ON rouRsiNc;. 119 



spectacle destroyed. On which account a steward should be Chap. XX. 

 appointed over the sport, ^ should match the dogs, and give Steward, 

 orders to the field : — if the hare start on this side, you and 

 you are to slip, and nobody else ; but if on that side, you and 

 you : and let strict attention be paid to the orders given. * 



3. "kpxovTo- — " the judge expert in coursing " of Turberville, p. 249. 



It appears to me from this passage that the Celts coursed witli each hound lield in 

 a single slip and collar, and started probably simultaneously with his appointed com- 

 peer, held in juxta-positiun by a second person. Some commentators, however, are 

 of opinion, from the term (rufSt/affTw, that the dogs were held in double collars, or 

 couples ; but if so, we must still suppose, from the words (tv koI ah iwiXiifiv, that 

 two persons were appointed to let the dogs loose at the same time : 



Copula detrahitur canibus. Ovid. Met. 



L. VII. 709. 

 Xenophon particularly enjoins, in his instructions on hare-hunting, that the Spartan 

 hounds should he held in separate collars at the covert-side : fKacn-qv X'^P^^j (each 

 apart) '6irciis hv evXvroi Sxri, De Venat. 



The ancient slip or slippe (ab elabendo Vlit. p. 94.) was formed by a leading thong ''• ^^' 



or lyam, passed through the ring of the dog's collar, the two ends being held in the 

 hand of the slipper, or keeper. When the dog was loosed, the slipper let go one 

 end of the thong, and drew the other wilh his hand from the eye of the collar, 

 whereby the dog was liberated with the collar on his neck, the lyam remaining in the 

 slipper's hand. (See Xenophon, Pollux, and Conrad Gesner, on these accoutre- 

 ments : the latter is copious on the subject in his Hist. Quadrup. " Canis.") Such 

 a representation of greyhounds coursing, with collars on their necks, we have in 

 Monlfaucon, Tom. iii. Liv. iv. pi. 176. (Chasse au Lievre.) Nor are the incum- ggg {jj^ 



brances, which envelop the necks of Chrysis and Aura in this beautiful gem, got rid lithograph of 



of in the coursing plates of " The Gentleman's Hecrealions," — so few are the ira- l^nrysis ana 



, Aura, 



provements in the practical department of the leasli, from the days of Arrian till 



those of Richard Blorae. The modern method of slipping a brace of greyhounds, at 

 the same instant of time, from double spring or wedge collars, is of recent introduc- 

 tion ; liaving its origin, probably, at the institution of public coursing meetings. 



4. 01 Se ffiireSovuraii' rh rax04y. Obedience to the orders of the &pxwv or ayccvo- 

 6iTt)s, in a coursing field, is an essential point of discipline: indeed, we could not 

 select any more important for the regulation of such an assemblage than the brief and 



emphatic injunction of our author in his Tactics, " silence and attention to orders" — Arriani Tactic. 



aiya. Koi Trp6(rex^ "^^ 'i^o.po.'yyiWo^iV(f. 71. 



Ed. Blancard. 



