Chapter IX: Part 9

For the indications of speed, and strength of course, in the hare, see L’Ecole de la Chasse, c. +iv.+ “Lièvre vigoureux, bon à chasser,” &c. “The hare that renneth,” says De Langley, “w^t. right stondyng eeres is but litel a ferd and is strong; and zit whan she holdeth that oone eere upryght stondyng and that other y leyde lowe upon her ryge, she fereth but litel the houndes. An hare that crompes hure tayle upon hure rumpe whan she sterteth out of here forme, as a conyng, it is token she is stronge and wele rennyng.”

[146]

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

[Sidenote: De Naturâ Animal. L. +xiii.+ c. 14.]

Xenophon enters most fully into the description of the hare, her habits, haunts, &c.—ποδωκέστατοι μὲν οὖν εἰσὶν οἱ ὄρειοι, οἱ πεδινοὶ δὲ ἧττον, βραδύτατοι δὲ οἱ ἕλειοι. And so also Ælian, with some difference as to the speed of the mountain and plain hares—Λαγῲ δὲ ὄρειοι οὐκ οὕτως ταχεῖς ὡσπεροῦν οἱ τοῖς πεδίοις ἐνοικοῦντες, εἰ μή ποτε ἄρα κἀκεῖνοι πεδίον ἔχοιεν ὑποκείμενον, ἐν ᾧ κατίοντες διαθέουσι. See also Polluc. Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +xii.+ and varr. de r. r. l. +iii.+ c. +xii.+ Much of Xenophon’s description is versified by Oppian:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. L. +iii.+ vs. 504.]

πτῶκας ἀείδωμεν, θήρης ἐρίδωρον ὀπώρην·
σῶμα πέλει τυτθὸν, λάσιον· δολιχώτατον οὖας·
βαιὸν ὕπερθε κάρη, βαιοὶ πόδες, οὐκ ἴσα κῶλα, κ. τ. λ.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +iii.+ fol. 20.]

“Of hares soom goon faster and ben stronger than other, as of men and of other beestis. And also the pasture and the contre wher thei abiden helpeth moche thereto; ffor whan an hare abideth and formeth in a playn contre ther as no busshes be, suche hares ben comonly strengest and wel rennyng. And also whan thei pasture of too herbes, that oon is clepyd sorpol and that other pulegium, thei be stronge and fast rennyng.”

[Sidenote: C. F. Paullini Lagograph. Curios. S. +iv.+]

[Sidenote: Quadripartit. Botanicum.]

This superiority of the upland over the lowland hare continues, according to Paullini, after death. The flavour of its flesh on the table is as superior in the former to what it is in the latter, as the prowess of the one during life surpassed that of the other—“Lumbi et clunes, seu coxæ,” says the credulous epicure of Eisenach, “gratissimum præbent alimentum et pulmentum, imprimis marium, qui femellis in cibatu meritò præferuntur, præsertim si montium fuerint incolæ planorumque locorum, serpyllo, pulegio, et similibus herbis vescentes. Qui enim in palustribus locis degunt, vilioris conditionis sunt carnis et succi deterioris.” The cause of the inferiority of the latter is furnished by Simon Paulli, “quia illorum intercus et excrementitia humiditas, quæ carnem reddit manu contumacem, non attenuata et consumpta est, uti horum, qui fugati sunt.”

[147]

[Sidenote: Book of Venerie p. 248.]

Turberville observes a hare will take to the open country, if the horsemen stand on the covert-side, “then peradventure when shee ryseth, shee will take towards the champayne;” but I have often seen a hare voluntarily start directly away from the covert, without any such obstacle existing to her nearer escape.

[148]

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Natur. Animal. L. +xiii.+ c. 14.]

Οὐ μὴν ἀναλίσκει τὴν ἑαυτοῦ δύναμιν ἀταμιεύτως, τηρεῖ δὲ τοῦ διώκοντος τὴν ὁρμήν· καὶ ἐὰν μὲν ᾖ νωθὴς, οὐ πάνυ ἀνῆκε τὸ ἑαυτοῦ τάχος· ἀλλὰ καί τι καὶ ἀνέστειλεν, ὡς προεκθεῖν μὲν τοῦ κυνὸς, οὐ μὴν ἀπαγορεῦσαι ὑπὸ τοῦ συντόνου τοῦ δρόμου αὐτός. Οἶδε γὰρ ἀμείνων ὢν, καὶ ὁρᾷ εἰς τὸ μὴ ὑπερπονεῖσθαι οἱ τὸν καιρὸν ὄντα. Ἐὰν δὲ καὶ ὁ κύων ᾖ ὤκιστος, τηνικαῦτα ὁ λαγὼς φέρεται θέων ᾗ ποδῶν ἔχει, κ. τ. λ.

[149] Οὐ γάρ τοι ἐπὶ τῷ ἁλῶναι τὸ θηρίον ἐξάγουσι τὰς κύνας, ἀλλὰ ἐς ἀγῶνα δρόμου καὶ ἅμιλλαν κ. τ. λ. With the fine feelings of a genuine courser, the author considers the pleasure of the sport as arising solely from the struggle for victory between the hare and dog;—a trial of the former’s speed, its distinctive excellence, (so elegantly alluded to by Anacreon in his complimentary ode to the ladies,

[Sidenote: Anacreon. Od. +ii.+ 1.]

φύσις κέρατα ταύροις,
ὁπλὰς δ’ ἔδωκεν ἵπποις,
ποδωκίην λαγωοῖς)

against that of the latter, whose shape marks its natural designation for such a competition. Coursing does not seem to have been otherwise practised as an emulative sport in the classic ages; nor indeed till a very modern period of its annals.

[150] Καὶ καταφυγόντα ἐς ἀκάνθας ἔστιν ὅτε ὀλίγας οἵδε καὶ ἰδόντες ἐπτηχότα κ. τ. λ.—A noble paragraph! conceived and penned in the true spirit of an enlightened sportsman—Read it all ye who dare calumniate, with Savary and Somerville,

[Sidenote: The Chace.]

The mean, murderous, coursing crew, intent
On blood and spoil!

[151] Zeune would read διαγωνίσαιτο, as referring to the hare, whose life is spared for having run well. Such a reading, if tenable, (which, I fear, for the reasons given by Schneider, it is not,) would add much to the beauty of the passage.

[152]

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

How different the sentiments of the Bithynian courser from those of the Sciluntian huntsman: like a modern thistle-whipper or pot-hunter, Xenophon bids us search every hiding-place for the worn-out hare, that we may catch her at force, κατὰ πόδας, or drive her into the snares! while Arrian rejoices in her safety and grieves over her accidental capture and destruction.

[153] Ἔπαισα τὴν κεφαλήν. Blane supposes Arrian to strike the greyhound’s head as a chastisement for having killed the hare: but this interpretation is too absurd to be admitted. Many are the examples of the custom of striking the head with the hand, in indication of sudden grief and vexation. Priam is fearfully apprehensive of Hector’s death, and strikes his head with sorrow:

[Sidenote: Iliad. +xxii.+]

————κεφαλήν δ’ ὅγε κόψατο χερσὶν
ὕψοσ’ ἀνασχόμενος.

[Sidenote: Herodot. Thalia.]

Psammetichus expresses his grief in the same way over the rich Egyptian monarch, reduced to mendicancy in his old age, ἐπλήξατο τὴν κεφαλὴν—and Plutarch tells us that Solon began παίειν τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τ’ ἄλλα ποιεῖν καὶ λέγειν, ἃ συμβαίνει τοῖς περιπαθοῦσι, as soon as he heard of the death of his son.

[154] The joys of the hare-chase have been celebrated, in prose and verse, by the successors of the Athenian, in even higher strains than by himself:

[Sidenote: Natalis Comes de Venat. L. +ii.+]

Tantus amor lepores venandi, gaudia tanta!
Hîc mens, hîc animus, hîc est et tota voluntas!
Præponunt reliquis una hæc solatia cunctis!

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= fol. 17. 18.]

“The hare is a good lityl beest and moch good sport and lyking is the huntyng of hur more than in eny othere beest that eny man knoweth, &c.” “the sechyns for the hare is a wel faire thing, and the enchasyng of the hare is a wel faire thing, and the sleyng of hym with strength is a faire thing,” &c.

The latter, it is singular, are the very sentiments of Xenophon, reprobated by Arrian; and the passage affords one of many proofs of De Langley’s acquaintance with the Grecian Cynegeticus. See Markham C. C. B. +i.+ p. 33. and Somerville’s Chace.

[155] See Xenophon Cyneg. v. 33. Arrian has spoken throughout his treatise with the greatest respect of his predecessor’s opinions; but ventures to differ from him in this place, as to the feelings which the poor hare, when caught, should excite—

[Sidenote: Sophoclis Ajax. 1011.]

ὦ τῶν ἁπάντων δὴ θεαμάτων ἐμοὶ
ἄλγιστον, ὧν προσεῖδον ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐγώ—

and yet he almost immediately palliates Xenophon’s contrary sentiments, and excuses them on account of his ignorance of the Celtic greyhound.

[156]

[Sidenote: Clio.]

[Sidenote: C. J. Solini Polyhistor. c. +i.+]

See Herodot. L. +i.+ sect. 85. ὁ δὲ παῖς οὗτος ὁ ἄφωνος, ὡς εἶδε ἐπίοντα τὸν Πέρσην, ὑπὸ δέους τε καὶ κακοῦ ἔῤῥηξε φωνήν· εἶπε δὲ, Ὤνθρωπε, μὴ κτεῖνε Κροῖσον. The tale of the father of history is somewhat differently told by Solinus:—Atys, filius regis, mutus ad id locorum, in vocem erupit vi timoris: exclamâsse enim dicitur: “Parce patri meo, Cyre, et hominem te esse, vel casibus disce nostris.”

[157] Xenophon de Venat. c. +vi.+ 9. ἀναβοᾷν εὖγε, εὖγε ὦ κύνες, ἕπεσθε ὦ κύνες. He gives a different cheer at different parts of the chase. Pollux explains the whistling halloo by the significant verb ἐπισίξαι—jubilationibus solitis canes cohortari et feris immittere—

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

At comites rabidum solitis hortatibus agmen
Ignari instigant.

So Venus in pursuit of her beloved Adonis,

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +x.+ 535.]

Per juga, per silvas, dumosaque saxa vagatur
Nuda genu, vestem ritu succincta Dianæ;
Hortaturque canes, &c.

[Sidenote: Propert. L. +ii.+ El. +xviii.+ ad Cynthiam.]

Incipiam captare feras, et reddere pinu
Cornua, et audaces ipse monere canes.

Nemesian approaches nearer to the text, in his probable allusion to the same variety of sound;

[Sidenote: Cyneget. v. 196.]

Necnon consuetæ norint hortamina vocis,
Seu cursus revocent, jubeant seu tendere cursus.

But Arrian means more than is expressed in either of these passages: by ὀνομαστὶ ἐπιλέγειν we are to understand _speaking to, and cheering the hounds by name_; as in the following chapter—εὖγε ὦ Κιῤῥὰ, εὖγε ὦ Βόννα, καλῶς γε ὦ Ὁρμὴ—

[158] ὁ ἀγὼν λαγωῷ καὶ κυνί—accurately and beautifully described in the Ovidian simile;

[Sidenote: Metamorph. L. +i.+ 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.

and in the fable of Cephalus and Procris, the Teumesian fox being substituted for the hare;

[Sidenote: Metamorph. L. +vii.+ 781.]

Tollor eò capioque novi spectacula cursûs:
Quà modo deprendi, modo 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.

When reading these and other splendid fables of this poet, and his similes illustrative of terror and rapidity of flight, and eagerness of pursuit, in the parties represented, it strikes us as probable that he was a practical courser, “Apollinis et Dianæ utriusque sectator,” and derived his imagery from experience in the field. To the tales of “Cephalus and his greyhound Lælaps,” and of “Daphne in Laurum” with its cited accompaniment, we may add much of the poetical ornament of Arethusa’s plaintive and terrified flight from the lustful Alpheus,

[Sidenote: Metamorph. L. +v.+ 604.]

Sic ego currebam; sic me ferus ille premebat, ... &c.

in which the classic courser will discover many allusions to his favourite sport:

[Sidenote: Ejusdem v. 609.]

Nec me velocior ille,
Sed tolerare diu cursus ego viribus impar
Non poteram: longi patiens erat ille laboris.
Per tamen et campos, per opertos arbore montes,
Saxa quoque et rupes, et quà via nulla, cucurri.
Sol erat à tergo: vidi præcedere longam
Ante pedes umbram: nisi si timor illa videbat.
Sed certè sonituque pedum terrebar; et ingens
Crinales vittas afflabat anhelitus oris.

And when the affrighted nymph is rescued by the interposition of a cloud from her pursuer’s grasp, and hears the cry “Io Arethusa, Io Arethusa,” the poet compares her to a hare in a brake under similar terror,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem v. 627.]

Lepori, qui vepre latens hostilia cernit
Ora canum, nullosque audet dare corpore motus:

as if the chase of this little animal had supplied him with the outline of his picture.

[159]

[Sidenote: De Naturâ Animal. L. +xiii.+ c. 14.]

Ὁ μὲν ἐξελίξας τὸν δρόμον &c. So Ælian, δρόμον δὲ ἕνα καὶ ἰθὺν οὐ θεῖ, δεῦρο δὲ καὶ ἐκεῖσε παρακλίνει, καὶ ἐξελίττει τῇ καὶ τῇ, ἐκπλήττων τοὺς κύνας καὶ ἀπατῶν.

[160] Apollonius Rhodius has well expressed the κύνες δεδαημένοι ἄγρης straining after the game with open jaws;

[Sidenote: Argonaut. L. +ii.+ 280.]

τυτθὸν δὲ τιταινόμενοι μετόπισθεν
ἄκρῃς ἐν γενύεσσι μάτην ἀράβησαν ὀδόντας.

and Virgil in the simile of the “vividus Umber;” copying, probably, the poet of the Argonauts,

[Sidenote: Æneid. L. +xii.+ 754.]

Hæret hians, jam jamque tenet, similisque tenenti
Increpuit malis, morsuque elusus inani est.

The hare under pursuit has a peculiar sensibility of sounds behind her. To this excellence she owes her preservation from the danger of her pursuers. By this faculty she often outstrips the fleetest brace of greyhounds, attentive to the noise of every stretch, and sound of every pant:

[Sidenote: Statii Theb. L. v. 168.]

Præcipitat suspensa fugam; jam jamque teneri
Credit, et elusos audit concurrere morsus.

[Sidenote: The Booke of Venerie. p. 248.]

[Sidenote: Bacon, of Discourse, Essay +xxxii.+]

“It is a gallant sport,” says Turberville, “to see how the hare will turne and wind to save herselfe out of the dogges mouth. So that sometimes even when you thinke that your greyhound doth (as it were) gape to take her, she will turne and cast them a good way behind her: and so saveth herselfe by turning, wrenching, and winding, until she reach some covert and so save her life.” And a far greater than this translator of Fouilloux has remarked: “We see in beasts, that those that are weakest in the course, are yet nimblest in the turne; as it is betwixt the greyhound and the hare.”

Scarce inferior to his poetical predecessor of Venusium, the classic Darcius slips his swift-footed Pterelas after the started hare, in a sketch which places the course before the reader’s eyes:

[Sidenote: Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Ocyus 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, et castigata coercet
Ilia substrictus venter, stant crura volantem
Præteritura notum, longo internodia ductu
Pes gerit, in cœlum tolluntur acumine bino
Auriculæ, flexoque in lævia tergora gyro
Erectæ redeunt falcata volumina caudæ.

Mr. Gay’s “Rural Sports,” Canto 2nd, afford the only poetical description of a hare-course in the English language, with which I am acquainted, in addition to that already cited from the Polyolbion of Michael Drayton:

[Sidenote: Canto +ii.+ v. 289.]

Yet if for sylvan spurts thy bosom glow,
Let thy fleet greyhound urge his flying foe.
With what delight the rapid course I view!
How does my eye the circling race pursue!
He snaps deceitful air with empty jaws,
The subtle hare darts swift beneath his paws:
She flies, he stretches: now with nimble bound
Eager he presses on, but overshoots his ground:
She turns, he winds, and soon regains the way,
Then tears with gory mouth the screaming prey.

[161] Οἱ φελλεῶνες. I have not met with this word elsewhere. Xenophon has τὰ φέλλια, chap. +v.+ De Ven., to signify the same kind of stony ground. The Scholia on the Acharnenses of Aristophanes, Act +ii.+ sc. +ii.+ explains φελλεὺς as rocky ground, stony beneath, with a superficial covering of earth—such as we see on the slopes of hills, perhaps. Φελλὸς occurs in Hesychius: σκληρὸς τόπος καὶ δυσεργὴς, καὶ ἐξ ἐπιπολῆς πετρώδης. Possibly the English term “fell” may be derived from the Greek φελλὸς or φελλεύς.

[162]

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

Πόδας τοὺς πρόσθεν ἄκρως ὑγροὺς, στενοὺς, ὀρθούς· τοὺς δὲ ὄπισθεν στερεοὺς, πλατεῖς· πάντας δὲ οὐδενὸς τραχέος φροντίζοντας.

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Nat. Animal. L. +xiii.+ 14.]

[Sidenote: Franc. Junii Etymol. Anglican. à Lye. 1743.]

Πέφυκε γὰρ δασὺς τοὺς πόδας καὶ δὴ καὶ τῶν τραχέων ἀνέχεται. The term δασύπους is evidently derived from the woolly covering of the hare’s feet; originally an adjective expressive of this peculiarity, but subsequently used to designate the hare herself. To the same origin Junius refers the English term _rabbet_—“cuniculus:” “Quotquot unquam observarunt Anglos, in linguæ vernaculæ pronuntiatione, _o_ sonare ut _a_, facilè mecum credent olim fuisse _robbet_, quod nunc _rabbet_ pronuntiant et scribunt. Atque ita _robbet_ illud fortasse corruptum fuerint ex _roughfet_, quod exprimit Gr. δασύπους.”

The English word _hare_ is derived by the same Etymologist from the Anglo-Saxon _hara_. “A. S. _hara_ videtur esse ab _hær_, pilus; quoniam, ut est apud Plinium, ‘villosissimum animalium lepus.’”

[163] Let him be made to feel in the words of Ovid,

non tam
Turpe fuit vinci, quàm contendisse decorum.

It is a great point to encourage a young hound, whether he kill or not.

Plutarch remarks in his treatise on the Comparative Instinct of Land and Water Animals, that the Canes Venatici, generally, tear their game and lick up the blood greedily, when they kill it themselves; but if the animal, of which they are in pursuit, expire from exhaustion, before they reach it, they merely wag their tails, and do not lacerate it; showing thereby that the contest was not for the flesh of the animal, but rather for the glory of victory.

[164] Κιῤῥὰ—derived probably from the red colour of the dog.

[165] Βόννα—the derivation of this canine name is unknown to me.

[166] Ὁρμὴ—Arrian’s own much-valued hound: to the same kennel perhaps belonged Cirras and Bonnas.

[167]

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Nat. Animal. L. +viii.+ c. +ii.+]

ἔοικε δὲ ἔχειν τι καὶ φιλοτιμίας ἐν ἑαυτῷ φυσικῆς· μὴ γὰρ δεῖσθαι κρεῶν, ἀλλὰ νίκης ἐρᾷν.

“Trahimur omnes laudis studio,” says Cicero, “et optimus quisque maximè glorià ducitur.”

[168] Pliny also makes the same remark, “Canes à cursu volutatio juvat, ut veterina à jugo.”

[169] In the Paris edition of 1644, in Blancard’s of 1683, and in Zeune’s, this Chapter stands after Chap. +xiv.+; but, on the authority of Schneider, it is more appropriately introduced in this place. Indeed the present, and two following chapters, treat of the different modes of coursing among the Celts, and might all be united under one title.

[170] Ὅσοι μὲν πλουτοῦσιν αὐτῶν καὶ τρυφῶσιν—the superior class of Celtic gentry, nobility, &c.

[171]

[Sidenote: Encyc. Méthod. Les Chasses. p. 439.]

Τοὺς κατοπτεύσοντας—finders to look over, &c. The French say, “aller à la vue.”—“c’est découvrir s’il y a dans le pays des bêtes courables.”

[172]

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +v.+ 10.]

Ἀναπαυόμενος λαγώς. No description can surpass in accuracy and elegance that of the hare in her form by the elder Xenophon: Κατακλίνεται δὲ ὑποθεὶς τὰ ὑποκώλια ὑπὸ τὰς λαγόνας, τὰ δὲ πρόσθεν σκέλη τὰ πλεῖστα συνθεὶς καὶ ἐκτείνας, ἐπ’ ἄκρους δὲ τοὺς πόδας τὴν γένυν καταθεὶς, τὰ δὲ ὦτα ἐπιπετάσας ἐπὶ τὰς ὠμοπλάτας· εἶτα δὲ ὑποστέγει τὰ ὑγρά· ἔχει δὲ καὶ τὴν τρίχα στεγανήν· πυκνὴ γὰρ καὶ μαλακή.

[173] The example of the Celtic nobility of Arrian’s days was followed by those of a later date. Bruyerinus relates (de Re Cib. c. 24.) “Gallia omnis leporibus scatet, ideoque horum venatio peculiaris est mediocri nobilitati et primariæ non invisa.” And Baptista Guarinus notes of the Veronese territory, that it abounds with hares, and affords opportunities for long courses:

Namque hic si studeas lepores agitare fugaces,
Cursibus effusis æquora longa patent.

[174]

[Sidenote: Schediasm. L. +v.+ c. +xvi.+]

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ v. 148.]

Αὐτουργοὶ κυνηγεσίων. Upon this expression Henry Stephens merely remarks, “quod loquendi genus observatione dignum est,”—offering no explanation: Zeune interprets “qui pedites venantur, studio rei capti:” Holsten, “qui ipsi per se venationis studio incumbunt:”—those who have to do with the practical part of the sport, as the slippers, leaders of the hounds, &c. the actual workmen. Such were the ἐργοπόνοι κρατεροὶ of Oppian, the bearers of the hunting gear to the covert, &c.

[175]

[Sidenote: Turberville’s Booke of Hunting, &c.]

Ἐκπεριΐασι δὲ ἐπὶ μετώπου ταχθέντες. We here see the military tactician: after the lapse of nearly seventeen centuries, no improvement has taken place in the mode of beating for a hare. One of our best English manuals of coursing, whose author was probably as expert in the field as his predecessor of Bithynia, thus describes the plan adopted in the days of good Queen Bess: “To course y^e. hare you must send either hare-finders before you to find some hare sitting, or els yourself w^h. your company may range and beat over the fields until you either find a hare sitting, or start her. I have marked y^e. hare-finders in their seeking of a hare in Northamptonshyre, and they will never beat but one end of a furlong: and that shall be the end which is downe the wind or from the wind; for they hold opinion that a hare will not (by her wil) sit with her head into the wind. He that will seeke a hare must go overthwart the lands; and every land that he passeth over, let him beginne with his eye at his foot, and so looke downe the land to the furlong’s end, first on the one side and then on the other; and so shall he find y^e. hare sitting in her forme: assoone as he espyeth her he must cry _Sa how_. Then they which lead the greyhounds may come neare: and you may appoynt which greyhounds shall course. Then let him which found the hare, go towards her and say, _Up, pusse, up!_ untill she rise out of her forme.”

[176] Ἄρχοντα—“the judge expert in coursing” of Turberville, p. 249.

It appears to me from this passage that the Celts coursed with each hound held in a single slip and collar, and started probably simultaneously with his appointed compeer, held in juxta-position by a second person. Some commentators, however, are of opinion, from the term _συν_δυαζέτω, that the dogs were held in double collars, or couples; but if so, we must still suppose, from the words σὺ καὶ σὺ ἐπιλύειν, that two persons were appointed to let the dogs loose at the same time:

[Sidenote: Ovid. Met. L. +vii.+ 769.]

Copula detrahitur canibus.

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

Xenophon particularly enjoins, in his instructions on hare-hunting, that the Spartan hounds should be held in separate collars at the covert-side: ἑκάστην χωρὶς, (each apart) ὅπως ἂν εὔλυτοι ὦσι.

[Sidenote: See the lithograph of Chrysis and Aura.]

The ancient slip or slippe (ab elabendo Vlit. p. 94.) was formed by a leading thong or lyam, passed through the ring of the dog’s collar, the two ends being held in the hand of the slipper, or keeper. When the dog was loosed, the slipper let go one end of the thong, and drew the other with his hand from the eye of the collar, whereby the dog was liberated with the collar on his neck, the lyam remaining in the slipper’s hand. (See Xenophon, Pollux, and Conrad Gesner, on these accoutrements: the latter is copious on the subject in his Hist. Quadrup. “Canis.”) Such a representation of greyhounds coursing, with collars on their necks, we have in Montfaucon, Tom. +iii.+ liv. +iv.+ pl. 176. (Chasse au Lièvre.) Nor are the incumbrances, which envelop the necks of Chrysis and Aura in this beautiful gem, got rid of in the coursing plates of “The Gentleman’s Recreations,”—so few are the improvements in the practical department of the leash, from the days of Arrian till those of Richard Blome. The modern method of slipping a brace of greyhounds, at the same instant of time, from double spring or wedge collars, is of recent introduction; having its origin, probably, at the institution of public coursing meetings.

[177]

[Sidenote: Arriani Tactic. 71. Ed. Blancard.]

Οἱ δὲ ἐμπεδούντων τὸ ταχθέν. Obedience to the orders of the ἄρχων or ἀγωνοθέτης, in a coursing field, is an essential point of discipline: indeed, we could not select any more important for the regulation of such an assemblage than the brief and emphatic injunction of our author in his Tactics, “silence and attention to orders”—σίγα καὶ πρόσεχε τῷ παραγγελλομένῳ.

[178]

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xxxv.+ fol. 99.]

This method of coursing was practised in England in the days of Edmund De Langley (A. D. 1380). From the instructions which he gives relative to it, it appears that the greyhounds were placed, as amongst the Celts, on the outside of the covert. So also in the beautiful poetry of Scott:

[Sidenote: Marmion. Introduction to Canto +ii.+]

And foresters in greenwood trim
Lead in the leash the gazehounds grim,
Attentive as the brachet’s bay
From the dark covert drove the prey
To slip them as he drove away.
The startled quarry bounds amain,
As fast the gallant greyhounds strain.

[Sidenote: De Canibus et Venatione Libellus.]

“Nos autem vidimus,” says Blondus, “venantes in capiendis leporibus hunc modum servare insidiandi. Divisi ac sparsi venatores per inculta frequentiùs quàm per culta, arte quâdam incedunt laqueis canem leporarium detinentes: spineta et sentes, sive dumeta, saltusve potiùs celebrantes quàm nemora. Nonnunquam etiam præmittunt odorum canem qui è latebris pellat timidum leporem, post quem è laqueis mittunt canem fugacem, altis clamoribus persequentes, qui sunt exhortationes fugacium canum.”

[Sidenote: U. Aldrovand. de Quad. Digit. Vivip. L. +ii.+]

“In montosis locis (agri Bononiensis) ob rubetorum frequentiam, canibus sagacibus ad lepores excitandos utuntur, deinde visis leporibus canes leporarios solvunt,” &c.

The classic poet of Barga, although we look in vain for a description of the hare-course throughout his varied and copious Cynegeticon, has left us the following counterpart in the machinery of the fox-chase with swift-footed hounds:

[Sidenote: P. Angel. Barg. Cyneg. L. +vi.+]

Intereà juvenes quà sunt asperrima campi
Dumeta, et spinis clivus consurgit acutis,
Obsedêre vias, alii quà mane tepenti
Flamine in adversos auras fert Eurus odoras,
Veloces tenuere canes: turbamque sagacem
Immisêre, premant patulis, quæ naribus hostem
Obscenam, et dumis sese occultare parantem,
Conantemque animam tristi subducere letho.
Quam postquam certo latratu ursere propinquam,
Solvuntur canibus curracia vincla Lacænis:

and this is again followed by other chases, wherein the wolf and stag are the greyhound’s quarry.

[Sidenote: Vénerie Normande. c. +vii.+]

See also L’Ecole de la Chasse, (Rouen, 1788,) “Manière de prendre les loups avec les lévriers.”

[179] Ὅπως ἄν τοι προχωρῇ. “Quâcunque ratione fieri potest,” Ind. Græc. Z. “When she is going off,” Blane.

[180] Καὶ εἰσὶν αἱ κύνες αὗται, ὅ τι περ αἱ ἄρκυς Ξενοφῶντι ἐκείνῳ. From some curious Dialogues composed by Elfric, Duke of Mercia, in Latin, Mr. Turner has shown that our ancestors resembled their continental neighbours in these field sports.

[Sidenote: Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons.]

“I am a hunter to one of the kings.—How do you exercise your art? I spread my nets, and set them in a fit place, and instruct my hounds to pursue the wild deer till they come to the nets unexpectedly, and so are entangled, and I slay them in the nets.—Cannot you hunt _without_ nets? Yes, with _swift hounds_ I follow the wild deer.—What wild deer do you chiefly take? Harts, boars, and rein-deer, and goats, and sometimes hares,” &c.

[181]

[Sidenote: Apollon. Rhod. L. +iii.+ 13.]

[Sidenote: Journey thro’ Albania, &c. Letter +xvii.+]

Ὑπὸ τῆς κλαγγῆς τῶν κυνῶν, &c. Κυνῶν ἐφόβησεν ὁμοκλή: for a practical exemplification of a course conducted upon the principle of uniting speed and sagacity in the same pack, see Mr. Hobhouse’s description of his sport with his host at Votizza. To “four wire-haired Lacouni” were added “three mongrel pointers, and several curs ... with a large party of men on foot and horseback, making as much noise as possible.” It is scarce necessary to state the poor hare was killed “after a short run.”

[Sidenote: Book of Hunting. p. 246.]

This method of coursing (if it deserve the name) was much in use in France two centuries or more ago. “They use their greyhounds,” says Turberville, “only to set backsets, or receytes for deare, wolfe, fox, or such-like. Whereas we here in England do make great account of such pastime as is to be seen in coursing with greyhounds at deare, hare, foxe, or such-like, even of themselves, when there are neyther hounds hunting, nor other meane to help them.”

[Sidenote: c. +xvii.+ fol 69.]

Edmund De Langley, in his =Mayster of Game=, condemns the union of sagacious and fleet hounds, “spaynels and greihoundes,” in the same field; for “the spaynel wil make al the ryot and al the harme.” The latter’s mode of hunting is beautifully described by Darcius of Venusium:

[Sidenote: Canes.]

Hi si forte levis toto lepus errat in arvo,
Pone legent rostro vestigia nota sagaci:
Et modò transverso, modò recto jugera sulco
Scrutantur, &c.

[182]

[Sidenote: Xenophon. de Venatione. c. +v.+ 14.]

Τὰ μὲν οὖν λίαν νεογνὰ οἱ φιλοκυνηγέται ἀφιᾶσι τῇ Θεῷ. But the same mercy was not extended to fawns: see Xenoph. de Venat. c. +ix.+ 1.

[183] Τῇ Θεῷ. Diana ἀγροτέρα, or Venatrix.

[Sidenote: Homer. Iliad. φʹ.]

——πότνια θηρῶν
Ἄρτεμις ἀγροτέρη.

[Sidenote: Homer. Hymn. in Dian.]

ἡ κατ’ ὄρη σκιόεντα καὶ ἄκριας ἠνεμόεσσας
ἀγρῇ τερπομένη παγχρύσεα τόξα τιταίνει.

So, in the Anacreontic Λιτανεία,

γουνοῦμαι σ’ ἐλαφηβόλε,
Ξανθὴ, παὶ Διὸς, ἀγρίων
δέσποιν’, Ἄρτεμι, θηρῶν.

[Sidenote: Polluc. Onom. L. +v.+ c. +i.+ 13.]

By Pollux the worshipful goddess is variously called ἀγροτέρα, καὶ κυνηγέτις, καὶ φιλόθηρος, καὶ ὀρεία. For the popular belief respecting her many vocations, see Callimach. H. in Dian. How graphically is she decked out, in all her sylvan trim, by Nemesian, in the following address to her, to aid, with her many sporting associates, the essay of his Cynegetical Muse!

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. 86.]

Tu modo quæ saltus placidos silvasque pererras
Latonæ, Phœbe, magnum decus, eja age suetos
Sume habitus, arcumque manu: pictamque pharetram
Suspende ex humeris: sint aurea tela, sagittæ:
Candida puniceis aptentur crura cothurnis:
Sit chlamys aurato multum sub tegmine lusa,
Corrugesque sinus gemmatis baltheus arctet
Nexibus: implicibus cohibe diademate crines.
Tecum Naiades faciles, viridique juventâ
Pubentes Dryades, Nymphæque, unde amnibus humor,
Adsint, et docilis decantet Oreadas Echo.
Duc age, Diva, tuum frondosa per avia vatem.
Te sequimur: tu pande domos et lustra ferarum.

See Lucian’s Deorum Dialogi, Venus et Cupido, for the pursuits of Diana; and for several elegant representations of her in her sporting attire, see Montfaucon, Tom. +i.+ perrier, tab. 64. goltzii numismata græciæ, &c. tab. +vii.+ f. 1. Insular Medals, Tab. +xvii.+ f. 1. morell. tab. +xv.+ passerii tom. +iii.+ Tab. 88. &c. A few of the most classic gems and medals have been faithfully copied in outline by Mr. Haghe from the antique, and annexed to this work; they are taken from Montfaucon, who had previously borrowed them from La Chausse and Beger.

The translation of Mr. Blane does not extend beyond this Chapter.

[184] Xenophon De Venat. c. +ix.+ recommends Indian dogs for deer-hunting, as they are strong, large, swift-footed, and resolute.

In the ancient field sports of Britain we find the deer, the wolf, and the fox, and even sometimes the wild cat, (of which last the =Mayster of Game= c. +x.+ reports, “he hath the Devyllis spyryt,”) coursed with greyhounds: but at present these diversions are discontinued, and the hare alone deemed worthy of the honourable distinction of competing in speed with the Celtic hound:

[Sidenote: Book of St. Alban’s.]

And where that ye come in playne or in place,
I shall you tell whyche ben bestys of enchace:
One of theym is the bucke: a nother is the doo:
The foxe and the marteron: and the wylde roo.

The coursing of deer was a recreation of high repute, and was divided into two sorts; _the paddock_, and _the forest_ or _purlieu_. See Daniel’s Rural Sports. But a better authority, Turberville, in “a short observation set downe by the Translatour, concerning coursing with greyhoundes,” attached to “The Booke of Hunting,” has given us his remarks on coursing deer, and the method of doing it in the olden time with “_teasers_,” (“to start the deare from the whole heard, or make a low deare strain,”) “_side laies_,” (“to way-lay him by the midway,”) and “_back-sets_, or _receits_,” (to meet him “full in the face—to the end they may the more amase him.”) See Turberville’s Appendix to his translation of Fouilloux, and “The Governour,” B. +i.+ c. 17.

[185]

[Sidenote: Hist. Naturelle.]

Μέγα τε γὰρ τὸ θηρίον, &c. “He is of all beasts,” says Gervase Markham, “the goodliest, stateliest, and most manly:” and Buffon, after describing the stag with his wonted eloquence, concludes, “sa grandeur, sa légèreté, sa force le distinguent assez des autres habitans des bois: et comme il est le plus noble d’entre eux, il ne sert aussi qu’aux plaisirs des plus nobles des hommes; il a, dans tous les temps, occupé le loisir des héros.”

[Sidenote: Booke of Hunting. p. 247.]

“A red deare will beare sometimes foure or five brase of greyhounds before they can pull him downe: such wonderfull force he is of, and can so easily shake off a greyhound when he pincheth him.”

[186]

[Sidenote: p. 247.]

Ὁ κίνδυνος οὐ σμικρὸς, &c. “He that hath a good hare greyhound, shal do very evill to course a deare with him, for it wil both bruse him and make him lyther: and the course at the hare is much the nobler pastime.”

Oppian denies that deer butt with their horns, and thereby endanger the dogs:

[Sidenote: Cynegeticus +ii.+ 184.]

οὔποτε γὰρ κεφαλῇφιν ἐναντία δηρίσαιντο,
οὐ θηρσὶ κρατεροῖς, οὐκ ἀργαλέοισι κύνεσσι:

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

but Xenophon, a practical authority, affirms it—τοῖς κέρασι παίει καὶ τοῖς ποσίν. The thrust from the tynes, or branches, of the stag’s horns, were accounted far more dangerous to a human being than those of the boar’s tusk:

If thou be hurt with horn of stag, it brings thee to thy bier:
But barber’s hand shall boar’s hurt heal; thereof have thou no fear.

[187]

[Sidenote: Hippolyt. Act. +i.+ 71.]

Ἔνθα τὰ πεδία εὐήλατα. The Homeric scholar will remember the Nomade tribes of this champaign region, on whom Jupiter cast his eyes in looking from Mount Ida towards Thrace. The Mysians were of the number:

[Sidenote: Iliad. νʹ. 3.]

——αὐτὸς δὲ πάλιν τρέπεν ὄσσε φαεινὼ,
νόσφιν ἐφ’ ἱπποπόλων Θρῃκῶν καθορώμενος αἶαν,
Μυσῶν τ’ ἀγχιμάχων, καὶ ἀγαυῶν Ἱππημολγῶν, &c.

[Sidenote: De +iv.+ Consul. Honorii.]

Seneca speaks of the “Vacuisque vagus Sarmata campis,”—Claudian, of the “gens exercita campo,”—and an earlier poet, the exiled Ovid, in one of his mournful elegies, commemorates the Scythian’s skill in horsemanship:

[Sidenote: Tristium L. +iii.+ El. x.]

Protinùs æquato siccis aquilonibus Istro,
Invehitur celeri barbarus hostis equo:
Hostis equo pollens longèque volante sagittâ
Vicinam latè depopulatur humum.

[Sidenote: Hist. of Rome. vol. +iv.+ c. +xxvi.+]

Strabo notices the hunting propensities of the inhabitants of the Scythian and Sarmatian plains (L. +xvii.+); and the eloquent historian of the Decline and Fall enlarges on the vigour and patience both of the men and horses in the continual exercise of the chase. From the way in which these pastoral tribes of the Scythian plains are introduced by Arrian in connexion with the Celtic coursing, we may conclude that they were Celto-Scythians.

[188]

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ 272.]

The highest praise is bestowed by Oppian on Sicilian horses, ὠκύτατοι Σικελοί: but fleeter than these are the Armenians and Parthians; and fleetest of all, the Iberians.

[189] Ὁ δὲ ἐς τοσοῦτον ἄρα ἀντέχει.

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

——non illum unquam genibusve labantem
Videris, aut animam fessum vix ore trahentem.
Verùm importuno potuit superesse labori
Acrior, atque novas currendo acquirere vires,
Velocem quandoque fugâ prævertere cervum,
Et premere immanes animis optavimus apros.

[190] Ἔξεστιν ἤδη, εἰ μὲν βούλοιο, ἀκοντίσαι ἐγγύθεν ὡς πεπεδημένην.

[Sidenote: Virgil. Georg. L. +iii.+ v. 374.]

Cominùs obtruncant ferro, graviterque rudentes
Cædunt, et magno læti clamore reportant.

Xenophon gives a full description of the mode of ensnaring deer in a variety of trap called ποδοστράβη, and adds: ἁλίσκονται δὲ καὶ ἄνευ ποδοστράβης διωκόμεναι, ὅταν ᾖ ἡ ὥρα θερινὴ, ἀπαγορεύουσι γὰρ σφόδρα, ὥστε ἑστῶσαι ἀκοντίζονται.

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +iv.+ 54.]

ξυνὸν ἀκοντίζειν δὲ καὶ ἀντία τοξάζεσθαι
θῆρας ἀρειοτέρους.

[191] Βρόχον—a noose-rope. Such ropes were generally used by rude nations in battle as well as the chase. For a clever representation of this mode of catching deer, see the Venationes Ferarum of Stradanus and Galle, and the accompanying quatrain of Kilian Dufflæus.

[192]

[Sidenote: De Nat. Anim. L. +ii.+ c. +ii.+]

Ælian mentions these horses in his second book of Animal History: ὤκιστοι μέν εἰσιν ἵππων καμάτου δὲ δή τι αἴσθονται οὐδέν· λεπτοὶ δὲ, καὶ οὐκ εὔσαρκοι, ἐπιτήδειοί γε μὴν καὶ φέρειν ὀλιγωρίαν δεσπότου εἰσίν:—and Oppian in his first Cynegetic:

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ v. 289.]

Μαύρων δ’ αἰόλα φῦλα πολὺ προφέρουσιν ἁπάντων
ἀμφὶ δρόμους ταναούς τε, καὶ ἀμφὶ πόνους ἀλεγεινούς·
καὶ Λίβυες μετὰ τοὺς δολιχὸν δρόμον ἐκτελέουσιν.

[193]

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +ii.+ v. 293.]

Ἐλάφους ἢ δορκάδας. I take ἐλάφος to be the red deer, the cervus elaphus of naturalists; and δόρκας the roe deer, cervus capreolus, the chevreuil of France. To these the poet of Anazarbus adds the fallow deer, under the name of εὐρυκέρωτες.

[194]

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +ii.+ v. 315.]

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +v.+ fol. 32.]

From hence it would appear that it was no great exploit to take a red or roe deer, in Arrian’s opinion; but the latter was deemed very fleet by the last-cited poet, ὠκυτάτων δόρκων ἀρίδηλα γένεθλα: and his opinion is supported by the high authority of the Mayster of Game, who affirms that “he rennyth wondir fast, and some tyme, at the partyng from his leyre, he shal out goo a brace of good greye houndes.”

[195] The wild ass, or Koulan, is an animal of the greatest speed and beauty. He is elegantly and correctly described by Oppian:

[Sidenote: Cyneget. +iii.+ 183.]

——εὔσφορον, ἠνεμόεντα,
κραιπνὸν, ἀελλοπόδην, κρατερώνυχον, αἰπὺν ὄναγρον,
ὅστε πέλει φαιδρὸς, δέμας ἄρκιος, εὐρὺς ἰδέσθαι,
ἀργύφεος χροιὴν, δολιχούατος, ὀξύτατος θεῖν.

[Sidenote: Epigr. L. +xiii.+ 100.]

See also the Book of Job, c. +xxxix.+ vs. 5. et seqq. plin. hist. nat. l. +viii.+ c. 44. Varro de R. R. L. +ii.+ c. 6. and the veterinarian apsyrtus, geopon. l. +xvi.+ c. 21. Martial records his beauty, “Pulcher adest onager.” Spelman is mistaken in identifying the onager and zebra, and referring to the stuffed specimen of _our college_ for his example of the former under the type of the latter.

[196] Μέγαν βασιλέα. This is the title given by all Greek authors to the king of Persia; and it is preserved to the successors of Mahomet in that of the Grand Seignor. Cyrus was the youngest son of Darius by Parysatis, and brother to Artaxerxes. His father, therefore, and brother, were both called, κατ’ ἐξοχὴν, “the great king.”

[197] Xenophon. Anabas. L. +i.+ 5. 2.

[198] The inhabitants of this part of Arabia are denominated Σκηνίται Ἄραβες by Strabo; a vagabond people, living by depredation. “Nomades, infestioresque Chaldæorum, Scenitæ,” says Pliny, “à tabernaculis cognominati;” afterwards Saracens.

[199] Ἐπὶ γυμνῶν τῶν ἵππων.

[Sidenote: Lucret. L. +iv.+]

Gens quæ nudo residens Massylia dorso
Ora levi flectit frænorum nescia virgâ.

The allusions to the tractable and fleet Numidian horse, and his expert rider, are too numerous in the authors of antiquity for citation of more than a few. The barbs, in the language of our great dramatist,

will follow where the game
Makes way, and run like swallows o’er the plain.

[Sidenote: Livii L. +v.+ Decad. +iv.+]

In the army of Hannibal, the “equi hominesque paululi, discinctus et inermis eques, equi sine frænis,” are eulogized by the Roman historian: and Strabo notices the docility of the African little steeds to be such ὥς τ’ ἀπὸ ῥαβδίου οἰακίζεσθαι.

Virgil speaks of the “Numidæ infræni,” (Æneid. L. +iv.+ 41.): Silius Italicus of the

velocior Euris
Et doctus virgæ sonipes:—L. +iii.+

and again, in the first book of his Punic War:

Hic passim exultant Numidæ gens inscia fræni,
Queîs inter geminas per ludum nobilis aures
Quadrupedem flectit non cedens virga lupatis.

But the poets of the chase, Oppian and Nemesian, have left us in detail their shape and qualifications:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +iv.+ 45.]

——ὁππότε δ’ αὖτε
καὶ μούνοις ἵπποισι κυνῶν ἄτερ ἰθὺς ἐλαύνειν·
ἵπποισιν κείνοισιν ὅσοι περὶ Μαυρίδα γαῖαν
φέρβοντ’, ἢ Λιβύεσσιν, ὅσοι μὴ κάρτεϊ χειρῶν
ἄγχονται ψελίοισι βιαζομένοιο χαλινοῦ,
πείθονται δὲ λύγοισιν, ὅπη βροτὸς ἡγεμονεύει.
τοὔνεκεν ἱππελάται κείνων ἐπιβήτορες ἵππων
ἠδὲ κύνας λείπουσι φίλους, πίσυνοι τ’ ἐλόωσιν
ἵπποις, ἠελίου τε βολῇ, καὶ νόσφιν ἀρωγῶν.

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 261.]

Quemque coloratus Mazax deserta per arva
Pavit, et assiduos docuit tolerare labores.
Nec pigeat quod turpe caput, deformis et alvus
Est ollis, quodque infrenes, quod liber uterque,
Quodque jubis pronos cervix diverberet armos.
Nam flecti facilis, lascivaque colla secutus
Paret in obsequium lentæ moderamine virgæ.
Verbera sunt præcepta fugæ, sunt verbera freni.
Quin et promissi spatiosa per æquora campi
Cursibus acquirunt commoto sanguine vires,
Paulatimque avidos comites post terga relinquunt.

[200] The same fact is related by Ælian, in his Natural History of Animals, L. +xiv.+ c. 10.; and Beckman (Hist. of Inventions, Vol. +iv.+ p. 292.) observes, on the authority of Vancouver, that the βρόχος, or noose-rope, is still employed by the Hungarians, for the subjugation of wild horses.

[201] See these instruments of predatory hunting described in the early part of the Appendix, and accurately represented in the spirited engravings of the “Venationes Ferarum” of Stradanus and Galle. The metrical skill of A. C. Kilian Dufflæus, the poet of the annexed quatrains, is not commensurate with that of the engraver.

[202] Ἐκ τοῦ εὐθέος διαγωνιζόμενοι. Many are the instances recorded in which the agency of the hound of chase was despised by “the light-footed sons of Chiron’s school.” The heroes and heroines of old were all-sufficient for the capture of the fleetest animals of the forest and plain. This was indeed coursing in good earnest, and is well illustrated by the simile of the text. In this way Diana furnished her chariot with deer, her πρωτάγριον, the swiftest beasts of draught—

[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Dian. vs. 105.]

——πίσυρας δ’ ἕλες ὦκα θέουσα,
νόσφι κυνοδρομίης, ἵνα τοι θοὸν ἅρμα φέρωσι.

In this way, the son of Peleus arrested the attention of her sylvan ladyship and the goddess Pallas,

[Sidenote: Lee’s Pindar. Nem. Od. +iii.+]

when, if we credit tales believed of old,
His speed subdued the bounding stag, his spoil—
By hounds unaided and the treach’rous toil.

[Sidenote: Justin. II. L. +xxxvii.+ c. +ii.+]

[Sidenote: Description of Britaine. Booke Thirde. c. 7.]

Mithridates, in later days, was wont, during his rustication, “feras cursu aut fugare, aut persequi, cum quibusdam etiam viribus congredi.” And in our own annals, “King Henrye the fift,” says Holinshed, “thought it a mere scoffery to pursue any fallow deare wyth hounds or greyhounds, but supposed hym selfe alwayes to have done a sufficient acte, when he had tired them by his own travaile on foote, and so kylled them wyth hys handes, in the upshot of that exercise and ende of hys recreation.”

[203] Περὶ Ἀρτεμίσιον.

[Sidenote: Pindar. Fragm. +xl.+ p. 75. edit. Heyne.]

ὅθι παῖδες Ἀθηναί-
ων ἐβάλοντο φαεννὰν
κρηπῖδ’ ἐλευθερίας.

Plato (λόγος ἐπιτάφιος) gives the first and principal honours (ἀριστεῖα) to the victors of Marathon—τὰ δὲ δευτερεῖα, τοῖς περὶ Σαλαμῖνα καὶ ἐπ’ Ἀρτεμισίῳ ναυμαχήσασι καὶ νικήσασι. Artemisium was a northern promontory of the island of Eubœa; Psyttalia, a small, rocky, and barren isle, off the coast of Attica, and near to Salamis; Cyprus, an island of the Mediterranean Sea. The naval victories of Themistocles and Cimon are too well known to need any detail.

[204] Having taken a summary view of the different modes of coursing amongst the Celts, and elsewhere, he now enters in detail into the treatment, initiation, &c. of young hounds.

[205] The elder Xenophon mentions an earlier date for entering puppies—bitches at eight months, dogs at ten months old: but he does not allude to greyhounds. Pollux would introduce bitches at six months, and dogs at eight; Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +ix.+ The courser will follow the example of his Bithynian predecessor, whose instructions, indeed, are in exact accordance with modern practice.

[206] He recommends a later period for entering dog-puppies; see the next Chapter. Nemesian makes no distinction between the dog and bitch on this point:

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 186.]

Jam cum bis denos Phœbe reparaverit ortus,
Incipe non longo catulos producere cursu;
Sed parvæ vallis spatio, septove novali.
His leporem præmitte manu, non viribus æquis,
Nec cursus virtute parem; sed tarda trahentem
Membra; queant jam nunc faciles ut sumere prædas.
Nec semel indulge catulis moderamine cursus;
Sed donec validos etiam prævertere suescant,
Exerceto diu, venandi munere cogens
Discere, et emeritæ laudem virtutis amare.
Necnon consuetæ norint hortamina vocis,
Seu cursus revocent, jubeant seu tendere cursus,
Quinetiam docti victam contingere prædam,
Exanimare velint tantùm, non carpere sumptam.

Less diffuse than the Carthaginian poet, the Veronese physician enters his “catulus venaticus” in the following lines of his Alcon, without specifying his age:

[Sidenote: Fracastorii Alcon.]

Illi igitur plenis ubi nondum viribus ætas
Accessit, parvum cursu conscendere collem
Et molli assuescant sese demittere clivo.
Hinc tenerum leporem, vel crura infirma trahentem
Sectari capream, et facilem præcurrere campum
Incipiat, verbisque viri parere morantis.

[207]

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

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Naturâ Animal. L. +viii.+ c. 2.]

[Sidenote: Aristotelis Ethic. Nicom. L. +iii.+ c. +x.+]

[Sidenote: Plutarchi Utraque animalia, &c.]

Ἁλισκομένου δὲ τοῦ λαγῷ, says the elder Xenophon, διδόναι αὐταῖς ἀναῤῥηγνύναι. Every sportsman is fully aware of the importance of blooding young hounds: κύων ἀγρευτικὸς ἅπας αὐτὸς μὲν λαβὼν θηρίον ἥδεται, καὶ κέχρηται τῇ ἄγρᾳ, ὡς ἄθλῳ, ἐὰν αὐτὸν συγχωρήσῃ ὁ δεσπότης: and a greater than Xenophon or Ælian has declared that the curée, or quarry, is to the Spartan hound the object of his chase, οὐδὲ ταῖς ὀσμαῖς τῶν λαγωῶν αἱ κύνες χαίρουσιν, ἀλλὰ τῇ βρώσει—ὅτι βορὰν ἕξουσιν. But Plutarch tells us that they will not touch the game, nor lap the blood of it, unless they kill it themselves; while, in the other case, ἥδονται διασπῶντες, καὶ τὸ αἷμα λάπτουσι προθύμως, &c.

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 246.]

Ergo ubi plena suo rediit victoria fine
In partem prædæ veniat comes, et sua norit
Præmia. Sic operi juvet inservîsse benigno.
Hoc ingens meritum est: hæc ultima palma trophæi.

[Sidenote: Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +vi.+]

Julius Pollux advises that puppies be well blooded, ἵνα προσεθίζωνται τῇ κυνηγετικῇ τροφῇ.

[Sidenote: Albi Dianæ Leporicidæ L. +iv.+]

Atque in parva secant spoliatum segmina corpus,
Adduntque infectum leporino sanguine panem.

[Sidenote: MS. Twety and Giffard.]

“Ye shal gif yo^r. houndys the bowellis boyled w^h. breed, and it is callyd reward for cause that it is etyn on the erthe and not on the skyn.”

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xiv.+ fol. 62.]

“Goodnesse of greyhoundes cometh of ryght corage and of the good nature of her fader and modir, and also men may wel helpe to make hem good in the encharmyng of hem with other good greihoundes and feede hem wel in the beest that he taketh.”

[Sidenote: Countrey Content. B. +i.+ p. 51.]

“In coursing,” says Markham, “you shall observe two things, bloud and labour; bloud, which is a hartening and animating of your dogge to delight in the pleasure, when he findes the reward of his paines taking; for if a dog course continually, and never kill, the sport will growe yrksome to him, and therefore, now and then, give him such advantage that he may kill the hare—then labour, which is contrary to killing; for in it you must give the hare all indifferent advantage, both by lawe and otherwise, whereby she may stand long before the dogge and make him shewe his uttermost strength before he be able to reach her.”

[208]

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

So Xenophon: ἔστι δὲ καὶ, ἄνευ τοῦ εὑρίσκειν τὸν λαγῶ, ἀγαθὸν, ἄγειν τὰς κύνας εἰς τὰ τραχέα· καὶ γὰρ εὔποδες γίγνονται, καὶ τὰ σώματα διαπονοῦσαι ἐν τόποις τοιούτοις ὠφελοῦνται.

[Sidenote: Natalis Comes de Venatione. L. +i.+]

Nec nulla hinc merces sequitur te digna laborum
In loca dura canes si duxeris, aspera montis
Per juga sylvestri populo vix pervia sæpe.
Scilicet hinc ungues solidæ, corpusque labori
Aptius est parvo, magnum quod pertulit ante!

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xiii.+ fol. 59.]

“Whan thei be at sojourne, men shuld lede hem out every day a myle or ij upon gravel, or upon right an hard pathe, bi a revere syde, bicause that her feet may be harder.”

[209]

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

Περὶ τῶν εἰς ἰχνείαν ἀσκουμένων κυνῶν—Spartan hounds, Castorians and Foxites—with regard to which, Xenophon recommends that the hare should be out of sight before they be allowed to follow her; lest, from being too near their game, such as are high-couraged and swift of foot might be injured by too much exertion in pursuit. It is unnecessary to observe that the elder Athenian’s remarks are inapplicable to the courser’s hound, who runs entirely by the eye; and the nearer he is slipped to the hare, if he be only just entered, the better. A hare will always beat a puppy in his noviciate, unaided by an old and experienced hound.

[210] Μαινομένῃ ἔοικεν.

[Sidenote: Apollon. Rhod. L. +iv.+ vs. 1393.]

Λυσσαλέοις δ’ ἤπειτ’ ἴκελοι κυσὶν ἀΐσσοντες.

[211] He now gives in detail his instructions for entering greyhound puppies to their appointed game, in opposition to those of Xenophon’s seventh chapter; nor can the most experienced courser add to them any thing worth knowing, nor the most ignorant complain of their insufficiency.

[212] Πονούμενος ὁ λαγὼς ὑποκάμψας ἥξει. To the same point sings the poet of Barga:

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

Quæque adeo multo jamdudum tarda labore
Genua trahat, primæve annis incauta juventæ
Continuò sese facili det cæde vorandam,
Namque animum, si spes olim frustrentur inanes,
Ipse suæ sibi virtutis malè conscius acrem
Abjicit, et dubiæ, desperat præmia palmæ.

[213] Οὐκ ἐπειδὴ τὰ κρέα ἄρα περὶ πολλοῦ ποιητέον ἀνδρὶ ἐς κάλλος κυνηγετοῦντι. And yet we find that the hare’s flesh was in high estimation with epicures of old; and a coursed hare is particularly lauded by Martial among the luxuries of a country table,

[Sidenote: L. +iii.+ Epigram. 47.]

Leporemque læsum Gallici canis dente.

In our own country, the sportsman was as attentive to supply the hall of banquet with its due portion of the delicate little animal, as the kennel with its appointed halow.

[Sidenote: Booke of St. Alban’s.]

Thenne the loynes of the haare loke ye not forgete;
But brynge theym to the kechyn for the lordes mete—

says the dignified Prioress of Sopewell, in her metrical canons of hunting.

See also “The Venery de Twety and of Mayster John Giffarde.” Fouilloux, p. 69. Turberville, p. 174. and Gervase Markham, C. C. p. 33.

[214] Πονηρὸν μάθημα. It certainly is wrong to allow a greyhound to gorge himself with his game, after he has been sufficiently instructed in the art of killing; but no puppy should be hastily checked, when he has caught his hare, even though, in the words of old Gervase, “he may breake her.”

[215] Few coursers wait till the period specified before they enter their dog-puppies: but it occasionally happens that dogs entered at fifteen months old, if they are large and unset in their limbs, break down under severe work, and are rendered subsequently useless; while others, again, more neat and compact of shape, will run as well at eighteen months as at any later period.

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xiii.+ fol. 52.]

“Men shuld late renne no houndes,” says Duke Edmund, “of what condicions that thei be of, ne nat hunte with hem in to the tyme that thei were a +xii+ mounthis olde and passed, and also thei may hunt but +ix+ yeer at the moost.”

[216] Φυλάττειν δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ ὀχείας.

[Sidenote: Lucret. L. +v.+ vs. 1016.]

Venus imminuit vires!

[Sidenote: Virgil. Georg. +iii.+ 209.]

——non ulla magis vires industria firmat,
Quàm Venerem et cæci stimulos avertere amoris.

[Sidenote: De Re Rust. L. +vii.+ c. +xii.+]

Columella, who admits the dog and bitch to copulate much earlier than Arrian, is still aware of the mischievous consequences of the practice; “si teneris conceditur,” says he, “carpit et corpus et vires, animosque degenerat.”

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

Blanda Venus canibus non permittenda tenellis.

[Sidenote: Pollux. L. +v.+ c. +vii.+]

As to the exact period at which the εὐνῆς ἔργα of Oppian (Hal. i. 532.) should commence, and their probable duration, without risk of breeding from animals too far advanced in years, there is some difference of opinion. According to Pollux, ὥρα ἀρίστη κυνῶν πρὸς πλήρωσίν τε καὶ γένεσιν, τῷ μὲν ἄῤῥενι τετάρτου ἔτους ἀρξαμένου, τελευταῖον τὸ ὄγδοον· ἡ δὲ θήλεια τριετὶς, μέχρι ἑξαετίδος συνδυαζέσθω.

[Sidenote: Columella De Re Rust. L. +vii.+ c. +xii.+]

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

“Mares juveniliter usque in annos decem progenerant: post id tempus ineundis fœminis non videntur habiles, quoniam seniorum pigra soboles existit. Fœminæ concipiunt usque in annos novem, nec sunt utiles post decimum,” according to Columella: while Pliny admits both dog and bitch at a year old—“canum generibus annui partus, justa ad pariendum annua ætas.”

[Sidenote: Hist. Quadrup. L. +i.+ De Cane.]

Conrad Gesner cites an ancient, nameless authority, to the following effect: “Mares quarto anno gignere incipiant, (operâ scilicet hominum admittentium tunc primùm robustioris generandæ sobolis gratiâ,) fœminæ tertio usque in nonum.”

If a courser follow Virgil’s rule as to milch kine, in limiting the age of his brood bitch for the purposes alluded to, he will find it perfectly applicable:

[Sidenote: Georg. +iii.+ 60.]

Ætas Lucinam justosque pati hymenæos
Desinit ante decem, post quatuor incipit annos.

After the fourth year, no greyhound can be depended on for fair running, and therefore may be well spared, to keep up the kennel stock, when no longer useful in the field:

[Sidenote: Fracastorii Alcon.]

——ut generosa canum tibi copia nunquam
Desit.

[217]

[Sidenote: Countrey Contentments. B. +i.+ p. 47.]

[Sidenote: Virg. Georg. +iii.+ 96.]

Ἀπὸ τρίτου μὲν ἔτους ἐφίεσθαι—“You shall observe,” says Markham, “to have your dogges and bitches of equal and indifferent ages, as about three or foure years old at the most. But in case of need, your bitch will endure a great deale longer than your dogge, and to breed with a young dogge on an old bitch, may bring forth an excellent whelpe.” “Frigidus in Venerem senior—.”

After describing a good-shaped bitch, Nemesian adds:

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 114.]