324 The Poets Beasts. 



And to all this fame he rose 

 Only by following his nose. 

 Neptune was he called ; not he 

 Who controls the boisterous sea, 

 But of happier command, 

 Neptune of the furrowed land ; 

 And, your wonder vain to shorten, 

 Pointer to Sir John Throckmorton." 



That Gay should applaud " the obsequious ranger " is not to 

 be wondered at. 



The staghound — its very name is knightly — is an adjunct 

 of all baronial scenes, of royal sport, of chivalrous society. 

 It is the companion of chiefs and their daughters, a feature 

 of earls' firesides. How Scott delighted in it, its power and 

 grace. His verse is full of staghounds, though sometimes, 

 as in the "Lady of the Lake," he employs bloodhounds of 

 black St. Hubert's breed in pursuit of the antlered quarry. 

 But what an unmitigated bore they are in Ossian, those 

 "grey-bounding dogs," " long-bounding sons of the chase," 

 that are for ever pursuing the everlasting " dun sons of the 

 bounding roe ! " In a score of our poets, conspicuously the 

 older and more robust, the staghound occupies a place of 

 considerable dignity, and not without reason, for it is a 

 noble animal. 



Greyhounds are " gentle " and " graceful " — " a grey- 

 hound's gentle grace " is becoming both in a ship ('* the 

 vessel from the land, like a greyhound from the slips, 

 darted forth ") and an elegant woman — so that they are 

 popular with the poets. "A gentleman's greyhound and a 

 salt-box, seek them at the fire." But it is as the pursuer of 

 the hare that it receives most frequent notice ; and, singularly 

 enough, in spite of the poets' usual sympathy with the hare 

 apart from greyhounds, coursing is only here and there 

 considered cruel. Gay, for instance, forgets all his kindness 

 for the hare as soon as the greyhound is after it — 



