CHAPTER XVI 



THE GREYHOUND 



JUDGING from the Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman 

 monuments, the Greyhound of antiquity must have 

 been very similar in form to the dog of the present 

 day, and it is very doubtful if any breed has been 

 subject to fewer variations of type. Doubtless 

 necessities of the larder as well as love of sport 

 compelled the ancients to produce a fast dog that 

 would be sure of killing game. In the earliest known 

 records of British history we find the Greyhound 

 mentioned, and in the days of Canute he ranked 

 first among the canidce, and no one lower than the 

 degree of freeholder was allowed to keep one. Even 

 that very unromantic district the Isle of Dogs is 

 said to have taken its name from the fact that King 

 John kept there his Greyhounds and Spaniels. 

 Holders of land of a certain manor in Kent held 

 their tenure on condition that when Edward II. went 

 into Gascony they would lend their Greyhounds " so 

 long as a pair of shoes of 4d. price would last." 

 The Lord Orford who lived at the end of the 

 eighteenth century made the classic cross between 

 a Bulldog and a Greyhound, with the idea of infusing 

 courage into the latter, and it is interesting to know 



Book of the Dog. 7 81 



