Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 4 1 



mall have bitten a wild beaft, then he mall make 

 amends according to the value of a freeman, which 

 is twelve hundred millings. If, however, a royal 

 beaft mall have been killed by his bite, he mall be 

 guilty of the greateft crime." 



Much that is interefting connected with dogs 

 ufed for falconry and the chafe may be found in 

 the "Boke of St. Alban's," 1486 ; but no Englim 

 writer treated fyftematically of the different breeds 

 of Britifh dogs until John Caius, or Kayes, wrote 

 his celebrated tractate " Of Englime Dogges, 

 the diverfities, the names, the natures, and the 

 properties." Having been addrefTed in Latin to 

 the famous Conrad Gefner, in order to aid that 

 naturalift in his hiftory of animals, it was tranflated 

 into Englifh by "Abraham Fleming, Student," 

 with the motto, " Natura etiam in brutis vim 

 oftendit fuam" and publifhed in I576. 1 A highly 

 euphuiftical dedication to his patron, the Dean of 

 Ely, was prefixed by this fame Fleming, who alfo 

 perpetrated fome verfes on dogs on the reverfe of 

 the title-page, entitled " A Profopopoicall fpeache 

 of the Booke," which from their ftyle and fubject 

 may moft truly be termed one of the earlieft 

 fpecimens of doggrel. 



One or two interefting facts attach to John 

 Caius befides the authorfhip of the earlieft book 

 on Englim dogs. This "jewel and glory of 

 Cambridge," as Fleming ftyles him, was born in 

 1510, and rofe to be a diftinguifhed phyfician. 



1 This has been reproduced in 1880 in a very convenient 

 little volume (only changing the old Englifh black-letter of the 

 original into ordinary Roman type) at the Bazaar Office. 



