APPENDIX. 



275 



lllis omnc docus, quod nunc, Metagontes, liabetis, 

 Constaret sylvis ; sed virtus irrita damno est ! 



Herein, however, they strikingly resemble their modern representa- 

 tives ; for, with Ducange, I readily grant that the Canes Petronii 

 " ii sunt quos vulgfk chiens courans appellamus." Whoever has 

 heard the din of the fox or hare-chase, 



— whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds, Titus Androni- 



Repljing shrilly to the well-tuned horns, '^ A ^ ' 



As if a double hunt were heard at once, 



will grant that no Petronian pack could have been more noisy on 



the trail than their modern representatives. 



The Britannus sagax, " the hound sagacious on the tainted Pope's 



, • ^/^ , « . , „• Essay on Man. 



green, next clamis our attention. Of the Britannus bellicosus we 



have already spoken under the first class. The earlier cynegetical 



writers are silent on the subject of British hounds : nor do they 



appear to have been known in Italy till towards the decline of the 



Roman empire ; when, having been introduced into Celtic Gaul, 



their merits became gradually known in southern Europe. And 



here, in spite of the French encyclopedists, (the copyists of Messieurs Encyclop6die 



D'Yauville and Le Verrier de la Conterie,) who gratuitously assume sur les Cbasses, 



" qu'en general les chiens Anglois n'ont pas autant de noblesse que P* ^'^^' 



les beaux chiens Francois, " — and that where the breed is improved, 



as they allow it to be in some cases, the amelioration is attributable 



to Norman crosses, — we must, with our native poet, claim the palm 



for Britain ; 



In thee alone, fair land of liberty! Somervilie. 



Is bred the perfect hound, in scent and speed Chace, B. i. 



As yet unrivall'd, while in other climes 

 Their virtue fails, a weak degenerate race ! 



By name, British hunting-dogs (as distinct from the pugnacious 

 class) are mentioned by the poets of Carthage and Anazarbus alone; 

 by the former, where singing the praises of difterent canine breeds, ' 

 the merits of the blood of distant countries ; 



