46 PREFACE. 



mocked them" in their quick-scented pursuit of the Laconian 

 quarry, they could be no more entitled to the appellation, than 

 any sharp-nosed mongrel, bred in modern days, between a 

 sagacious yelping hound, and a prick-eared shepherd's cur. 

 Upon the same principle of generalization, all truculent Mo- 

 lossi, C. Custodes, Pecuarii, &c. are by these worthies at once 

 dismissed as Galhce " dogues," Anglice " mastiffs," without 

 an attempt to particularize their respective attributes in war- 

 fare, or the chase, or the economy of rural life. 



Macbeth, act Hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 



III. sc. I. 



Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped 

 , All by the name of dogs ; the valued file 



Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, 

 The housekeeper, the hunter, every one 

 According to the gift which bounteous nature 

 Hath in him closed ; whereby he does receive 

 Particular addition, from the bill 

 That writes them all alike. 



This confusion of nomenclature might pass at school, but not 

 longer. Subsequent experience, and the reflection of maturer 

 years would direct the attention of many literary ruralists to 

 the occasional correction of errors in the canine vocabulary. 

 Such at least has been the case with the writer of these pages ; 

 and he conceives that errors, apparent to him, must have been 

 manifest to others. Nor is a misapprehension of some of the 

 names and qualities of the individuals of this multifarious genus 



Gratii Cyneg. (Mille canum patriae, ductique ab origine mores 



^*** Cuique su^) 



to be wondered at in scholiasts and commentators ; when we 

 consider their monkish habits of indolent seclusion, and how 

 unfit and unwilhng they were to ascertain by actual expe- 



