THE GREYHOUND 83 



persons of the higher ranks, he would have greater care, and his 

 improvement be the better secured. That his possession was so 

 restricted is shown by the Forest Laws of King Canute, which pro- 

 hibited any one under the degree of a gentleman from keeping a 

 Greyhound; and an old Welsh proverb says: "You may know a 

 gentleman by his horse, his hawk, and his Greyhound." In the 

 Welsh laws of Howel Dda (who died 948) the King's Buckhound, 

 or Covert-hound, is valued at a pound, his Greyhound at six-score 

 pence; and, in the Code of 1080, and the Dimetian Code of 1180, 

 the Greyhound is valued at half that of the Buckhound. The 

 alteration in the game laws of modern times, coupled with the great 

 increase of wealth and leisure, have, by giving impetus to the natural 

 desire for field sports characteristic of Englishmen, led to the present 

 great and increasing popularity of coursing, and consequent diffusion 

 of Greyhounds through all classes, heightening an honourable 

 competition, and securing a continued if not a greater care and 

 certainty of the dog's still further improvement. 



It is impossible to separate the Greyhound from coursing as we 

 understand it ; for, although the sport existed, and was practised in 

 a manner similar to our present system, some seventeen hundred 

 years ago, as described by Arrian in the second century, the 

 thorough organisation of the sport, and the condensation of the laws 

 governing it, are not only essentially British, but, in their present 

 shape, quite modern ; and it is the conditions of the sport that have 

 produced the Greyhound of to-day. 



If we go back to the earlier centuries of the history of our 

 country, we find the Greyhound used in pursuit of the wolf, boar, 

 deer, etc., in conjunction with other dogs of more powerful build. 

 Still, we can easily perceive that, to take a share in such sports at 

 all, he must have been probably larger, certainly stronger, coarser, 

 and more inured to hardships, whilst he would not be kept so 

 strictly to sight hunting as the demands of the present require ; but 

 the material out of which the present dog has been made was there, 

 and his form and characteristics, even to minute detail, were 

 recognised, and have been described with an accuracy of which no 

 other breed of dogs has had the advantage, else might we be in 

 a better position to understand the value of claims for old descent 

 set up for so many varieties. 



The whole group to which the Greyhound belongs is dis- 

 tinguished by the elongated head ; the parietal, side and upper, or 

 partition bones of the head, shelving in towards each other ; high 

 proportionate stature, deep chest, arched loins, tucked-up flank, and 

 long, fine tail ; and such general form as is outlined in this 

 description is seen in perfection in the Greyhound. To some it 

 may sound contradictory to speak in one sentence of elegance 

 and beauty of form, and in the next of a tucked-up flank ; and 



