Class I. DOG. 



Gratius fpeaks in high terms of the excellency of 

 the Britijh dogs, 



Atque ipfos libeat penetrare Britannos ? 

 O quanta eft merces et quantum impendia fupra ! 

 Si non ad fpeciem mentiturofque decores , 

 Protinus : hsec una eft catulis ja(5lura Britannis. 

 At magnum cum venit opus, promendaque virtus, 

 Et vocat extremo prseceps difcrimine Mavors, 

 Non tunc egregios tantum admirere Molojfos *. 



If Britain's diftant coaft we dare explore, 

 How much beyond the coft the valued ftore ; 

 If fhape and beauty not alone we prize. 

 Which nature to the Britijh hound denies : 

 But when the mighty toil the huntfman warms, 

 And all the foul is roufed by fierce alarms, 

 When Mars calls furious to th' enfanguin'd field 

 Even bold Moloffians then to thefe muft yield. 



Strabo tells us, that the maftifi^s of Britain were 

 trained for war, and were ufed by the Gauls in 

 their battles -f : and it is certain a well-trained maf- 

 tifF might be of confiderable ufe in diftrefllng fuch 

 half-armed and irregular combatants as the adverfa- 

 ries of the Gauls feem generally to have been before 

 the Romayis conquered them. 



The laft divifion is that of the Degeneres or Curs. 

 The firft of thefe was the Wappe^ a name derived 



* Grata Cynegeticon. Lin, 175. 

 t Strabo, Lib, iv. 



F 3 ly. 



