Part 54

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:

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.

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.

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.

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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.

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!

“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.”

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.

Μαινομένῃ ἔοικεν.

Λυσσαλέοις δ’ ἤπειτ’ ἴκελοι κυσὶν ἀΐσσοντες.

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.

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

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.”

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.

“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.”