The Greyhound. 21 



teeth, eyes, ears, and brain development first, the general form must 

 be considered. It must be quite evident that "headed like a snake" 

 cannot mean "like a snake's head," which is short, flat, and blunt, or 

 truncated. I understand the Abbess to use the snake itself, not its head 

 only, as a simile of the length and thinness of the greyhound's head. 



Arrian says : " Your greyhounds should have light and well-articulated 

 heads, whether hooked or flat-nosed is not of much consequence, nor does 

 it greatly matter whether the parts beneath the forehead be protuberant 

 with muscle. They are alone bad which are heavy-headed, having thick 

 nostrils, with a blunt instead of a pointed termination." Edmund de 

 Langley, in his " Mayster of Game," says, " The greihound should have 

 a long hede and somedele grete, ymakyd in the manner of a luce ; a good 

 large mouth and good sessours, the one again the other, so that the 

 nether jaws passe not them above, ne that thei above passe not him by 

 neither;" and coming down to " Gervase Markham," in the sixteenth 

 century, we have his description : " He should have a fine long leane 

 head, with a sharp nose, rush grown from the eyes downward." 



The general form and character of the head is here pretty fairly 

 sketched, and we see a very close agreement between these old authori- 

 ties. It appears to me that the "Mayster of Game" was the most 

 happy in his illustration, " made in the manner of a luce," that is, a full- 

 grown pike, as the head of the greyhound and pike will bear a fair com- 

 parison without straining ; and who can say it was not the exigencies of 

 rhyme that compelled our sporting Abbess to set up for us that stumbling 

 block, the head of the snake. No doubt she thought of the excellent 

 illustration the neck of the drake offered her, and had to find a rhyme to 

 it, but she might with as great propriety have written : 



The grehound should be headed like a luce 

 And neckyd like a goose. 



The force of illustration lost in the second line is more than compen- 

 sated by the strength of the first. Markham is right in desiring a " long 

 lean head," but even that may be carried to a fault ; but we do not want 

 the " part beneath the forehead protuberant of muscle ; " and the " heavy 

 headed, with thick nostrils and a blunt nose," I must, with Arrian, 

 discard altogether as thoroughly bad, too slow, and certain to be "too 

 clever by half." Looking at the whole head, we see, by the sloping-in of 



