PREFACE. I'J 



but we do not forbid others 



imbelles figere damas, 

 ' Audacesve lupos, vulpem aut captaie dolosaii). 



For the refined diversion of coursing may be as disagreeable to 

 tlie fox-hunter, whose only joy is when 



The hounds shall make the welkin answer them, Taming of the 



And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth, ' 



as it is delightful to the general amateur, on account of its j,jj.^,^ Histor. 

 chaste, and temperate, and contemplative quiet. King James, rie"voLni. p. 

 in his Bao-jXixov Jwgov, (himself, according to Sir Theodore a kinge'sXtiau 

 Mayerne, " violentissimis ohm venationis exercitiis deditus,") God, B. m, 

 praises " the hunting with running houndes, as the most 

 honourable and noblest sort thereof," and is supported by the 

 high authority of Edmund de Laugley, JDayj^ter Of OBame ; ^- "^ ®- ^°- 

 adding " it is a thievish forme of hunting to shoote with gunnes 

 and bowes, and greyhounde hunting is not so martiall a 

 game." But on the other hand. Sir Thomas Elyot, in "The B.i. c.i7. 

 Governour," speaking of " those exercises apte to the furni- 

 ture of a gentylman's personage," and " not utterly reproved of 

 noble autours, if they be used with oportunitie and in measure," 

 calls " hunting of the hare with grehoundes a ryght good solace 

 for men that be studiouse, or theim to whom nature hathe not 

 geven personage, or courage apte for the warres ; and also for 

 gentilwomen, which feare nether sonne nor wynde for appayr- 

 yng their beautie. And peradventure they shall be therat 

 lesse idell, than they shold be at home in their chaumbers." — 

 And the author of " The Booke of Hunting," annexed to Tur- 

 bervile's Falconrie, concludes his treatise with the following 

 singular panegyric " concerning coursing with greyhoundes " — 

 ''the which is doubtlesse a noble pastime, and as meet for 



