44 PREFACE. 



pursuits at home and abroad are rationally diversified. " For 

 honest pleasures," like Brath wait's gentleman, " he is neither 

 so Stoicall as wholly to contemne them, nor so Epicureall as too 

 sensually to affect them." *' There is no delight on mountaine, 

 vale, coppice, or river, whereof he makes not an usefull and 

 contemplative pleasure ;" 



Darcius Venu- At sylvse gelidique specus, cava lustra feravum, 



^^^^^' Ruvaque, et arcan^ labentia fluraina valle 



Sunt animo ! 



But his " hour-beguihng pastime," when not occupied in any 

 Piin. Panegjr. of the more important duties of life, '^ si quando cum influen- 



Trajan. 81. 



tibus negotiis paria fecit, instar refectionis," is that of a theo- 

 retical and practical courser — desirous of acquiring, in the 

 sedentary retirement of his library, the science of active 

 enjojmient in the field ; and of elucidating the mysteries of 

 the leash, and the pertinent anecdotes of animal biography, by 

 collecting in one point of view the scattered glimmerings of 

 classical antiquity, and the illustrations of more modern days, 

 relative to an elegant and manly diversion : — directing the whole 

 under the guidance of experience, and the name of the father 

 of the leash, to the advancement of human recreation. 



Terent Andr Quod plerique omnes faciunt adolescentuli, 



act. I. sc. I. 28. Ut animum ad aliquod studium adjungant, aut equos 



Alere, aut canes ad venandum, aut ad pliilosophos : 



Horum ille nihil egregie praeter csstera 



Studebat, et tanien omnia haec mediocriter. 



The translator has his hack, his greyhound, and his slipper, 

 {xvvuyaiyog,) participating of the unimportant character of their 

 master, and equally devoid of interest in the eyes of the public. 



