THE MODERN GREYHOUND. 23 



" The Greihound should have a long hede and somedele 

 grete, ymakyd in the manner of a luce ; a good large 

 mouth and good sessours, the one again the other, so that 

 the nether jaws passe not them above, ne that thei above 

 passe not him by neither " ; and coming down to Gervase 

 Markham, in the sixteenth century, we have his descrip- 

 tion : " He should have a fine long leane head, with a 

 sharp nose, rush grown from the eyes downward." 



The general form and character of the head is here 

 pretty fairly sketched, and we see a very close agreement 

 between these old authorities. It appears to me that the 

 "Mayster of Game" was the most happy in his illustra- 

 tion, " Made in the manner of a luce " that is, a full- 

 grown pike as the heads of the Greyhound and pike will 

 bear a fair comparison without straining; and who can 

 say it was not the exigencies of rhyme that compelled our 

 sporting Abbess to set up for us that stumbling-block, the 

 head of a snake ? No doubt she thought of the excellent 

 illustration the neck of the drake offered her, and had 

 to find a rhyme to it ; but she might with as great 

 propriety have written : 



The Grehound should be heeded like a luce 

 And neckyd like a goose. 



The force of illustration lost in the second line is more 

 than compensated for by the strength of the first. Markham 

 is right in desiring a "long leane head," though even that 

 may be carried to a fault : but we do not want the " part 

 beneath the forehead protuberant of muscle"; and the 

 " heavy-headed, with thick nostrils and a blunt nose," I 

 must, with Arrian, discard altogether as thoroughly bad, 



