Part 31

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, (his remarks on these subjects being essentially applicable to hounds of the Celtic type,) he adds,

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,

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,

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;

hiemis sub tempus aquosæ Incipe veloces catulos immittere pratis, Incipe cornipedes latos agitare per agros.

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,

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

and again,

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

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, 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; 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;

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.

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.

The modern Scotch greyhound differs from the Irish in many respects. 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.

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;”—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, 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, 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. And, subsequently, the same animal is pursued with Scythian and Illyrian galloways on the open plains of Mœsia, Dacia, Scythia, and Illyria:—and, in the following chapter, we find the like diversions practised in Africa with barbs; 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