Chapter VI: Part 6

Sed primum celsâ lorum cervice ferentem,
Glympice, te silvis egit Bœotius Hagnon,
Hagnon Astylides, Hagnon, quem plurima semper
Gratia per nostros unum testabitur usus.
Hic trepidas artes et vix novitate sedentes
Vidit, quà propior patuit via: nec sibi turbam
Contraxit comitem, nec vasa tenentia longè.
Unus præsidium, atque operi spes magna petito,
Assumptus Metagon lustrat per nota ferarum
Pascua, per fontes, per quas trivêre latebras,
Primæ lucis opus: tum signa vapore ferino
Intemerata legens, si qua est, qua fallitur, ejus
Turba loci, majore secat spatia extera gyro.
Atque hic egressu jam tum sine fraude reperto
Incubuit spatiis, qualis permissa Lechæis
Thessalium quadriga decus, quam gloria patrum
Excitat, et primæ spes ambitiosa coronæ.
Sed ne qua ex nimio redeat jactura favore,
Lex dicta officiis: ne voce lacesseret hostem,
Neve levem prædam, aut propioris pignora lucri
Amplexus, primos nequicquam effunderet actus.
Jam vero impensum melior fortuna laborem
Quum sequitur, juxtaque domus quæsita ferarum,
Ut sciat, occultos et signis arguat hostes:
Aut effecta levi testatur gaudia caudâ,
Aut ipsa infodiens uncis vestigia plantis
Mandit humum, celsasve apprensat naribus auras.
Et tamen, ut ne prima faventem pignora fallant,
Circa omnem, aspretis medius qua clauditur orbis,
Ferre pedem, accessusque, abitusque, notâsse ferarum
Admonet, et, si forte loci spes prima fefellit,
(Rarum opus) incubuit spatiis ad prospera versis,
Intacto repetens prima ad vestigia gyro.

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

[Sidenote: De Naturâ Animalium L. +viii.+ c. +ii.+]

We here see the limier’s style of _harbouring_ portrayed to the life—falling on the trail—coming to a fault—recovering the scent—and following it up to the lair. The _harbourer_ of more modern days is the _inquisitor_ of Pliny’s short sketch; “Scrutatur vestigia atque persequitur, comitantem ad feram inquisitorem loro trahens: quâ visâ quàm silens et occulta, quàm significans demonstratio est!” But of all descriptions in the range of classical literature the most exquisitively beautiful is Ælian’s—no painter can surpass this graphic hunting-piece:—προηγεῖται τοῦ κυνηγέτου (ὁ κύων ὁ θηρατικὸς) ἱμάντι μακρῷ προσημμένος, καὶ ῥινηλατεῖ, τῆς φωνῆς ἔχων ἐγκρατῶς καἰ σιωπῶν, κ. τ. λ. The hound’s busy manner,—his steady search, even where there is no game,—his burst of silent joy at catching a scent,—his salutation of the harbourer as if sympathizing in his glee at being successful,—his drawing on up to the boar’s couch,—the start—and final pæan of exultation and victory, are all described in masterly style.

The Gelonian breed is very cursorily mentioned by Gratius, as timid and sagacious;

Arma negant contrà, martemque odêre Geloni,
Sed natura sagax....

and is recommended to be crossed with the tigrine Hyrcanian; whence spiritless Gelonian bitches have derived that courage and pluck, of which they stood in need:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 195.]

traxêre animos de patre Gelonæ
Hyrcano.

The Umbrian had much of the Gelonian character—timorous and _soft_—but remarkably keen of nose. Wishing to incorporate every good quality in the same mongrel breed, Gratius ejaculates—

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 171.]

At fugit adversos idem quos reperit hostes
Umber.[387] Quanta fides, utinam et solertia naris,
Tanta foret virtus, et tantum vellet in armis!

Silius Italicus notes the sagacity of the Umber, and seems to indicate his _closeness_ of mouth in the contrasted barking of the Spartan,

[Sidenote: Silii Ital. de 2^{do} Bello Punico L. +iii.+]

Ceu pernix cum densa vagis latratibus implet
Venator dumeta Lacon, aut exigit Umber
Nare sagax è calle feras perterrita latè
Agmina præcipitant volucres formidine cervi.

But his habits are most vividly sketched in an elegant simile of Seneca’s Thyestes, where Atreus, exulting in his artful entrapping of his brother, (as a wild beast enveloped in the hunter’s toils—plagis.....clusa dispositis fera,—) exclaims in a strain of ill-dissembled self-gratulation,

[Sidenote: Senecæ Thyestes. Act. +iii.+ 493.]

venit in nostras manus
Tandem Thyestes; venit, et totus quidem.
Vix tempero animo, vix dolor frenos capit:
Sic, cum feras vestigat, et longo sagax
Loro tenetur Umber, ac _presso_ vias
Scrutatur _ore_; dum procul lento suem
Odore sentit, paret, et _tacito_ locum
_Rostro_ pererrat: præda cum propior fuit;
Cervice totâ pugnat, et gestu vocat
Dominum morantem, seque retinenti eripit.

The Virgilian Umbrian, to which Æneas in pursuit of Turnus is likened in the last book of the Æneid, may be taken to signify any Canis venaticus, and not that of Umbria particularly:

[Sidenote: Virgilii Æneid. L. +xii.+ 749.]

Inclusum veluti si quandò flumine nactus
Cervum, aut puniceæ septum formidine pennæ,
Venator cursu, canis et latratibus instat;
Ille autem, insidiis et ripâ territus altâ,
Mille fugit refugitque vias: at vividus Umber
Hæret hians, jam jamque tenet, similisque tenenti
Increpuit malis, morsuque elusus inani est.

The true Umbrian, I conceive, was mute—certainly so, until his game was on foot; as were all the other _finders_ spoken of. But another reason against the dog of Maro being the native dog of Umbria is this—the poet would never have compared the brave and victorious Æneas to a notoriously timid animal, who “fugit adversos idem quos repperit hostes—” while the hero was dealing death and destruction on all sides of him;

[Sidenote: Virgil. Æneid. L. +xii.+ 760.]

Æneas mortem contrà præsensque minatur
Exitium, si quisquam adeat; terretque trementes
Excisurum urbem minitans; et saucius instat.

If the character of the hounds of Umbria be such as stated, on the authority of the ancient Cynegetica, the epithet “audaces” bestowed on them by the Latin poet of Barga must be unmerited;

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

——Celtis velocibus Umbros,
Audaces Umbros, et odoris naribus acres.

Barthius, erroneously in my opinion, identifies the Tuscan dogs of Nemesian with the fierce Molossian-like animals of Oppian’s first Cynegetic (vs. 413.). To the passage already cited under the Canes Bellicosi, the reader is referred, for the purpose of comparison with the following from the Carthaginian poet:

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 231.]

Quin et Tuscorum non est extrema voluptas
Sæpè canum: sit forma illis licet obsita villo,
Dissimilesque habeant catulis velocibus artus;
Haud tamen injucunda dabunt tibi munera prædæ.
Namque et odorato noscunt vestigia prato,
Atque etiam leporum secreta cubilia monstrant.

Oppian’s boar and lion-killers have very little resemblance to these _indices_ of the form or seat of the timorous hare. The latter poet recommends the Tuscans (whom he is also supposed to designate under the title of Ausonians in his first kennel-roll) to be crossed with the Spartan race;

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ vs. 395.]

Τυρσηνὰ γένεθλα Λάκωσι—

The Armenian bear-dog was a sort of lyemmer used by sportsmen of the East for tracking bears;[388]

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +iv.+ vs. 356.]

πουλὺς ὄχλος βαίνουσι τανύσκια βένθεα δρυμῶν,
ἴδριες, αὐτολύτοις σὺν ἐϋρίνεσσι κύνεσσιν,
ἴχνια μεστεύσοντ’ ὀλοῶν πουλύπλανα θηρῶν.
ἀλλ’ ὁπότ’ ἀθρήσωσι κύνες σημήϊα ταρσῶν,
ἕσπονται, στιβέας τε ποδηγετέουσιν ὁμαρτῆ
ῥῖνας μὲν ταναὰς σχεδόθεν χέρσοιο τιθέντες,
ἐξοπίσω δ’ εἴπερ τι νεώτερον ἀθρήσειαν
ἴχνος, ἐπειγόμενοι θόρον αὐτίκα καγχαλόωντες,
ληθόμενοι τοῦ πρόσθεν· ἐπὴν δ’ εἰς ἄκρον ἵκωνται
εὐπλανέος στιβίης, θηρός τε παναίολον εὐνὴν,
αὐτίχ’ ὁ μὲν θρώσκει παλάμης ἀπὸ θηρητῆρος,
οἰκτρὰ μάλ’ ὑλακόων, κεχαρημένος ἔξοχα θυμόν.

The poet concludes this part of his description with a singularly beautiful simile of a bare-footed little damsel in joyful search of mountain violets, (discovered by their grateful odour, and plucked for the decoration of her head,) with which she returns singing to the home of her peasant parents:

ὣς κυνὸς ἰάνθη θυμὸς θρασύς. αὐτὰρ ἐπακτὴρ
καὶ μάλα μιν θύνοντα βιησάμενος τελαμῶσι,
καγχαλόων παλίνορσος ἔβη μεθ’ ὅμιλον ἑταίρων.

The δίκτυα and ἄρκυες, the δεῖμα πολύχροον of the feathered line, and the other instruments of the savage chase, combine to secure the ursine quarry. See Oppian. Cyneg. +iv.+ vs. 354 ad vs. 424.

Having already noticed the wary employment of the mute finder to search out the lair of animals obnoxious to the chase, let us look at the subsequent proceedings.[389] When the nets and snares were set, the game found, and started by the Canes ductores, the attendants, it seems, slipped the latrant pack, which were held in couples at hand. That this was the ordinary routine is proved by Xenophon, Lucan, Seneca, and others. The Greek sportsman of Scillus does not, indeed, say that the dog first slipped should be mute, but merely quick-scented. Lucan, however, particularly states his quality of _closeness_ in the lines of his Pharsalia, where he likens the naval tactics of Octavius, “Illyricæ custos Octavius undæ,” to the wily stratagems of a huntsman preparing for the attack of his game;

[Sidenote: Lucani Pharsal. L. +iv.+ 437.]

—Sic dum pavidos formidine cervos
Claudat odoratæ metuentes aëra pennæ:
Aut dum dispositis attollat retia varis
Venator, tenet ora levis clamosa Molossi;
Spartanos Cretasque ligat; nec creditur ulli
Sylva cani, nisi qui _presso_ vestigia _rostro_
Colligit, et prædâ _nescit latrare_ repertâ,
Contentus tremulo monstrâsse cubilia loro.

—and Seneca implies the same,

[Sidenote: Senecæ Hippolyt. Act. +i.+ 30.]

at vos laxas
_Tacitis canibus_ mittite habenas:
Teneant acres lora Molossos,
Et pugnaces tendant Cressæ
Fortia trito vincula collo.
At Spartanos (genus est audax
Avidumque feræ) nodo cautus
Propriore liga. Veniet tempus
Cum latratu cava saxa sonent:
Nunc demissi nare sagaci
Captent auras, lustraque _presso_
Quærant _rostro_.[390]

Hitherto we have said nothing of the race of sagacious hunting-dogs, most commonly known by the name of _hounds_,[391] the Petronius of Gratius,[392] the Ἀγασσεὺς of Oppian, and the Segusian of Arrian.[393] The Petronius belongs to the family of fleet sagacious hounds;

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 199.]

at te leve si qua
Tangit opus, pavidosque juvat compellere dorcas,
Aut versuta sequi leporis vestigia parvi:
Petronios (sic fama) canes, volucresque Sicambros,
Et pictam maculâ Vertraham delige falsâ.
Ocyor affectu mentis pinnâque cucurrit,
Sed premit inventas, non inventura latentes
Illa feras; quæ Petroniis benè gloria constat.

We here see the distinction between the harrier and greyhound, the former running _on scent_, the latter _on sight_.[394] That the Petronii _opened_ as soon as they hit upon the trail of their game, before it was roused, is much regretted by the poet—

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 207.]

Quod si maturo pressantes gaudia lusu
Dissimulare feras tacitique accedere possent:
Illis omne decus, quod nunc, Metagontes, habetis,
Constaret sylvis; sed virtus irrita damno est!

Herein, however, they strikingly resemble their modern representatives; for, with Ducange, I readily grant that the Canes Petronii “ii sunt quos vulgò _chiens courans_ appellamus.” Whoever has heard the din of the fox or hare-chase,

[Sidenote: Titus Andronicus, Act +ii.+ Sc. +iii.+]

—whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,
Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns,
As if a double hunt were heard at once,

will grant that no Petronian pack could have been more noisy on the trail than their modern representatives.

[Sidenote: Pope’s Essay on Man.]

[Sidenote: Encyclopédie Méthodique: sur les Chasses, p. 138.]

The Britannus sagax, “the hound sagacious on the tainted green,” next claims our attention. Of the Britannus bellicosus we have already spoken under the first class. The earlier cynegetical writers are silent on the subject of British hounds: nor do they appear to have been known in Italy till towards the decline of the Roman empire; when, having been introduced into Celtic Gaul, their merits became gradually known in southern Europe. And here, in spite of the French encyclopedists, (the copyists of Messieurs D’Yauville and Le Verrier de la Conterie,) who gratuitously assume “qu’en général les chiens Anglois n’ont pas autant de noblesse que les beaux chiens François,”—and that where the breed is improved, as they allow it to be in some cases, the amelioration is attributable to Norman crosses,—we must, with our native poet, claim the palm for Britain;

[Sidenote: Somerville. Chace, B. +i.+]

In thee alone, fair land of liberty!
Is bred the perfect hound, in scent and speed
As yet unrivall’d, while in other climes
Their virtue fails, a weak degenerate race!

By name, British hunting-dogs (as distinct from the pugnacious class) are mentioned by the poets of Carthage and Anazarbus alone; by the former, where singing the praises of different canine breeds, the merits of the blood of distant countries;

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 123.]

Sed non Spartanos tantùm, tantùmve Molossos
Pascendum catulos: divisa Britannia mittit
Veloces,[395] nostrisque orbis venatibus aptos;

—by the latter, in the conclusion of his first cynegetic, vs. 467, hereafter cited. Of Nemesian’s “veloces,” probably not of the sagacious class, I shall, in the sequel, speak. In the absence of any assigned _habitat_ for the Petronius, may we not consider him indigenous of Britain?[396] Our happy isle has ever been famous for excellent breeds of hunting-dogs, for skilful sportsmen, and horses both fleet and patient of the chase. All the Celtic nations indeed, and our ancestors among the rest, were passionately addicted to the diversions of the field, considering the prosecution of such laborious callings a kind of apprenticeship and initiation for war. Thence the superiority of the Celtic breeds of sporting-dogs, and more especially of the Britannus sagax and Britannus bellicosus. With the latter, perhaps, the former may have been sent to Italy by the resident Procurator Cynegii, as worthy of admission into Roman kennels; for at this early period I believe there were only these two _native_ varieties of the canine race in Britain. In the field of battle, in public spectacles, and in the wolf and boar-chases, the bellicosus, the rival of the truculent Epirote, stood pre-eminent: and in the ordinary hunting of timid and fugacious quarry, the hound “naribus utilis,” acquired an early name and character.[397] For hideousness of aspect, and ugliness of shape, both were remarkable;

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 177.]

Si non ad speciem, mentiturosque decores
Protinùs: hæc una est catulis jactura Britannis:

—a notification of Ovid’s contemporary, which may be interpreted of the sagacious with as much truth as of the pugnacious sorts.

[Sidenote: J. Caii de Canibus Britan. Libellus.]

Modern ingenuity has taught British hounds of chase to pursue many varieties of prey. “Alius leporis, alius vulpis, alius cervi, alius platycerotis, alius taxi, alius lutræ, alius mustelæ, alius cuniculi tantùm odore gaudet.” The dog does not himself necessarily differ, for adaptation to different game; and possibly, the old English Talbot was the parent stock, whence all the sub-varieties, at present found in the kennels of Great Britain, originally sprung,[398] modified in shape and character by judicious breeding, and careful management as to quarry:[399]

[Sidenote: Somerville’s Chace, B. +i.+]

strong, heavy, slow, but sure,
Whose ears down-hanging from his thick round head,
Shall sweep the morning dew; whose clanging voice
Awake the mountain echo in her cell,
And shake the forest: the bold Talbot kind
Of these the prime, &c.

The hounds of Theseus would be correctly placed, from the description of our great dramatic poet, under the old English breed. With it they have more points in common than with their fabled progenitors;

[Sidenote: Midsummer Night’s Dream.]

My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew’d, so sanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee’d, and dew-lap’d, like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in pursuit; but match’d in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never halloo’d to, nor cheer’d with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.

The vigorous and fleet Leverarius being a supposed representative of some ancient types, I cite the masterly picture of Somerville for the purpose of comparison with the classic poets of the Chase:

[Sidenote: Somerville’s Chace, B. +i.+]

See there with countenance blithe,
And with a courtly grin, the fawning hound
Salutes thee cowering; his wide opening nose
Upwards he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes
Melt in soft blandishments, and humble joy;
His glossy skin, or yellow-pied, or blue,
In lights or shades by nature’s pencil drawn,
Reflects the various tints; his ears and legs
Fleckt here and there, in gay enamell’d pride,
Rival the speckled pard; his rush-grown tail
O’er his broad back bends in an ample arch;
On shoulders clean, upright and firm he stands;
His round cat-foot, straight hams, and wide-spread thighs,
And his low-dropping chest, confess his speed,
His strength, his wind, or on the steepy hill,
Or far-extended plain; in every part
So well-proportion’d, that the nicer skill
Of Phidias himself can’t blame thy choice.

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. +v.+]

[Sidenote: De Canibus et Venatione Libellus.]

The Talbot, whose portrait is also sketched by the Latin poet of Barga, as well as by the authors cited, is at present fallen into disrepute—his slowness of foot being scarce compensated by his keenness of scent. The fleeter Leverarius, whose consimilarity with the Gratian Petronius almost approaches to identity, was apparently unknown to M. A. Biondi; for he holds it quite impossible (like the elder Xenophon in regard to the fair capture of the hare with his ἀλωπεκίδες _at force_) that any hounds should have speed sufficient to run down a fox, without the aid of wily instruments of destruction.[400] But the largest varieties of Somerville’s last picture are found a match for the arch-felon, “vulpem captare dolosam,”—the only approach to the modern mode of pursuing whom, which the classics afford, is in the fourth book of Oppian’s Cynegetics, where the κύνες ἀολλέες are evidently _a pack_ of hounds, though we look in vain for the well-mounted hunters;

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +iv.+ vs. 448.]

κερδὼ δ’ οὔτε λόχοισιν ἁλώσιμος, οὔτε βρόχοισιν,
οὔτε λίνοις· δεινὴ γὰρ ἐπιφροσύνῃσι νοῆσαι,
δεινὴ δ’ αὖτε κάλωα ταμεῖν, ὑπὸ δ’ ἅμματα λῦσαι,
καὶ πυκινοῖσι δόλοισιν ὀλισθῆσαι θανάτοιο·
ἀλλὰ κύνες μιν ἄειραν ἀολλέες, οὐδ’ ἄρ’ ἐκεῖνοι
καὶ κρατεροί περ ἐόντες ἀναιμωτεὶ δαμάσαντο.

In no case does he fall an easy prey to the disturbers of his cunningly-wrought _latibulum_:

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +iii.+ vs. 450.]

μάλ’ ἀρήϊος ἐν πραπίδεσσι,
καὶ πινυτὴ ναίει πυμάτοις ἐνὶ φωλειοῖσιν,
ἑπταπύλους οἴξασα δόμους, τρητάς τε καλιὰς
τηλόθ’ ἀπ’ ἀλλήλων, μή μιν θηρήτορες ἄνδρες
ἀμφὶ θύρῃ λοχόωντες ὑπὸ βροχίδεσσιν ἄγωνται·
ἀργαλέη γενύεσσι καὶ ἀντία δηρίσασθαι
θηρσί τ’ ἀρειοτέροισι, καὶ ἀγρευτῆρσι κύνεσσιν.[401]

Even when, with the din of huntsmen and hounds, driven into nets, the entangled felon, according to Martial, still fights it out, to the no little discomfiture and injury of his canine antagonists;

[Sidenote: Martial. Epigr. L. +x.+ Ep. 37.]

Hic olidam clamosus ages in retia vulpem,
Mordebitque tuos sordida præda canes...[402]

[Sidenote: Brodæus in Oppianum, p. 46.]

[Sidenote: Rittershusius in Oppianum, p. 42.]

Identical with the least of the hound tribe of the British isles, the _Canis venaticus minor_ of Ray’s Synopsis, and Charleton’s Onomasticon, is the Oppianic Agassæus; the derivation of whose name has puzzled Broadæus and other classic commentators not a little.[403] With the hint that Ἀγασσεὺς may be connected with _Agassa_ of Macedonia, _Agasus_ a port of Apulia, the Thracian _Agessus_, and _Agathia_ a city of Phocis, no reason is alleged why a British dog should deduce his name from countries and places so remote. Of the existence of such a tiny hound of chase in this country, Rittershusius seems not to have been aware. British dogs, he remarks, are exceedingly keen-scented, but he cannot divine why called small, βαιὸν γένος, being, in his days at least, of great size. Brodæus, too, ignorant of any other than the Britannus of Claudian, cannot reconcile the “Anglici canes prodigiosæ staturæ” of this poet, and his own experience, with the portrait of the Oppianic Ἀγασσεύς.[404]

[Sidenote: J. Caii de Can. Brit. Libellus.]

It is scarce necessary to observe that the dog in question has no affinity with the Agasæus of Dr. Caius, who very absurdly borrows, for his gazehound, a name previously engaged by a totally different dog; as if to gratify his etymological mania by connecting the terms Agasæus, a gaze, a gazehound—“neque enim odoratu, sed prospectu attento et diligenti feram persequitur iste canis—(Agasæus, a gazehound)—etsi non sum nescius etiam apud Latinos Agasæi vocabulum inter canum nomina reperiri”—“Agasæum nostri abs re quòd intento sit in feram oculo vocant.”

[Sidenote: Synopsis Animalium. Countrey Contentments, B. +i.+ c. +iv.+]

Camden has fallen into the same error with Caius, and confounded the Agasseus of Oppian with the gazehound of Britain; and even Ray has made the gazehound a variety of the _Canis venaticus sagax_, distinguished from his supposed consimilars of the same family by running on sight of his game—“qui aspectu feras insequitur.”

From the following portrait, compared with that drawn by Markham, we may decide the identity of the Agassæus and Beagle:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ vs. 467.]

ἔστι δέ τι σκυλάκων γένος ἄλκιμον ἰχνευτήρων,
βαιὸν, ἀτὰρ μεγάλης ἀντάξιον ἔμμεν’ ἀοιδῆς·
τοὺς τράφεν ἄγρια φῦλα Βρετανῶν αἰολονώτων,
αὐτὰρ ἐπικλήδην σφὰς Ἀγασσαίους ὀνόμῃναν·
τῶν ἤτοι μέγεθος μὲν ὀμοίϊον οὐτιδανοῖσι
λίχνοις οἰκιδίοισι τραπεζήεσσι κύνεσσι,
γυρὸν, ἀσαρκότατον, λασιότριχον, ὄμμασι νωθές·
ἀλλ’ ὀνύχεσσι πόδας κεκορυθμένον ἀργαλέοισι,
καὶ θαμινοῖς κυνοδοῦσιν ἀκαχμένον ἰοφόροισι.
ῥίνεσι δ’ αὖτε μάλιστα πανέξοχός ἐστιν Ἀγασσεὺς,
καὶ στιβίῃ πανάριστος, ἐπεὶ κατὰ γαῖαν ἰόντων
ἴχνιον εὑρέμεναι μέγα δὴ σοφὸς, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴν
ἴδμων ἠερίην μάλα σημῄνασθαι ἀϋτμήν.

Let the reader compare these little pet-like, weakly, crooked, lank, wire-haired, dull-looking creatures, keen however, and excellent of nose, with his own experience of the beagle’s type and properties, and the representations of authors.[405]

The poet gives some amusing instructions for breaking in the puppy of the Agassæus;

[Sidenote: Ejusd. vs. 489.]

αὐτὰρ ὅγ’ αἶψα
ὠρίνθη, φριμάα τε λαγωείης ὑπ’ ἀϋτμῆς,
ἴχνια μαστεύει τε κατὰ χθονὸς, κ. τ. λ.

comparing his restlessness to that of a young woman in travail with her first child,

[Sidenote: Ejusd. vs. 493.]

ὡς δ’ ὅτε τις κούρη δέκατον περὶ μῆνα σελήνης
πρωτοτόκος λοχίῃσιν ὑπ’ ὠδίνεσσι τυπεῖσα, κ. τ. λ.

[Sidenote: Lib. +ii.+ p. 18.]

The praises of the little beagle have been celebrated in Greek and Latin, verse and prose. Amongst the modern poets, he is found in the Album Dianæ Leporicidæ of Jac. Savary, under the title of “ululatorum ordo minorum”—“gens parvis devota feris;” and placed in the kennels of Britain—still sufficiently marked by her insular, geographical position, and the staunchness of her canine breed, but, unfortunately for the loyalty of Savary’s own countrymen, no longer _exclusively_ characterized by the traitorous, regicide spirit of her inhabitants:

Insula quos gignit septem vicina trioni,
Terra canum laudata fide, damnata virorum
Perfidiâ, Regisque sui execranda cruore, &c.

He is also mentioned by Angelinus Gazæus—see the Lagographia Curiosa of Paullini. Of the Greek portrait of Arrian we shall presently speak, under the Segusian dog.

[Sidenote: Countrey Contentments, B. +i.+ c. +iv.+ 14.]

It is to Gervase Markham, our “English master of economical philosophy,” as Wase calls him, that we are indebted for the fullest description of “the little beagle, which may be carried in a man’s glove;”—“bred,” says Gervase, “for delight only, being of curious scents, and passing cunning in their hunting, for the most part tiring, but seldome killing the prey, except at some strange advantage.” “Their musicke is very smalle, like reeds, and their pace like their body, onely for exercise, and not for slaughter.”

[Sidenote: Animadvers. in Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 373.]

The Segusian dog mentioned by Arrian, in the third chapter of his Treatise on Coursing, as a sorry brute, quick-scented, with a pitiful and dolorous whine, instead of bark—rough and unsightly, and the more high-bred the more ugly—I believe to be identical with the last variety. The Bithynian has devoted an entire chapter of his entertaining and original manual to a description of the Ἑγουσίαι κύνες: whose name, he tells us, is derived from a Celtic people,[406] amongst whom they were first bred, and held in repute for their nasal sagacity. For a full description of these smaller hounds of Gaul, the reader is referred to the cited chapter; and attached to my translation of the same, he will find a few illustrative notes. The remarks of Belin de Ballu, in his Animadversiones in Oppianum, show strange misapprehension of the ancient distinctions in the Celtic kennels. The _chiens courans_ of modern France are not the οὐέρτραγοι κύνες of the younger Xenophon; nor are the latter’s Ἑγουσίαι the “genus canum, quorum pili instar velleris ovium crispantur,” as incorrectly stated by this most learned editor of the Greek poet of the chase. The Segusians are rather the _bigles_ of the present day—perhaps the _bassets_, a small variety of terrier-beagle, used in rabbit-hunting.[407]

CANES VENATICI. +Class III.+

CANES CELERES.

[Sidenote: Claudian. de laud. Stilicon. L. +iii.+]

_Hæ pedibus celeres._

This class,[408] by far the least numerous of the three, contains only the Vertragus or Vertraha,[409] and possibly the Sicamber;—of the latter of whom I have nothing to communicate—being neither mentioned by Xenophon, Pollux, Oppian, nor Nemesian. If he be, as has been supposed, a Belgic hound, he cannot be the boar-hound of Silius Italicus, without losing his claim to admission on our present file. No Canis Venaticus can be enrolled here, who runs otherwise than on _sight_ of his game;—it is his characteristic property—[410]

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneget. vs. 205.]

premit inventas, non inventura latentes
Illa feras.

and therefore the Belgian—Canis _occultos_ agitat cum Belgicus apros—must be banished from hence to the sagacious class: amongst the inductores of which division, I have already placed him as a lime-hound.

The best description of the type of the present class will be found in the copious Manual of Arrian, c. +iv.+ +v.+ and +vi.+—introduced by the memorable summary at the conclusion of c. +iii.+—τὴν δὲ ἰδέαν, καλόν τι χρῆμά εἰσι, κατά τε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αἱ γενναιόταται αὐτῶν καὶ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ἅπαν καὶ τὴν τρίχα καὶ τὴν χρόαν· οὕτω ταῖς τε ποικίλαις ἐπανθεῖ τὸ ποικίλον, καὶ ὅσαις ἁπλῆ ἡ χρόα ἐστὶν ἀποστίλβει καὶ αὕτη, καί ἐστιν ἥδιστον θέαμα ἀνδρὶ θηρευτικῷ. And the following of Nemesian, who may be designated the poet of the _pedibus celeres_, as Gratius of the _bellicosi_, is correct as far as it goes;

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 106.]

Elige tunc cursu facilem, facilemque recursu,
Non humili de gente canem. Sit cruribus altis,
Sit rigidis, multamque gerat sub pectore lato
Costarum sub fine decenter prona carinam,
Quæ sensim rursùs siccâ se colligat alvo,
Renibus ampla satis vadis, diductaque coxas,
Cuique nimis molles fluitent in cursibus aures.

Nor must I omit the beautiful and minutely faithful portrait of the Greek poet of Anazarbus, though aware that it has been appropriated to a variety of the _nare sagaces_, and that Rittershusius does not allude to any supposed resemblance to the Celtic dog in his commentary on Oppian. Bearing in mind, however, that this erudite scholar had only the writings of Xenophon and Pollux, and the scanty lines of the Faliscian and African poets, to aid his attempt to give name and place to a doubtful animal;—had no authorities to consult, particularly dedicated to the _pedibus celeres_ in opposition to the _nare sagaces_, to whose cause, and that of the _bellicosi_, the Greek Cynegetica were exclusively, and the Latin principally confined, (for the treatise of Arrian was at that period undiscovered in the Vatican,)—and therefore could not assimilate the Oppianic hound to the Celtic type;—I am not at all surprised that he has left this resemblance unnoticed. Subsequent commentators following in his footsteps, the Celtic dog has been as entirely disregarded on Oppian’s page, as if he had been never admitted on his muster-roll. The courser, I am confident, will recognize many of the features, as well as the wonted quarry, of his favourite hound, in the following extract;—which, if it cannot be exclusively appropriated to the Vertragus of Celtica, will assuredly admit only the swiftest of the sagacious class to a participation of its type:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneget. +i.+ vs. 401.]

μηκεδανὸν κρατερὸν δέμας, ἄρκιον ἠδὲ κάρηνον,
κοῦφον ἐΰγληνον, κυαναὶ στίλβοιεν ὀπωπαί·
κάρχαρον, ἐκτάδιον τελέθοι στόμα, βαιὰ δ’ ὕπερθεν
οὔατα λεπταλέοισι περιστέλλοινθ’ ὑμένεσσι·
δειρὴ μηκεδανὴ, καὶ στήθεα νέρθε κραταιὰ,
εὐρέα· τὼ πρόσθεν δέ τ’ ὀλιζοτέρω πόδε ἔστων,
ὀρθοτενεῖς κώλων ταναοὶ δολιχήρεες ἱστοὶ,
εὐρέες ὠμοπλάται, πλευρῶν ἐπικάρσια ταρσὰ,
ὀσφύες εὔσαρκοι, μὴ πίονες· αὐτὰρ ὄπισθε
στριφνή τ’ ἐκτάδιός τε πέλοι δολιχόσκιος οὐρή.
τοῖοι μὲν ταναοῖσιν ἐφοπλίζοιντο δρόμοισι
δόρκοις, ἠδ’ ἐλάφοισιν, ἀελλόποδί τε λαγωῷ.

The advocate of the Celtic hound may allege, in support of his interpretation, that such ancient dogs as ran on scent were more or less long-eared,[411]—being so represented on the monuments of antiquity;—and may ask how the small ears of Oppian’s dog, if interpreted of the sagacious class, are to be reconciled with the representations of Tempesta, Montfaucon, and others, and the down-hanging ears of modern Canes Venatici of the keen-nosed class? Again—as the Cilician was a perfect adept at versifying with the materials furnished by his predecessors, and certainly made the best use of their labours, is it not improbable that he should have altogether omitted the Celtic greyhound, so faithfully portrayed by the younger Xenophon, (with whose description that of the poet in no essential point differs,) and have mentioned _two_ varieties of sagaces and _one_ of bellicosi, to the entire neglect of the Vertragus type?

The deficiencies, if any, of his classical predecessors have been judiciously and tastefully supplied by the elaborate pen of Bargæus:

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

Sin autem tete oblectant, qui præmia cursu
Certa petunt, celerique fugâ lata æquora verrunt:
Elige quos vultus tristes, demissaque cervix
Ornat, et argutum supra stant lumina rostrum
Nigra quidem, sed quæ multo splendore coruscant.
Ollis os ingens ad tempora penè dehiscit,
Lataque frons tenues consurgere suspicit aures.
Ac veluti coluber frigus perpessus in altis
Terrarum latebris hyemes effugit aquosas,
Moxque adeò sub vere novo jam sole calente
Exiit, et multo se suscitat improbus æstu,
Ac si fortè aliquem propiùs persensit euntem,
Explicat immensos orbes, atque arduus effert
Cervicem, et rigido summum capite aëra findit.
Vergat humi propior stomachus, latèque patescat
Pectus: et haud longis insistant cruribus armi
Sublimes: tum prona suis extantia costis
Et latera, et lumbis quà jungitur alvus obesis,
Pressa animis calidum ostendant, et viribus acrem.
Præcipuè clunes inter si stricta supremos
Ilia demittant caudam, quæ currat ad imum
Tenuis, ubi extremâ vix tandem in parte residat:
Et parvum sese sinuans deflectat in orbem.
At verò tereti pronat vestigia plantâ,
Quæ spatiis digitos nusquam discludat apertis,
Et multùm solidos paulatim curvet in ungues.
Lælapis haud aliam formam mirata vetustas
Esse refert, &c.

Let the κύων Κελτικὸς of Arrian be the classic prototype of the modern greyhound—the Canis Gallicus of Ovid[412]—whose style of coursing is sketched to the life in the well-known, and often-cited simile;

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +i.+ vs. 533.]

Ut canis in vacuo leporem cum Gallicus arvo
Vidit; et hic prædam pedibus petit, ille salutem:
Alter inhæsuro similis, jam jamque tenere
Sperat, et extento stringit vestigia rostro;
Alter in ambiguo est, an sit deprensus, et ipsis
Morsibus eripitur; tangentiaque ora relinquit.

[Sidenote: Dryden’s Ovid’s Metam. B. +i.+]

As when th’ impatient greyhound, slipp’d from far,
Bounds o’er the glebe to course the fearful hare,
She in her speed does all her safety lay,
And be with double speed pursues the prey;
O’erruns her at the sitting turn, and licks
His chaps in vain, and blows upon the flix:
She ’scapes, and for the neighbouring covert strives,
And gaining shelter, doubts if yet she lives.

[Sidenote: Pausanias in Bœoticis. c. +xix.+]

And again, in the fable of Lælaps, the far-famed “grewnd” of Bœotia;

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +vii.+ vs. 781.]

Tollor eo capioque novi spectacula cursûs:
Quà modò deprendi, modò se subducere ab ipso
Vulnere visa fera est: nec limite callida recto,
In spatiumque fugit; sed decipit ora sequentis,
Et redit in gyrum, ne sit suus impetus hosti.
Imminet hic, sequiturque parem: similisque tenenti
Non tenet, et vacuos exercet in aëra morsus.

[Sidenote: Golding’s Ovid’s Metam. Seventh booke.]

I gat me to the knap
Of this same hill, and there beheld of this strange course the hap,
In which the beaste seemes one while caught, and ere a man would thinke,
Doth quickely give the grewnd the slip, and from his biting shrinke,
And like a wilie foxe he runs not forth directly out,
Nor makes a winlas over all the champion fields about,
But doubling and indenting still avoydes his enmies lips,
And turning short, as swift about as spinning wheele he wips,
To disappoint the snatch. The grewnd pursuing at a inch
Doth cote him, never loosing ground; but likely still to pinch,
Is at the sudden shifted off: continually he snatches
In vaine: for nothing in his mouth save onely aire he catches.

Nor will the reader of modern Cynegetica forget the vivid sketch of Pterelas’s course by the Latin poet of Venusium:

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Ocyùs insequitur Pterelas, cursuque citato
Intervalla facit lati decrescere campi.
Jam propior propiorque micat, jam captat hianti
Summa pedum rostro, jam terga fugacia stringit.
Ille pavet, flexoque obliquat tramite cursus,
Et dubiâ trepidans formidine, jamque teneri
Se putat, et rursùm tangentis ab ore recedit,
Fataque momento sibi prorogat, æmula donec
Rostra levis mergat miserando in corpore victor,
Fulmineus victor, gemino cui tramite lumbos
Spina subit graciles, &c.

The many portraits of these classical and semi-classical Cynegetica will be fitly closed with the following elegiac verses on a Canis Venatrix, whose characteristic attributes, pathetically written on a monumental stone by an unknown hand, but at once applied by us to the Celtic type, exemplify in the entombed a few of the anecdotes of Arrian’s Hormé:

_Epitaphium Canis Venatricis._

[Sidenote: Poetæ Latini Minores. Wernsdorf. Tom. +i.+ p. 121.]

Gallia me genuit, nomen mihi divitis undæ
Concha dedit, formæ nominis aptus honos.
Docta per incertas audax discurrere silvas,
Collibus hirsutas atque agitare feras.
Non gravibus vinclis unquam consueta teneri,
Verbera nec niveo corpore sæva pati.
Molli namque sinu domini dominæque jacebam,
Et noram in strato lassa cubare toro.
Et plus, quam licuit muto, canis ore loquebar,
Nulli latratus pertimuere meos.
Et jam fata subî, partu jactata sinistro,
Quam nunc sub parvo marmore terra teget.

The early history of the greyhound is confounded with the Epirote, as if they had a common lineage—a mistake which has arisen from their being considered equally of Grecian origin—whereas the greyhound has no connexion with ancient Greece. Fable, however, assigns them a common descent from the Lælaps of Bœotia,[413]—from whom also sprung other dogs of classic fame. The history of this celebrated hound, and the lineage and geographical distribution of his descendants, are particularized in the Cynegeticon of Bargæus:

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

Illum autem specie, præstantem animisque superbum
Cynthia dilectæ dederat pro munere Nymphæ:
Ipsaque mox juveni Æolidæ: genialia postquam
Fulcra tori, et dulceis iterùm conjunxit amores,
Jucundumque sinu fovit complexa maritum.
Cujus ope innumeras sylvis prædatus, et agris
Ille feras, ne tanta olim sublata periret
Aut morte, aut sterili mox accedente senectâ,
Et caderet simul extincto cum Lælape virtus:
Subjecitque canem, sobolemque è matre recepit
Optatam, Cretæque ultro concessit habendam.
Inde autem vobis auctâ jam prole nepotes
Allatos Graiæ primùm accepistis Amyclæ,
Tempore quo gemini fidissima pectora fratres
Nunc lepores canibus, cursu nunc dorcadas acreis,
Et nunc Tænario cervas in littore agebant;
Æripedes cervas, quibus haud velocior unquam
Evolat Æoliis aquilo dimissus ab antris.
Nec fuit ipsa diu tam magni muneris expers
Epirus. Miscere genus monstravit: at ollis
Ingentes animi, solersque industria crevit.

[Sidenote: De Venatione. c. +iii.+]

[Sidenote: J. Vlitii Venat. Novant.]

[Sidenote: Encyc. Méthod. Les chasses. p. 290.]

Arrian, from whose Manual of Coursing I purposely abstain to quote at length, because the reader can refer to my translation with little trouble, calls the greyhound by the barbarous title of οὐέρτραγος κύων,[414] expressly stating that he is so denominated in the Celtic tongue, not from any particular people, like the Cretan, Carian, and Spartan hounds, but from his quality of speed, as some of the Cretans are distinguished by certain peculiarities of character. Here, however, our author’s ignorance of the Celtic language has led him into an error. Being unable, probably, to explain a term which had reached him in a corrupt form, he falsely derived it from the dog’s most characteristic property, ἀπὸ τῆς ὠκύτητος: whereas in truth it is compounded of _Velt_, a plain or open country,[415] the “arvum vacuum” of Ovid, and _racha_, a hound of chase;[416] and consequently signifies a champaign-dog, _un lévrier de plaine_, a hound adapted for coursing over an open country.

The Vertagus, or Tumbler, (“quòd se, dum prædatur, vertat,” &c.) I scarce need observe, has no affinity whatever with the οὐέρτραγος κύων of Arrian. By Dr. Caius, in his Libellus de Canibus Britannicis, he is fully described; nor are his tricks forgotten by the Latin poet of Caen;

[Sidenote: Jac. Savary Alb. Dianæ Leporicidæ. p. 5.]

Seque volutantes, ludisque cuniculum amicis
Fallentes, prædæ colludentesque futuræ,
Informat catulos Angli solertia nanos.

The files of classical antiquity afford no counterpart to the British Tumbler, unless it be in the Vertagus of Martial—a dog already allotted to the Celtic family, as, in some copies of the epigrammatist, written Vertragus.

[Sidenote: Gloss. Arch. p. 113.]

[Sidenote: De bello Gallico. L. +iv.+ 12.]

[Sidenote: Symmachi Epist. L. +ii.+ Ep. 77.]

It remains for me to mention the distinctions which have been made by naturalists in the greyhound type of our own islands,[417] and to endeavour to trace its connexion with Gallia Celtica. The modern sub-varieties of our systematic writers on natural history are named from the countries in which the respective sorts most abound, English, Scotch, and Irish greyhounds. Spelman, whose authority is entitled to weight, in his remarks “De Canibus Veterum,” speaking of the “Leporarius levipes, qui ex visu prædam appetit arripitque, a greyhound, Ovidio Canis Gallicus,” subjoins, “sed propriè magìs _Britannicus_;” as if he deemed him of British origin,[419] a native of our isle, like the inhabitants of the interior mentioned by Cæsar, “quos natos in insulâ ipsâ, memoriâ proditum dicunt;”—but he cites no testimony in support of his opinion. I do not believe either of the three sub-varieties of the dog in question indigenous of Great Britain; but rather that all our insular sorts originally sprang from the Celtic Vertragus:—the probability of which is supported by the history of the distribution of the Celts themselves, and the name under which the dogs were sent by Flavian to his brother Symmachus at Rome. The Scots, a Celtic tribe, previously inhabiting some part of Western Europe, emigrated into Ireland during the third century, and gave to that, isle, _pro tempore_, the name of Scotland. Thence they spread over the Western islands, and took possession of the neighbouring district of Argyle, the land of the _Gael_ or _Gaul_—giving eventually their name to the Northern part of Britain generally. May we not suppose the Irish and Scotch greyhounds to have been primevally derived from the same Celtic stock, accompanying these emigrants of Celtic Europe to Ireland, and thence to Scotland; in one or other of which territories they received the name of Canes Scotici, from the Scotish emigrants of Celtica, who accompanied them?[420] and may not the English greyhound, improved in speed by careful management and judicious breeding, as his master increased in civilization and became more reclaimed, be derived, through such intermediate links, from the same parent source? The coarser varieties of the North, and of the sister Isle, are rarely seen in South Britain; and though at first closely connected with the Celt, and amongst his earliest descendants, are now considered farther removed from the genuine type of Celtica, the οὐέρτραγος κύων of the Greek manual, in consequence of commixture with the _canes bellicosi_ and _sagaces_.

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 124.]

The strongest evidence we possess of the greyhound’s existence in Britain, in the reigns of Carus, his sons, and Diocletian, is afforded by the Cynegeticon of the African poet. For although I deny that this hound can be entitled to the local epithet _Britannicus_, bestowed on him by Spelman, to the superseding his usual titles, I readily grant, at the same time, that the exported _veloces_ of Britain, of the Cynegeticon alluded to, were greyhounds. Nemesian must be considered almost entirely the poet of the _pedibus celeres_;—at least, in that portion of his hunting-poem which has survived the ravages of time. But the usual terms by which the greyhound is designated in Ovid, Gratius, Martial, and Arrian, are no where found in the poet of Carthage; in place of which invariably occur the terms _catuli veloces_. That by these terms the latter author intends hounds of the Celtic type, I have, on a careful re-perusal of his work, not the least doubt; though, when writing the note to the Preface, p. 11, I was inclined to view the _veloces_, particularly specified by Nemesian as of British export, as nimble harriers, rather than genuine greyhounds; and did not in consequence adduce the passage alluded to, when there endeavouring to fix the period of the latter’s introduction into Britain. Indeed, J. Vlitius, himself sceptical at first as to the nature of these swift-footed hounds, (see his remarks on Nemesian vs. 124.,) comes round to my conclusion in the progress of his annotations, (see his notes on vs. 233.). Nearly the whole of Nemesian’s instructions have reference to _canes cursores_, beginning with their exportation from our own island—where, doubtless, they had been previously imported from Gaul—

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 124.]

divisa Britannia mittit
_Veloces_, nostrique orbis venatibus aptos;

and pursuing the subject in the departments of breeding, feeding, and entering of puppies to their game,[421] (his remarks on these subjects being _essentially_ applicable to hounds of the Celtic type,[422]) he adds,

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 200.]

Sic tibi _veloces catulos_ reparare memento
Semper, et in parvos iterùm protendere curas;

and then speaking of Tuscan dogs of scent, sagacious _Inductores_, he contrasts their form with that of the hounds in question,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 230.]

Quin et Tuscorum non est extrema voluptas
Sæpè canum: sit forma illis licèt obsita villo,
Dissimilesque habeant _catulis velocibus_ artus....

at which point he suddenly arrests his pen, and changes his subject, deferring till a subsequent part of his poem, unfortunately lost, the qualities of this keen-nosed tribe of hounds,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 235.]

Horum animos, moresque simul, naresque sagaces
Mox referam: nunc omnis adhuc narranda supellex
Venandi, cultusque mihi dicendus equorum.

The latter subjects completed, he again takes up the _catuli veloces_, and slips them on the sporting field, at the period of the year usual with modern coursers for the commencement of their diversion, viz. the beginning of winter;

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 321.]

hiemis sub tempus aquosæ
Incipe _veloces catulos_ immittere pratis,
Incipe cornipedes latos agitare per agros.

[Sidenote: Symmachi Epist. L. +ii.+ Ep. 77.]

From the view, then, here taken of the identity of these _veloces catuli_ of Nemesian with the _Vertragi_ of Arrian, we may conclude that greyhounds had been exported from the British Isles to some more southern state, Rome or Carthage, when the native poet of the latter place sung their praises in his Cynegeticon. And from the same source, a supply of these rare and valuable dogs was kept up at Rome, in the reign of Theodosius, by the instrumentality of Flavian. Inmates, therefore, of Celto-Britannic kennels, they must have been, on the twofold evidence of Nemesian and Symmachus, at this early period of our dark and semi-fabulous annals. Whether the dogs transported from these isles, as rarities, by Flavian, “solennium rerum largus, et novarum repertor,” to grace with their “incredible force and boldnesse,” the Quæstorate of his brother Symmachus at Rome, “quos prælusionis die ita Roma mirata est ut ferreis caveis putaret advectos,” are to be considered Irish or Scotch, according to modern distinctions, is quite unimportant; for probably at the period of the “oblatio” both were included under the same name. Indeed, it is well known, the inhabitant of Ireland bore the name of Scotus in the age of Claudian, who wrote, as well as Symmachus, in the reigns of Theodosius and Honorius,

[Sidenote: Claudian. de Laud. Stilic. L. +ii.+]

Me quoque vicinis pereuntem gentibus, inquit,
Me juvit Stilico, totam cum Scotus lernen
Movit, et infesto spumavit remige Tethys.

and again,

[Sidenote: Claudian. de +iv.+ Cons. Honor. vs. 32.]

maduerunt sanguine fuso
Orcades: incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule:
Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne.

[Sidenote: Arrian. de Venat. c. +vi.+]

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +vii.+ 754.]

That these Canes _Scotici_ were our Canes bellicosi seems _highly improbable_; for the latter had been known in Rome for several centuries, and could not have been deemed _rarities_ in the days of Symmachus. I am inclined, then, to view them as high-bred Celtic hounds, εἴτε τοῦ δασέος γένους, εἴτε τοῦ ψιλοῦ, naturalized in these isles, and thence again exported to Rome by Flavian. From the earliest date of their existence, there have ever been two varieties of fleet Gallic hounds. As at this time we have greyhounds with rough, and others with smooth hair, so in the days of Arrian were they distinguished in the same way. In the sixth chapter of his Cynegeticus, on the colour of hounds,[423] and its little importance to their merits, he observes that the hair, whether the dog be of the rough or smooth sort, should he fine, close, and soft:—by which I understand that, though the dog be what is termed wire-haired, the hair must not be coarse of texture, nor loose and shaggy. And from these sources we may derive the existing races of England, Scotland, and Ireland, without any _necessary_ commixture with _other_ blood, to account for the wire-haired skin. But the extraordinary sagacity of nose, superinduced on swiftness of foot, in certain varieties of modern Celtic hounds with rough coats, favours the notion of Buffon and others, that a cross has taken place with some alien, sagacious breed, at a remote period. Be this, however, as it may, we will consider the coarse-haired and more powerful varieties of Arrian’s Celt, the representatives of the wolf-hounds of Ireland and Scotland;[424] and the fabulous Lælaps, “the goodly grewnd” of Golding, presented by Dian to Procris,

quem cum sua traderet illi
Cynthia, currendo superabit, dixerat, omnes,—

a poetical picture of an individual, whose counterpart the author had seen, or heard of, in Celtic Gaul, or some Celtic colony, and whose eagerness in the wolf or fox chase is fully supported by his high-mettled descendants;

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 772.]

Jamdudum vincula pugnat
Exuere ipse sibi, colloque morantia tendit.
Vix bene missus erat; nec jam poteramus, ubi esset,
Scire; pedum calidus vestigia pulvis habebat:
Ipse oculis ereptus erat. Non ocior illo
Hasta, nec excussæ contorto verbere glandes,
Nec Gortyniaco calamus levis exit ab arcu, &c.

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

He struggling for to wrest his necke already from the band
Did stretch his collar. Scarcely had we let him off from hand,
But that where Lælaps was become we could not understand;
The print remained of his feete upon the parched sand,
But he was clearely out of sight. Was never dart I trow,
Nor pellet from enforced sling, nor shaft from Creetish bow,
That flew more swift then he did run.

[Sidenote: Fleming’s British Animals. p. 12.]

The modern Scotch greyhound differs from the Irish in many respects.[425] The former is rough and wiry, has a bearded snout, and ears half-pricked; the latter has short smooth hair and pendent ears; the Scotch is sharp, swift, and sagacious; the Irish dull-looking, harmless, indolent. The former is still common in North Britain, the latter is become exceedingly rare everywhere. From Mr. Lambert’s description of a modern specimen, the Irish wolf-greyhound seems to have degenerated much in size.[426]

[Sidenote: Synopsis Animalium.]

[Sidenote: Arrian. de Venatione. c. +xv.+ +xvi.+ +xvii.+]

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +xxiv.+]

The genuine Celtic greyhound, such as he is represented on the Arch of Constantine, is the “Canis venaticus Graius seu Græcus” of Ray;—“qui aspectu feras venatur, cursu velocissimus, formâ corporis et incessu decorus;”[427]—a definition strictly harmonizing with Arrian’s more copious description, in c. +iii.+ c. +viii.+ sub fine, and other parts of his manual. The genuine quarry of this hound is the little fugacious hare; of which the historian of the Celtic chase supplies us with many illustrative anecdotes. That such was “the startled quarry” whereat “the gallant greyhounds,” Hormé, Bonnas, Cirras,[428] were wont to “strain,” over the champaign fields of Cisalpine or Transalpine Gaul, or wherever the father of the leash slipped the “proavorum atavi” of the courser’s hound,[429] can admit, I think, of no doubt. Indeed, the field-instructions of the Cynegeticus refer almost exclusively to hare-coursing: nor does it appear that the author himself, sensible, as he confessedly was, of the peculiar physical adaptation of the greyhound to the hare-course, was ever guilty of misapplying the dog to inappropriate quarry. The red-deer, however, is noticed by him, in his 23rd chapter, as a chase of the Vertragus, fraught with imminent danger, and needing high-mettled hounds.[430] And, subsequently, the same animal is pursued with Scythian and Illyrian galloways on the open plains of Mœsia, Dacia, Scythia, and Illyria:[431]—and, in the following chapter, we find the like diversions practised in Africa with barbs;[432] whereby red and roe deer, and wild asses of extraordinary agility and endurance, are captured by mere boys—a style of chase resembling the Arabian onager-hunting of the elder Xenophon’s Anabasis. But whatever innovations upon the established field-sport of the mother country may have been effected in remote Celtic colonies, by the substitution of other larger quarry in lieu of the hare, the latter is alone to be viewed as the legitimate prey of the Vertragus.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND VIGNETTES.

+The+ Emperor Trajan with hunters and a Celtic greyhound:
Medallion from the Arch of Constantine. _L’Antiquité Expliquée
par Montfaucon._ Tom. +iii.+ Liv. +iv.+ Tab. 175. Frontispiece.

Apollo and Diana—Twin-deities of the Chace: Silver coin of
Delos. _Goltzii Numism. Græc. Ins._ T. +xviii.+ fol. +iii.+
Title-page.

The Author’s greyhound—ἄῤῥην κύων τῇ ἀληθείᾳ γενναῖος. _Arrian.
de Venat._ c. +xxxii.+ Dedication page.

Procris presenting Lælaps and the fatal dart to Cephalus.
_Metamorphos. Ovid._ L. +xv.+ _Æneis formis ab Antonio
Tempesta Florentino incisi._ Back of do.

Ancient implements of writing;—picture from Herculaneum.
_Antiquités d’Herculanum gravées par F. A. David._ Pl.
+xxxiv.+ p. 50. Page 1

Hunter bearing spoils of the Chace: Ancient gem. _Le Gemme
Antiche figurate di Michel Angelo Causeo de la Chausse._
+Cacciatore.+ T. 135. p. 54. 48

+Diana Aricina seu Nemorensis+: Ancient gem. _Begeri Thesaur.
Brandenb._ T. +i.+ _Gemmæ_ p. 64. 49

Diana in her usual hunting attire: Ancient gem of _La Chausse_.
+Diana Cacciatrice.+ T. 61. p. 21. 49

+Ganymede.+ _pierres gravées d’orléans._ +Tome i.+ T. +xii.+ 50

Celtic greyhound: Brass coin of Cythnus. _Goltzii N. G. Ins._ T.
+xviii.+ fol. +vii.+ 51

Celtic greyhound: Brass coin of Cythnus. _Goltzii N. G. Ins._ T.
+xviii.+ fol. +viii.+ 54

Diana Venatrix: a beautiful Cameo of _La Chausse_. +Diana.+ T. 8.
p. 4. 63

Equestrian Courser: Ancient gem of _Maffei_. _Gemme Antiche._ T.
+iv.+ +Caccia.+ t. +lxxi.+ p. 116. 64

Celtic greyhound: Silver coin of Cythnus. _Goltzii N. G. Ins._ T.
+xviii.+ fol. +ix.+ 65

Greyhound puppies—a groupe in white marble in the British Museum;
from the ruins of Antoninus’s Villa at Monte Cagnolo 66

Celtic greyhound killing a hare: Ancient ring. _Gorlæi
Dactyliotheca._ fol. 120. 67

+Diana Pergæa+: Silver coin of Perga in Pamphylia. _Begeri
Thesaur. Brandenb._ T. +i.+ p. 506. 175

+Votum seu Donarium Dianæ Venatrici.+ In Hortis Mediceis.
_Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum ac Veteris Sculpturæ
Vestigia, &c. à Petro Sancti Bartolo._ Tab. 33. 176

Celtic greyhounds and deer from Vaillant. _Montfaucon L’Antiq.
Expliq._ T. +iii.+ 177

Genii hunting from _Maffei: Gemme Antiche._ T. +iv.+ +Caccia di
Genii.+ T. +liv.+ p. 86. 178

Diana Venatrix: Silver coin of Syracuse. _Begeri Thesaur.
Brandenb._ T. +i.+ Numism. Siciliæ, p. 384. 179

Celtic greyhound: Silver coin of Cythnus. _Goltzii N. G. Ins._ T.
+xviii.+ fol. +x.+ 306

+Funeralis Pompa.+ In Ædibus Barberinis. _Admiranda Romanarum
Antiquitatum ac Veteris Sculpturæ Vestigia, &c. à Petro
Sancti Bartolo._ Tab. 70. 307

Porter or Watch-dog—Canis Custos: Ancient gem of _Maffei: Gemme
Antiche._ T. +iv.+ cane, t. +lxxxviii.+ p. 137. 315

[The Plates and Vignettes are executed by Messrs. Day and Haghe, Lithographers to the King, 17, Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.]

BIBLIOTHECA CYNEGETICA.

Ὅτι μὲν οὖν καὶ ἑτέροις ὑπὲρ τούτων ἐσπούδασται, καλῶς οἶδα·
ἐγὼ δὲ ἐμαυτῷ ταῦτα, ὅσα οἷον τε ἦν, ἀθροίσας, καὶ περιβαλὼν
αὐτοῖς τὴν συνήθη λέξιν, κειμήλιον οὐκ ἀσπούδαστον ἐκπονῆσαι
πεπίστευκα. Εἰ δέ τῳ καὶ ἄλλῳ φανεῖται ταῦτα λυσιτελῆ, χρήσθω
αὐτοῖς· ὅτῳ δὲ οὐ φανεῖται, ἐάτω τῷ πατρὶ θάλπειν τε καὶ
περιέπειν· οὐ γὰρ πάντα πᾶσι καλὰ, οὐδὲ ἄξια δοκεῖ σπουδάσαι
πᾶσι πάντα.

+Ælian. de Natura Animalium, Præfat.+

For the amusement of such as may be desirous of consulting the Cynegetical works cited in the preceding annotations on Arrian and the Appendix, a list of their respective titles and editions is subjoined.

The author does not pretend to enumerate all the known editions of each Cynegeticon, but only those of his own library. Where two or more of the same work are mentioned, the copy made use of is either pointed out by specification, or the name of the editor and place of publication are printed in italics. In cases of disputed text, different editions have been collated, and the most approved readings selected for use.

Enrolled in the catalogue are a few treatises _de re Venaticâ_ which the present writer has never seen. They are admitted on the authority of earlier compilers, in whose bibliothecæ they appear: but their importance to the θήρης κλυτὰ δήνεα (Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 16.) is assumed rather than established. Remoteness of residence from public libraries must plead for the author’s unavoidable ignorance. He could not certify by actual examination the admissibility of any book not on his own shelves. The works in question are distinguished by the prefixture of an asterisk.

A Bibliotheca Cynegetica upon the following plan was first attempted by Rittershusius in his _Prolegomena_ to Oppian, imperfectly executed by Lallemant in his _Bibliotheca Historica et Critica Thereuticographῶn_, and subsequently, but still far short of perfection, by Belin de Ballu in his prefatory matter to the poet of Anazarbus. The latter’s catalogue professedly excludes all prosaic works, save those of the classic ages—departing from its rule in the solitary instance of Conrad Heresbach’s Compendium. Of the English Cynegetica, Somerville’s Chace is alone admitted, the doggrel of the Book of St. Alban’s possessing insufficient poetical pretensions, perhaps, in the eyes of a foreigner, to place Dame Juliana Berners, or the “one sumtyme scole mayster of seynt Albons,” or whoever be the author of these antique canons, amongst those “qui _metricè_ hanc materiam persecuti sunt.” Proleg. in Oppian. p. +xvi.+ Ed. 4to.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: +i.+ Xenophon.]

Xenophontis Opuscula Politica, Equestria, et Venatica, cum Arriani Libello De Venatione, &c. _J. G. Schneider. Oxonii_, +mdcccxvii.+