320 THE HOUND. 



dogs, being the most valuable he could, in those 

 times, bestow. The congeniality of our climate 

 has contributed much to this excellence, as our 

 dogs, hounds especially, are found to degenerate in 

 most others ; which Somerville alludes to in his 

 poem of the Chase. 



" In thee alone, fair land of liberty, 

 Is bred the perfect hound, in scent and speed 

 As yet unrivall'd, while in other climes 

 Their virtue fails, a weak degen'rate race." 



We do not benefit much by research into ancient 

 authors on the subject of dogs ; for although they 

 have been much written upon, and immortalised in 

 song by Oppian, Claudian, Gratius, and others, 

 (Virgil says little about them,) yet, from our igno- 

 rance of the sort of animal bred in their time, and 

 the use they made of them, as sportsmen, we can 

 draw no parallel between them and our own that 

 would tend to a good purpose. No doubt the 

 " canis vestigator'''' of Columella, and the " canis 

 odorus'''' of Claudian, were of what we term a low- 

 scenting sort, as the epithets applied to them sig- 

 nify ; but it would be difiicult to pronounce an 

 opinion upon the ^atfTo^/a/, or the aXwcrsx/^sc, of 

 Xenophon, although the characteristic properties 

 of good-hunting hounds are very well and accu- 

 rately laid down by him in the third chapter of 

 his K-ji/'/j/sr/ziog, as well as their defects in form, &;c., 

 equally clearly exposed; and his observations on 

 these points might be perused with advantage by 

 huntsmen of the present day. 



Great encourasfement has been iriven to the 



