NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 45 



most in request here. Expecting an answer by the bearer, 

 _ commit you to the protection of the Almighty, and am 



ft Your Lordship's faithful and attached friend, 



" FALKLAND." 







Moryson, secretary to Lord Deputy Mountjoy, likewise dwells 

 on the excellence of our Irish greyhounds, while he at the 

 same time pays a compliment to the physical qualities of our 

 men. He observes : " The Irish men and greyhounds are 

 of great stature." Lombard says that the "best hunting- 

 dogs in Europe" were produced in Ireland. 



Sir William Bctham, Ulster King-at-Arms, has stated it as 

 his conviction, that the Irish wolf-dog was " a gigantic grey- 

 hound, not smooth-skinned, like our greyhounds, but rough 

 ind curly-haired. The Irish poets call the wolf-dogs * Cu,' 

 and the common hound f gayer' a marked distinction, the 

 word ' Cu' signifying also a champion." 



The justly celebrated Ray has described the Irish wolf-dog 

 as a tall, rough greyhound ; and so also has Pennant, who 

 descants at some length on his extraordinary size and power. 



Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, was presented with one of 

 these dogs by John, king of England. The reader must be 

 familiar with that beautiful ballad, founded on the circum- 

 stance of this noble animal's having saved Llewellyn's young 

 heir from the attacks of a wolf, entitled " The Grave of the 

 Greyhound." 



In a code of Welsh laws, we find heavy penalties laid down 

 for the maiming or injuring of the Irish greyhound : in this 

 code he is called " Cam's Grajus Hybernicus." We know 

 that the dog presented by John was a tall, rough greyhound. 



These extracts are all confirmatory of the Irish wolf-dog 

 having been a tall, rough dog, of the greyhound make, but 

 far stronger similar, in short, to the modern Highland deer- 

 hound but I can adduce further reasons why we must re- 

 gard him as identical with that dog. The canine skulls found 

 by that eminent naturalist, Surgeon Wilde, some years ago, 

 at Dunshaughlin, and described by him in a paper read be- 

 fore the Royal Irish Academy, were evidently those of rough 

 greyhounds, differing from the modern Highland dog, only in 

 their superior size of which more anon. 



The Irish greyhound, although very scarce, and evidently 

 much degenerated, has existed in Ireland until within a few 

 years and that in well-authenticated purity. Amongst other 

 possessors of the breed, I may mention Robert Evatt, Esq., of 



