THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



names, which, because they are of a very ancient and learned 

 extraction, are like, I doubt not, to be so much the more 

 welcome. 



"In the meantime I have annexed the construction with 

 some intermixed explanations of the ninth ode of the second 

 book of Horace, wherein he comforts his friend Vulgius for 

 the loss of his son Mystes. Lord Howe, I suppose, hath now 

 dried up his tears for the loss of his. 



" Nothing pleases me more than that you do not entirely 

 dismiss Virgil and Horace for the sake of the doggs. As for 

 Sanchez upon matrimony, though it does not improve, how- 

 ever I am not sorry that he affords matter of mirth." 



II 



" 1728. November igth, Tuesday. 

 "My Lord, 



" I here send your Grace what I promised in my last ; 

 the pack, though consisting of twenty couples, does not take 

 up much room. They are all of a very ancient extraction. 

 Their qualities are good and various. I have consulted 

 herein your health, your diversion and your improvement. 

 This sport will not tire you, but entertain you gently. It 

 will agreeably exercise your study, and without much diffi- 

 culty display before you a chase in Greek and Latin. The 

 same indeed is very tragical, for they come from poor 

 Actaeon's dogs, who worried and tore their master in the 

 shape of a stagg. The story is related by Ovid in the third 

 book of his Met., the 205th verse. It was the subject of a 

 Greek play, the author of which is uncertain, and the work 

 lost except some very small fragments in Apollodorus, out of 

 which I have completed the number of the hounds. I know 

 not whether, being wholly unskilful of these sports, I have 

 hit upon proper English appellations for the doggs. How- 

 ever, I have endeavoured to give such as answer the original." 



After a few words on the more expressive character of 

 Greek as compared with Latin he goes on, — 



" Thus, my Lord, I make use of your beloved sport to lead 

 you into that study which I hope your guide in time will be 



28 



