28 



FIRST DIVISION OF THE 



THE GREYHOUND. 



The English, Scotch, and Irish greyhounds were all of Celtic deriva- 

 tion, and their cultivation and character corresponded with the civilization 

 of the different Celtic tribes. The dogs that were exported from Britain 

 to Rome were probably of this kind. Mr. Elaine gives an account of 

 the progress of these dogs, which seems to be evidently founded on truth. 

 " Scotland, a northern locality, has long been celebrated for its grey- 

 hounds, which are known to be large and wiry-coated. They are probably 

 types of the early Celtic greyhounds, which, yielding to the influences of 

 a colder climate than that they came from, became coated with a thick 

 and wiry hair. In Ireland, as being milder in its climate, the frame 

 expanded in bulk, and the coat, although not altogether, was yet less 

 crisped and wiry. In both localities, there being at that time boars, 

 wolves, and even bears, powerful dogs were required. In England these 

 wild beasts were more early exterminated, and consequently the same 

 kind of dog was not retained, but, on the contrary, was by culture made 

 finer in coat, and of greater beauty in form." 



Mr. Richardson, in his History of the Greyhound, gives a different de- 

 rivation of the name of this dog. He says that the greyhound was 

 of Grecian origin canis Grcecus, that Grcecus was not unfrequently 

 written Grains, and thence was derived the term greyhound. This de- 

 rivation, however, is somewhat too far-fetched. 



Mention occurs of the greyhound in a very early period of the British 

 history. He was an inmate of the Anglo-Saxon kennels in the time of 



