16 PREFACE. 



nobility and gentleman, as any of the other kinds of Venerie 

 before declared : especially the course of the hare, which is a 

 sport continually in sight, and made without any great travaile : 

 so that recreation is therein to be found without unmeasurable 

 toyle and payne : ^ whereas in hunting with hounds, although 

 the pastime be great, yet many times the toyle and paine is 

 also exceeding great : and then it may well be called, eyther a 

 painfull pastime, or a pleasant payne." 



Coursing, more than the other laborious diversions of rural 

 life, while it ministers to our moderate sensual enjoyment, 

 admits also during the intervals of the actual pursuit of hound 

 and hare, much rational reflection, opportunities of conversation 

 with our brethren of the leash, and mental improvement. It 

 tends, as Markham quaintly expresses himself, '' to satisfie the 

 mind and body in a joynt motion ;" for in the beautiful poetry 

 of a living patron of the Celtic dog, there is no interval of 

 idleness with the well-read courser ; 



Marmion In- ^^^ ^^^^ between each merry cLase, 



trod, to Canto II. Passes tlie intermitted space : 



For we have fair resource in store, 



In Classic and in Gothic lore. 



Oooian Hali- ^* TepvoiXr] S' eirerai Bripri irXeov rieTrep ISpdis. 



eut. I. vs. 28. Coursing has ever been held an honuurahle and gentlemanly amusement in Great 



Britain, from its earliest annals to the present time. Nor can T discover any authority 

 for the truth of Vlitius's opinion, as given in his note on the Veltraha of Gratius. 



Vlitii Venatio "^^ i'^^'J Vertragis suis sagaces posthabeat ille Xenophon: nam hodie in Angliii 



Novantiqua. sagaces nobilissirai quique exercent ; Vertrago autem leporem conficere, indignum 



bene nato parum abest quin habeatur." Such never was the opinion entertained of 

 " greyhound hunting," in King JaM)es's phrase : — indeed the farther we go back into 

 the history of the leash, the higher it lanked in the scale of British field-sports. See 

 the " Constitutiones Canuti Regis de foresta" — and Blount's Ancient Tenures pas- 

 sim, for instances of the high repute in which the courser's hound has ever been held 

 in Great Britain. 



