The Greyhound. 231 



behaviour of the greyhound, but the king said, 

 " Cousin, this bodeth great good for you, as it is 

 an evil sign for me. That greyhound acknow- 

 ledgeth you here this day as King of England, 

 as ye shall be, and I shall be deposed. Mithe 

 knows this naturally, so take him ; he will follow 

 you and forsake me." And the story concludes that 

 ever after the dog forsook the weak and vacillating 

 Richard II., became the companion of his '' cousin," 

 and, in the end, affairs turned out as the king had 

 prognosticated. 



Henry VIII. was fond of coursing, and records are 

 extant of his losing money therein by bets, which he 

 made with Sir William Pickering, Lord Rochford, 

 and others. The Royal coursing meetings some- 

 times took place in Eltham Park. There appears to 

 be a peculiar fatality attending these royal attach- 

 ments to the greyhound; for we have Charles I. 

 with one as a companion. " Methinks," said he to 

 Sir Philip Warwick, '* I hear my dog scratching 

 at the door. Let in Gipsy." Whereupon Sir 

 Philip, who opened the door and let in the 

 monarch's favourite, took the boldness to say r 

 '' Sire, I perceive you love the greyhound better 

 than you do a spaniel?" "Yes," replied the King, 

 " for they equally love their masters, and yet the 

 hound does not flatter them so much." This 



