[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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: BARTOLI.]