PHEFACE. 47 



riment, whether PUny was correct in affirming that Minerva 



was as fond of traversing- the hills as Diana. " These bookish A New Dis- 



course of a Stale 



fellowes," in the words of Sir John Harrington, "could judge Subject,&c. 

 of no sports, but within the verge of the fair fields of Helicon, 

 Pindus, and Parnassus." Their practice in the field was not 

 commensurate with their scholastic knowledge. Very few 

 carried their note-books, like the learned and indefatigable 

 Vhtius to the covert side, and examined the difficulties of 

 rural poetry, and obscure allusions to canine instinct in the 

 field of experience. And unless they did so, they had little 

 chance of becoming acquainted with the sylvan goddess, who 

 tells us in her petition to her sire, that she rarely descends 

 from her mountain haunts into the cities of men ; 



aTrapvhv yap '6T"'ApTefjiLS aarv Kdniffiv. Callimadi. H. 



ovpecriu oiKijcru, m Uian. 



Wherever the different sporting dogs of antiquity are alluded 

 to, or mentioned by name in the Cynegeticus of Arrian, or the 

 classical works to which I have had occasion to refer in 

 illustration of it, I have endeavoured to clear up some of the 

 obscurity, in which they were enveloped ; by classifying 

 varieties, and in a few cases even individuals, and comparing 

 ancient types with modern representatives. This I have at- 

 tempted more especially in relation to the ancient British doos, 

 and the Celtic greyhound (the subject of Arrian's Treatise), as 

 being of paramount interest to the British courser. 



S> irSiToi, oXov TovTo 6(01 Troir](Tav &vaKTes ineocnU Inyll 



, , XXV. vs. 78. 



6T]piou avdptinroicri fieTe/xfj-evai' ws iniixTjOes. 



The observations and extracts on these points, more trite 



