ON COURSING. 



lorj 



Whoever courses with o-reyhomuls ' sliould neither slip Chap. XV'.* 

 tlieiu near llie Ir.irc, nor more thnn a l)race at a lime ; - for flipping law. 

 tliougli the hare be remarkably swift-footed, and have often 

 beaten many dogs, yet being just started from her form, she 

 cannot but be fluttered at heart, and terrified at the hallooing, 

 and the hounds pressing close upon her : — and in this way, 

 many a noble hare has often ignobly perished without an 

 effort, showing no diversion worth mentioning. 



Let the hare, therefore, creep away from her form as if 

 unperceived, and recover her presence of mind. And then, if 

 she be a racer, "' she will prick up her ears, and bound away 



Schediasm. 

 L. V. c. XVI. 



* In the first and second editions of the Cynegeticus, a chapter is here introduced 

 On the Manner and Time of Coursing among the Celts ; but which is more correctly 

 placed by Schneider after the nineteenth chapter. Following his example, I liave 

 omitted it here, and shall introduce it into that part of the treatise to which it natu- 

 rally belongs. 



1. "Ocrrts Kvyas a7a0as ex*' — whoever has good hounds: greyhounds; elsewhere Vide Stepliaui 

 called Kwas wKsias. 



2. The laws of the leash in England, subscribed by Thomas Duke of Norfolk, in 

 the reign of Elizabeth, speak to these points : 



" That not above one brace of greyh.ounds do course a hare at one instant. 



" Tliat the fewterer shall give the hare twelve score law, ere he loose the grey- 

 hounds, except it he in danger of losing sight." 



Turberville, however, gives a little more licence as to number of dogs : " If the The Booke of 

 greyhounds be but yong or slowe, you may course with a lease at one hare, but that Venerie, &c. 

 is seldorae seene, and a brase of dogges is ynow for such a poore beast." No fair 

 courser would slip more than a brace of tried and swift dogs (Sua) Kvve, eiSore Q^p-qs) Iliad. L. xx. 

 after a hare. 



As to the distance at which the hounds are to be slipped to the hare, which in the 

 ancient English Cynegetica is called law, " it should be," says Turberville, " xii 

 score yardes or more, according to the ground and country where she sitteth." So 

 Ben Jonson, in the Sad Shepherd, 



V. 360. 



But you must give her law : and you shall see her 

 Make twenty leaps and doubles, &c. 



Act II. sc. 8. 



3. ApO/UiK^j— a racer. 'O dwdixefos ra ffKf\r) piirTelv Trciis, Kol ftuelf raxv, xal 



'ipfxtl, 5pOHiK6i 



to this chapter. 



Aristot. 



Tr({p5a), Spo/ii/tJs : a definition equally applicable to man and beast. See the final note "'^ Knetoric;'. 



1^. I. c. V. 



