RECREATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 265 



species of dogs mentioned by Boece, in his History of Scot- 

 land, published 1526, of which the deer-hound is one. 

 This drawing, though a rudely executed woodcut, is full of 

 character, and coincides with the descriptions which have 

 reached us of this dog. 



Of the dog known in Ireland under the name of the 

 Irish greyhound, Holinshed, in his " Description of Ireland 

 and the Irish," written in 1586, has the following notice, 

 " They are not without wolves, and greyhounds to hunt 

 them, bigger of bone and lim than a colt ;" and, in a frontis- 

 piece to Sir James Ware's "History of Ireland," an allegorical 

 representation is given of a passage from the venerable 

 Bede, in which two dogs are introduced, bearing so strong 

 a resemblance to that given by Gesner, as to leave no doubt 

 that they are the same species. 



The mastiff and the greyhound both appear, from the old 

 Welsh laws, to have been used from a very early period by 

 that people, and were termed by them, the former Gellgi, 

 and the latter Milgi, which latter is evidently the same 

 word with the appellation of Miol chu, given by the High- 

 landers and Irish to the deer-hound. 



Of the mode of hunting and using these dogs, we have 

 descriptions by William Barclay, as far back as 1563, by 

 Taylor, the water poet, and by others. 



The term Irish is applied to the Highland dogs, as every 

 thing Celtic (not excepting the language) was designated in 

 England, probably in consequence of Ireland being, at that 

 period, better known to the English than Scotland. This 

 is, however, a proof of the similarity of the dogs, and also 

 that they were not then in use in England in the same 

 perfection. Nor is this supposition inconsistent with the 

 account given by Sir John Nicol, of Queen Elizabeth's 

 amusements at Cowdrey Park, in 1595, " Then rode her 

 Grace to Cowdrey to dinner, and about six of the clock in 

 the evening, sawe sixteen bucks pulled down with grey- 

 hounds in a laund," since it will be observed, from the use 

 of the term "bucks," that these deer were fallow; and, 

 probably, the course was paled in, as appears to have been 

 usual on such occasions, from a minute account by the 

 translator of the " Noble Art of Venerie and Hunting," 

 published in London in 1811. 

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