ON rOURSlNG, 



71 



that ho was unacquainted with any other breed of dogs, re- 

 sembhng the Celtic in point of swiftness, is evident from these 

 words : — " whatever hares," he says, " are caught by dogs, 

 become their prey, contrary to the natural shape of the animal, 

 or accidentally." * Now, if he had been acquainted with the 

 Celtic breed, I think he would have made the very same re- 

 mark on the dogs ; " whatever hares the dogs do not catch at 

 speed, they fail of catching in contradiction of their shape, or 

 from some accidental circumstance." For assuredly when 

 greyhounds are in good condition, and of high courage, no 



Chai>. II. 



truth of Minshew's assertion, already cited, of the Greeks having first employed the Skinner, Ety- 



greyhound in the chase; "quod facile crediderim," says the former etymologist, mo ogicon. 



" si authorem laudasset." I know of no authority for such an assertion, and discredit 



the fact. Indeed, the belief of the existence of the courser's hound in ancient Greece 



may be traced to the misconceptions of the gentlemen " e Societate Jesu," and 



others, who have favoured us with their expositions of antiquity ; and who have 



understood every keen-nosed, latrant Spartan to be a genuine greyhound. Scholars, 



ignorant of natural history, and naturahsts ignorant of classical learning, have alike 



given currency to the opinion, in opposition to the contrary statement of the text. 



Against which the assumption of Savary of Caen, 



Graecia pemiciem leporum Lacedsemona pridera 

 Emisit, &c. 



Album DiansB 



LeporiciJae, 



p. 5. 



and the quaint tale of Holinshed can have no weight. For with all due regard to the Historic of Ire- 

 laborious Raphael, and his coadjutors in historical research, I think it far more con- lande, p. 8. 

 sistent with probability that his " peerlesse hounde " was a Celtic greyhound, (to 

 whom " pleasantnesse of mouth " is incorrectly granted by historic licence,) the 

 associate of a Celtic Scot, proximately from Ireland, remotely from Celtic Gaul, than 

 as " fetched so far as out of Graecia from a citie called Molosse, whence the breed of 

 him first came." 



4. Contrary to what you would suppose would be the result of a contest of speed 

 between them, on comparing the respective shapes of the two animals. The hare 

 being made for speed, and not so the dog, the former, if caught by the latter, is 

 caught irapa. ipiffiv ffw^iaTos : thence the inference of Arrian that Xenophon was un- 

 acquainted with greyhounds, who are made for speed, is a fair deduction. The words 

 of the latter are : kotol Tro'Sas Se oh itoWaKis virh tup kvvZv 5ia jh t^xos KparetTai' De Venatione 

 'iaoL 5e aKiffKovrai, irapa, <pvaiv rod awfiaros, tvxV ^* XP'^M**'"** ov^ev yap rwv ovrwv *'* ^' 



IffOfieyedes TovT<f> '6(10161/ iffri irphs 5p6nov avyKUTai yap iK TOtoirwv, k, t. A, 



