NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 41 



cil to Henry VIII.,) on the behalf of the Marquis of Desarrya, 

 and his son, that it might please his majesty to grant to the 

 said marquis, and his son, and the longer liver of ti. em, year- 

 ly out of Ireland, two goshawks and four greyhounds; and 

 forasmuch as the said duke hath done the king acceptable 

 service in his wars, and that the king is informed that the said 

 marquis bearethto him especial good-will, he, therefore, grants 

 the said suit, and commands that the deputy for the time being 

 shall take order for the delivery of the said hawks and grey- 

 hounds, unto the order of the said marquis and his son, and 

 the longer liver of them, yearly ; and that the treasurer shaK 

 take the charges of buying the said hawks and hounds.' It 

 is true that British hounds and beagles were in reputation 

 among the Romans, for their speed and quick scent. Thus, 

 Nemesian, in his Cunegcticks : 



* - Divisa Britannia mittit 

 Veloces, nostrique orbis venatibus aptos.' 

 ' Great Britain sends swift hounds, 

 Fittest to hunt upon our grounds.' 



And Appian calls the British hound, <fxi>\a.% ^vsu7^ocr, a dog 

 that scents the track of the game. But this character does 

 not hit the Irish wolf-dog, which is not remarkable for any 

 great sagacity in hunting by the nose. Ulysses Aldrovandus, 

 and Gesner, have given descriptions of the Cant's Scoticus, and 

 two prints of them very little different from the common hunt- 

 ing-hound. ' They are,' says Gesner, ' something larger than 

 the common hunting-hound, of a brown or sandy spotted col- 

 or, quick of smelling, and are employed on the borders be- 

 tween England and Scotland to follow thieves. They are 

 called sleut-hound.' In the Regiam Majestatem of Scotland 

 is this passage ' Nullus perturbet aut impediat Canem tras- 

 santem aut homines trassantes cum ipso ad sequendum latro- 

 nes, aut ad capiendum latrones :' ' Nobody shall give any 

 disturbance or hinderance to tracing-dogs, or men employed 

 with them to trace or apprehend thieves or malefactors.' 

 This character no way agrees with the Irish wolf-dog ; and 

 the reader must observe, that when Gesner and Aldrovandus 

 wrote, in the sixteenth century, modern Scotland was well 

 known by the name of Scotia, which it was not in the fourth 

 century, when Symmachus wrote the aforesaid epistle ; and. 

 therefore, the Canis Scoticus described by Aldrovandus and 

 Gesner, were dogs of different species." 



Thus far we have proved the Irish wolf-dog to have been a 

 4* 



