκύλακας οὐκ ἐῶσιν ἐκτρέπεσθαι καὶ διώκειν πᾶσαν ὀδμὴν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ῥυτῆρσιν ἕλκουσι καὶ ἀνακρούουσι, καθαρὸν αὐτῶν καὶ ἄκρατον φυλάττοντες τὸ αἰσθήριον ἐπὶ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἔργον. Xenophon, passionately enamoured of the hare-chase, would not allow his harriers to turn aside, and run riot, after foxes—διαφθορὰ γὰρ μεγίστη, καὶ ἐν τῷ δεόντι οὔ ποτε πάρεισιν—it is fatal to their steadiness.

[400]

[Sidenote: Hierozoicon L. +iii.+ c. +xiii.+]

[Sidenote: Ovid. Met. L. +vii.+ 763.]

The difficulty of capturing the fox is indicated, according to Bochart, by mythologists, in the fable of the Teumesian fox, the “altera pestis” of Bœotian Thebes, which, in the song of Sir Arthur Golding,

[Sidenote: Golding’s Ovid’s Metam. Booke seventh.]

—wrought the bane of many a wight. The countrie folke did feed
Him with their cattle and themselves, untill (as was agreed)
That all the youthfull gentlemen that dwelled thereabout
Assembling, pitcht their corded toyles the champion fields throughout,
But net, ne toyle was none so hie that could his wightnesse stop,
He mounted over at his ease the highest of the top.
Then every man let slip their grewnds, but he them all oustript
And even as nimbly as a bird in daliance from them whipt, &c.

[401]

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +viii.+ fo. 43.]

“Men taken hem withe houndes,” says De Langley, “withe greihoundes, withe haies and withe pursnettis, but he kitteth hem withe his teethe as the mascles of the wolf dooth but nat so sone.”

[402] Lonicer’s _ratio vulpinandi_ in his ‘venatus et aucupium’ shows in its accompanying most spirited engraving the fox-chase of three centuries ago:

[Sidenote: Venatus et Aucupium per J. A. Lonicer.]

Callida versuto capitur stratagemate vulpes:
Novit enim dubias mille dolosa vias, &c.

For the merits of the fox-chase, and its “commoditie of exercise,” see Sir Thomas Elyot’s ‘The Governour,’ Book +i.+ c. +xviii.+ and for “the flying of this chase,” see a Short Treatise of Hunting, compyled for the Delight of Noblemen and Gentlemen, by Sir Thomas Cockaine, Knight—wherein he states “that the author hereof hath killed a foxe distant from the covert where hee was found foureteene miles aloft the ground with hounds,”—a run that would be deemed pretty good, I suppose, even by the modern descendants of any Nimrod knight.

[403]

[Sidenote: Skinner, Etymolog. Anglican.]

Nor is the etymology of the English term Beagle of more easy solution. Skinner derives it from the French _bugler_, mugire; and Menage thinks, as the hounds were sent from Britain into Gaul, the name may be of British origin. A second derivation is proposed by the former philologist, founded on the diminutive stature of the dogs—_cani piccoli_—Ital. Canes minores. May not a third possible source of the name be found in the barbarous root _bigla_, vigilia, excubiæ, from the Greek Βίγλα, à Latino vigilia—? The watchful tricks of some of our terrier-beagles in a rabbit-warren, and Oppian’s graphic sketch of the Ἀγασσεὺς, his wiles, &c. favour the notion.

[404]

[Sidenote: Venatio Novantiqua.]

Janus Vlitius, who, as Wase remarks, “owns England to have been the school from which he took the dictates of his learned commentaries,” relates the following anecdote of the tiny beagles of his day: “Sunt enim agassæi illi adeò aliquandò exiles, et parvi, ut tres simul leporem in cubili suo invadentes viderim invitos à prædâ suâ, cui mordicùs inhærebant, nihilominùs eluctante relinqui. Et ipse binos nutrivi adeò delicatos et tenellos, ut manu unâ totos circumambirem. Sed hi commensales potiùs, et lusui magis, quàm ad venatum idonei habentur.”

[405] A clever representation of a pack of small, long-eared, beagle terriers at their wonted sport of rabbit-catching is given by J. Stradanus, in his 38th plate, with an explanatory quatrain by K. Dufflæus:

[Sidenote: Venationes Ferarum.]

Callidus effossis latitare cuniculus antris
Et generare solet. Verum persæpè catelli
Anglorum celeres fallunt pecus: ore prehendunt
Illusum: prædam venatorique ministrant.

[406]

[Sidenote: Cæsar de B. G. L. +i.+ 10.]

[Sidenote: See H. Stephan. Schediasm. +iv.+ 2.]

[Sidenote: Du Cange Glossar. in voce.]

Cæsar places the Segusiani in Gallia Celtica—“Hi sunt extra provinciam trans Rhodanum primi.” Why, then, may we not suppose these hounds correctly denominated by Arrian?—why may not their title be of local origin, as _affirmed_ by him, rather than connected with their sagacious qualities, as _supposed_ by Vlitius? who would view them as Canes _Segusii_ vel _Secutii_—the latter term being applied to the Canes Inductores—“quia hominem sequentem ducit Inductor,” with which the Dutch annotator holds the Segusian to be identical. Spelman enumerates the synonyms of _segutius_, as _seusis_, _sensius_, &c. &c.—See Gloss. Arch. p. 114. and derives them à _sequendo_. Eccard more correctly, I think, refers to the German _suchen_, or rather Saxon _seuken_ investigare, whence _sucher_, _seuker_ investigator, and with a Latin termination, _suchius_, _seucius_, _seusius_, _secusius_, _segusius_, &c. The Spaniards, according to Wase, “have a blood-hound which is called _un podenco_,” of small stature, with which they “prick through the woods, or follow any chase.” Possibly Vlitius may have had this hound in his eye when he interpreted the Canes Segusii as Inductores.

[407]

[Sidenote: A preface to the Reader.]

There is no variety of sagacious dog, no style of hunting, to which the prefatory encomiums of Wase are more strictly applicable, (however quaint the language in which they are conveyed,) than the beagle tribe, and their various chases. “It is admirable,” says this friend of Edmund Waller, “to observe the naturall instinct of enmity and cunning, whereby one beast being, as it were, confederate with man, by whom he is maintained, serves him in his designes upon others. A curious mind is exceedingly satisfy’d to see the game fly before him, and after that hath withdrawn itselfe from his sight, to see the whole line where it hath pass’d over with all the doublings and cross-works, which the amazed beast hath made, recover’d again, and all that maze wrought out by the intelligence which he holds with dogs: this is most pleasant, and, as it were, a master-piece of natural magique,” &c. See also Gervase Markham’s Countrey Contentments, B. +i.+ c. +iv.+

[408] The swift-footed dogs of our third class are included, we may suppose, in M. F. Cuvier’s first division; having the head much elongated, the parietal bones insensibly approaching each other, and the condyles of the lower jaw placed in a horizontal line with the upper cheek teeth.

[409]

[Sidenote: Thereutices Compendium, p. 743.]

Having had an opportunity of consulting Conrad Heresbach’s “Thereutice” since the earlier part of this work was printed off, I may here subjoin the learned epitomizer’s description of the greyhound type:—“aliud genus Venaticorum, quos leporarios et emissarios vocant ac vertagos;—hos quærimus, qui sint corpore procero, agili et expedito, cruribus prioribus excelsioribus, capite longiusculo, neque carnoso sed levi, cruribus brevibus atque erectis, oculis micantibus, pectore toroso, cæteris expeditis membris, nisi quòd clunes latiusculos habentes magis probantur, et caudâ longâ et levi, non hirsutâ. Vidimus tamen è Norwegiâ et insulâ Thulæ adductos pernicitate non vulgari, qui et caudâ et corpore toto villosi erant. Verùm hi non ad sagacitatem sed ad velocitatem usurpantur. Ejus generis sunt Britannici, simul et pernicitate et robore valentes, nisi quod corpore vasto, cervis persequendis magis idonei.” The latter are doubtless Caledonian deer greyhounds.

[410] This property, I allow, is impaired in certain modern individuals of the Celtic family, hereafter mentioned, in whom the admixture of nasal sagacity indicates impurity of blood, and degeneracy from the parent stock. The lines of Gratius, descriptive of the greyhound’s speed, and keenness of vision, have been already cited under the Sagacious class: _Englished_ by Wase, (_totidem versibus_, the good man’s only poetical merit) they run thus:

[Sidenote: A Poem of Hunting, &c. Englished by C. Wase, Gent. 1654.]

—chuse the grayhound py’d with black and white,
He runs more swift then thought or winged flight;
But courseth yet in view, not hunts in traile,
In which the quick Petronians never faile.

[411] Xenophon’s foxite has small ears, (unless with Vlitius we read ὦτα μακρὰ,) and Arrian’s Celt large, down-falling ears, as if broken—small and stiff ones being deemed a blemish in the greyhound. But in other respects the ears of the Oppianic hound closely resemble Arrian’s type, and also Nemesian’s—both confessedly Celtic. See Arrian de Venat. c. v. 7. and Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 112.

[412] For a beautiful image of the Celtic greyhound the reader is referred to Père Montfaucon, L’Antiquité expliquée. Tom. +iii.+ Liv. +iv.+ pl. 176. A medallion from the arch of Constantine exhibits the Emperor Trajan with his huntsmen, accompanied by a type of this dog, the most elegant which antiquity has transmitted to us. It has been copied on stone for the preceding work by Messrs. Day and Haghe; who have added to our embellishments Chrysis and Aura from an ancient gem—Lælaps from Tempesta—and some spirited outlines from the antique. But I have most pleasure in referring my readers to the genuine Celtic exemplars—the veloces catuli—of the Townley collection of the British Museum, faithfully lithographed by the same artists. This beautiful group of greyhound puppies, in white marble, was found by Mr. Gavin Hamilton in the year 1774, at Monte Cagnolo, part of the villa of Antoninus Pius, near the ancient Lanuvium, beyond the “lucus et ara Dianæ,” of the Via Appia. A second, nearly similar, was discovered at the same place, and purchased by Visconti for the Vatican Museum. Of an earlier date, however, than these most interesting groupes, is the medallion selected as the frontispiece of the present work. For although the triumphal arch, whence it was originally copied, was not erected till about A. D. 300. that arch was a piece of architectural patch-work, made up of the spoils of earlier structures—its medallions and principal ornaments being derived from one 200 years older, commemorative of Trajan’s victories over the Dacians and Parthians,—amongst the former of whom, on the authority of Arrian, deer-coursing was an established sport in the beginning of the second century. About the latter period, or at the very close of the first century, the medallion of the frontispiece was probably wrought; whereas the Monte Cagnolo groupes, if executed expressly for the decoration of Antoninus’s villa, were half a century later.

[Sidenote: Morell. T. +xv.+ 20. 21. &c.]

I know of few other authentic representations of the οὐέρτραγος κύων,—unless the varying type of Dian’s canine attendant, on antique gems, lamps, coins, relievos, &c. (the most beautiful of which is on the Sicilian coins of Augustus Cæsar);

[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Delum. vs. 228.]

— — κύων——
Ἀρτέμιδος, ἥτιςτε θοῆς ὅτε παύσεται ἄγρης,
ἵζει θηρήτειρα παρ’ ἴχνεσιν, οὔατα δ’ αὐτῆς
ὀρθὰ μάλ’, αἰὲν ἑτοῖμα θεῆς ὑποδέχθαι ὁμοκλήν...

[Sidenote: Museo Chiaramonti. T. +xvii.+ T. +xviii.+]

approach, in any instance, near enough to the courser’s hound to be deemed a likeness—sometimes a beagle, sometimes a foxite, at other times a greyhound, let the reader compare the outlines of Beger and La Chausse, seemingly of the Celtic type, with the lop-eared harrier of Visconti and Guattani, (_Diana ed Ecate combattono coi Giganti_,) and the prick-eared lurcher of the same authors, (_Diana ed Apollo_,) and then decide on the admissibility of the effigy in this place.

[Sidenote: Goltzii Numismata Græciæ. T. +xviii.+ f. 7. 8. 9. 10.]

To the medallion of Vaillant, of small dimensions, but of singular beauty, exhibiting a brace of greyhounds in the act of seizing a deer—copied here in outline as a vignette—may be added four impressions of the same hound, in four different attitudes, most elegant and characteristic, on coins or medals of the isle of Cythnus, one of the Cyclades; and a stag pursued by a greyhound, in Recueil d’Antiquités, Tom. +i.+ p. 219.

[413]

[Sidenote: History of Four-footed Beasts, compiled from Gesner and others, p. 115.]

“The first greyhound,” says Topsel, (translating what Pollux had related of the Molossian,) “was that of Cephalus, fashioned by Vulcan in Monesian brass, and when he liked his proportion, he also quickened him with a soul, and gave him to Jupiter for a gift, who gave him away again to Europa, she also to Minos, Minos to Procris, and Procris to Cephalus, &c.

[414]

[Sidenote: H. Stephani Schediasm. L. +iv.+ 1.]