INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 103 



certain colours. White or blue (slate colour) hunt- 

 ing-dogs were not esteemed ; they preferred such as 

 had the fur of a wolf, or were huff (grain colour) 

 foxy, brindled like the tiger, or spotted like the 

 panther. Xenophon approves of those with colours 

 separately marked; and Pollux objects to much 

 white, black, or red. Those which w f ere tan- 

 coloured, and had a black muzzle, were named 

 Pholyes, and highly esteemed.* The dogs hunting 

 by scent are, however, always represented as having 

 a vulpine character; and, therefore, they cannot 

 have belonged to the race of our modern hounds. 

 Niphus is the first, who, we think, applies impro- 

 perly to them the name of Brackets, a British Celtic 

 appellation ; which, according to Mr. Whitaker, at 

 first designated a wild hound. t In the view of that 

 writer, there were originally in Britain five races of 

 dogs ; the great household-dog, the greyhound, the 

 bull-dog, the terrier, and the large slow-hound. 

 But, in his description, he evidently confounds 

 races ; for the great household-dog is, with him, a 

 mastiff, having no sagacity of nose, and distinct 

 from the bull-dog, to which he attributes powers of 

 scent. The greyhound is regarded by him as the 

 Vertagus, or British Ver. track; while Caius and 

 Pennant are more inclined to consider it a kind of 

 lurcher. His fourth race, is the terrier of Britain, 

 considered as distinct from the crooked -legged turn- 



* Pholyes fulvi dicuntur canes ore nigricante. Cselius* 

 f History of Manchester, b. Lx. sect. vi. p. 66. 



