RECEIPT TO MAKE WOLF HOUNDS. 91 



THE IRISH GREYHOUND. 



THE term GREYHOUND being- derived from the Saxon, demonstrates his anti- 

 quity in these kingdoms ; and grey seems to be a corruption of the Saxon word , 

 which bears no relation to colour. This dog was formerly termed Gaze Hound, 

 canis agasoeus, from his hunting 1 entirely by sight. From the few individuals 

 which we have seen of this species at different periods, and from many more of the 

 crosses between the Irish and English Greyhound, we are inclined to think that 

 the specimen here offered to the public eye, is a true representation of the original 

 Greyhound of Ireland, meaning thereby, nearly such, in point of form and qualifi- 

 cation, as he was, many ages since, imported from some of the Eastern Countries 

 bordering on the Mediterranean. This hound is supposed by Buffon, to be the 

 largest of the canine Genus : he is of the rough kind, of a fuller and thicker form 

 than the English Greyhound, having less speed, but it may be presumed, more 

 fierceness and greediness of blood. He is however a genuine Gaze-Hound, long, 

 sharp-headed, light in the ear, and in the belly, with the tail curled, deep in the 

 girth and breast, and hunting entirely by the eye. As has been already observed, 

 there seems little doubt but this was the kind of Greyhound, employed in the 

 ancient Wolf hunts of this Country. No man who has much reflected, or who is 

 conversant on this subject, we conceive, can withhold a smile at the numerous and 

 baseless transformations in the breeds of dogs, imagined by the celebrated Count de 

 Buffon ; demonstrating to what ridiculous lengths a man will proceed, who 

 having become the inventor of a system, feels himself under an obligation to 

 support it. 



Discoursing lately with a friend who has travelled much in France, we expressed 

 our surprize, as indeed we had often previously done on such occasions, that so rich, 

 populous and enlightened a Country, should have permitted wild beasts to devas- 

 tate parts of it, even to the nineteenth century, when an adequate premium for 

 destruction, must long since have entirely eradicated them. The answer was, the 

 numerous forests and fastnesses, and extent of wild and waste country in France 

 and the bordering countries, and particularly the want of a breed of Dogs endowed 

 with sufficient powers of strength, speed and courage, to hunt, run down, and 

 destroy the Wolf. This induced us to speculate on such a breed, and hereafter 

 followeth the sum of our speculation, which we have the honour to submit, with 

 much modesty, to the very many who understand the matter far better than 

 ourselves 



R. As a foundation, breed from the true old Irish Greyhound and the English 



