166 THE GREYHOUNDS. 



hound from all consideration. Even the Gauls, 

 according to Arrian, coursed with greyhounds, upon 

 nearly the same principles as the moderns ; and the 

 Saxons and Franks used them to tear down deer, 

 and, in company with their mastiffs and great cur- 

 dogs, to grapple with the wild bull, the wolf, and the 

 boar. The right to possess hawk and greyhound 

 were proofs of gentility; and there were even reli- 

 gious ceremonies and church services, wherein cer- 

 tain beneficed clergy claimed and practised the 

 privilege of appearing with hawk on fist and hound 

 in leash. Hence arose, also, the custom of placing 

 the effigy of this dog at the feet of monumental 

 figures of knights in armour; and, in the feudal 

 hall, a space behind the left-hand of the chief was 

 often assigned for his dogs to sit, and wait for a 

 portion of food from his hand. In the barbarous 

 laws of the times, a man was of less value than a 

 greyhound, and the killing one, or robbing a hawk's 

 nest, even after the signing of -Magna Charta, was 

 a felony, punishable with equal severity as murder. 

 The presentation of these dogs was often the symbol 

 of a renewed grant of feudal territory or rights, or 

 the payment for royal dues.* 



In the noble hunting pictures of Rubens and 

 Snyders, we see them often painted with characters 

 of spirit and life only surpassed by the pencil of 

 Landseer, whose dogs actually seem to think. Cours- 



* In the reign of King Richard II. there were still lands 

 held of the Crown, among others, by the family of Engaine, 

 upon the condition of keeping a certain number of wolf-dogs, 

 to hunt that animal, 



