PRF.rACE. 39 



under the liopc that it may escape the severity of acrimonious 

 criticism, as the work of a retired countryman, with no learned 

 resources at hand, beyond a library moderately furnished with 

 classic authorities, and writings illustrative of some depart- 

 ments of natural history. I wish I had been endowed with all 

 tlie qualities essential to a more perfect performance. But 

 such as it is, " I crave," with an old Chronicler, " that it may 

 be taken in good part. I wishe I had bene furnished with so 

 perfect instructions, and so many good gifts, that I might have 

 pleased all kindes of men, but that same being so rare a thing 

 in any one of the best, I beseech thee (gentle reader) not to 

 looke for it in me the meanest." 



Difficulty has occurred in rendering the ancient technical 

 terms of a courser's manual, with any degree of elegance, in 

 a modem tongue — '' ornari res ipsa negat." This has partly 

 arisen — 



Propter egestatem linguae, et rerum novitatem, Lucret. L. i. vs. 



139. 



and partly from the corresponding English terms being debased 

 into vulgarity by an usage too familiar to be pleasant to polite 

 ears. Expressions of this kind in Arrian ^re occasioned by the 

 accuracy which he affects in the most minute particulars con- 

 nected with the subject of coursing, the shape of Celtic dogs, 

 the discipline of the kennel and field, the breeding of whelps, 

 &c. 



In relation to this and other defects, it is requested of all my 

 brethren of the leash, in behalf of the oldest courser who has 

 written on their manly diversion, that whatever may appear 

 inelegant, dull, or uninteresting in the following little work, 

 may be laid to the account of the translator: the errors of 



