INTRODUCTION. 



be, the writer touches a genuine chord in the national 

 sympathies in singing the praises of the dogs of Fingal 

 in his description of a royal hunting " call." Said Fingal : 

 " Call my dogs, the long-bounding sons of the chace. Call 

 white-breasted Bran, and the surly strength of Luath. 

 Fillan and Fergus ! blow my horn, that the joy of the chace 

 may arise; that the deer of Cromla may hear and start at 

 the Lake of Roes. The shrill sound spreads along the wood. 

 The sons of heathy Cromla arise. A thousand dogs fly off 

 at once, gray-bounding through the heath. A deer fell by 

 every dog, and three by the white-breasted Bran." 



That the Deerhound and Irish Wolfhound were, if not 

 identical, very closely allied, I think there can be no doubt; 

 and with such game as they were fitted to cope with in 

 abundance, the fugacious hare was thought little of ; but 

 in the lower and more open countries the lighter built and 

 more nimble dogs would be used for that quarry. Arrian, 

 describing the Celtic Greyhound, refers to both smooth 

 and long-haired ; and I think it in the highest degree 

 probable that all are from the same stock, for we know 

 that quantity and quality of coat readily change, and, 

 according to domestic treatment, quite alter in character 

 in a few generations, whilst variation in colour is the com- 

 mon inheritance of domestication. 



According to William of Malmesbury, Edward the Con- 

 fessor "took great delight to follow a pack of swift hounds 

 in pursuit of game, and to cheer them with his voice;" 

 these were, probably, hounds running by scent. But the 

 same writer, enumerating the dogs of the chase, includes 

 Greyhounds as favourite dogs with the sportsmen of that 

 time. 



