THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 49 



Hunting is a game for princes and noble per- 

 sons ; it hath been highly prized in all ages ; it was 

 one of the qualifications that Xenophon bestowed 

 on his Cyrus, that he was a hunter of wild beasts. 

 Hunting trains up the younger nobility to the use 

 of manly exercises in their riper age. What more 

 manly exercise than hunting the wild boar, the 

 stag, the buck, the fox, or the hare ? How doth it 

 preserve health, and increase strength and activity ! 



And for the dogs that we use, who can commend 

 their excellency to that height which they deserve? 

 How perfect is the hound at smelling, who never 

 leaves or forsakes his first scent, but follows it 

 through so many changes and varieties of other 

 scents, even over and in the water and into the 

 earth? What music doth a pack of dogs then 

 make to any man whose heart and ears are so 

 happy as to be set to the tune of such instruments ! 

 How will a right greyhound fix his eye on the best 

 buck in a herd, single him out, and follow him, and 

 him only, through a whole herd of rascal l game, 

 and still know and then kill him ! For my hounds, 

 I know the language of them, and they know the 

 language and meaning of one another, as perfectly 

 as we know the voices of those with whom we dis- 

 course daily. 



I might enlarge myself in the commendation of 

 hunting, and of the noble hound especially, as also 

 of the docibleness of dogs in general ; and I might 



1 " Rascal " (from the Saxon) : a lean beast ; used by hunters 

 in the sense of " worthless game." See Nares's Glossary. 

 4 



