added little to our knowledge in any department of coursing, as the reader of the Nicomedian's Manual will readily acknowledge. His remarks on the physical indications of excellence in greyhounds, and of speed and good blood,-derived from external shape and character generally,—on the unimportance of colour, on the indications afforded by temper, tractability in the field, mode of feeding, &c. are perfect as far as they go. Nor can we improve on his kennel management, in feeding, Arriani de Vebedding, (εὐνὴ μαλθακὴ καὶ ἀλεεινή), rubbing down, (τρίψις τοῦ cáμatos navтòs,) exercising, alternated with confinement, &c. &c. As to slipping-law, and the number of hounds to be slipped at once, his injunctions μήτε ἐγγύθεν ἐπιλύειν τῷ λαγῷ, μήτε πλείους δυοῖν, are strictly complied with at present by all fair sportsmen. The Celts, it appears, had four different ways of coursing, all of which are practised by modern amateurs, according to their several tastes, and the nature of the countries in which they follow their sport. The superior class of Celtic gentlemen, ὅσοι μὲν πλουτοῦσιν αὐτῶν καὶ τρυφῶσιν, employed persons to look out for hares in their forms, early in the morning, and to inform them by a messenger what success they had met with, before they left home themselves. A second class, probably less opulent, and not able to afford the expense of hare-finders, mustered all their brother-amateurs, and beat the ground in regular array, abreast of each other. Both these parties were mounted on horseback; but a third class sallied forth on foot, and these, Arrian says, were really workmen at the sport, αυτουργοί κυνηγεσίων : if any person natione C. IX. C. X. C. XV. C. XIX. C. XX. C. XXI. accompanied the latter on horseback, he was ordered to keep up with the greyhounds. A fourth mode of coursing, sometimes adopted by them, was that of first loosing dogs of scent to find, and start the game, and then slipping the greyhounds, as soon as it came within sight. Upon all of these different practices the father of the leash has entered most fully in his classical Manual: and if to these points we add his sensible remarks on the entering of puppies, on breeding, management after whelping, feeding and naming of young dogs, comparison of sexes, &c.; his merit will be allowed to be commensurate with his antiquity, and his enchiridion not only the earliest in the annals of the leash, but altogether the most abundant in valuable information. It is foreign to my purpose and inclination to enter into a prolix defence of the courser's pursuit, against the objections of Countrey Con- its adversaries in the field or closet. "I would not goe about," tentments, B. I. c. I. in the words of Gervase Markham, "to elect and prescribe what recreation the husbandman should use, binding all men to one pleasure—God forbid! my purpose is merely contrary: for I know in men's recreations, that nature taketh to herselfe an especiall prerogative, and what to one is most pleasant, to another is most offensive; some seeking to satisfie the mind, some the body, and some both in a joynt motion." We of the coursing fraternity prefer the "canis Gallicus," and "arvum vacuum" of Ovid, as instrumental to our choicest diversion; Nemesian. camposque patentes Scrutamur, totisque citi discurrimus arvis ; Et ——————— cupimus facili cane sumere prædas : Nos timidos lepores but we do not forbid others imbelles figere damas, Audacesve lupos, vulpem aut captare dolosam. For the refined diversion of coursing may be as disagreeable to The hounds shall make the welkin answer them, Taming of the Ellis's Histor. ries, Vol. 111. p. Letters, 2nd Se 199. A Kinge's Xtian God, B. III. as it is delightful to the general amateur, on account of its ture of a gentylman's personage," and "not utterly reproved of 64. Marmion, Introd. to Canto II. nobility and gentleman, as any of the other kinds of Venerie before declared: especially the course of the hare, which is a sport continually in sight, and made without any great travaile : so that recreation is therein to be found without unmeasurable toyle and payne: whereas in hunting with hounds, although the pastime be great, yet many times the toyle and paine is also exceeding great: and then it may well be called, eyther a painfull pastime, or a pleasant payne.' Coursing, more than the other laborious diversions of rural life, while it ministers to our moderate sensual enjoyment, admits also during the intervals of the actual pursuit of hound and hare, much rational reflection, opportunities of conversation with our brethren of the leash, and mental improvement. It tends, as Markham quaintly expresses himself, "to satisfie the mind and body in a joynt motion;" for in the beautiful poetry of a living patron of the Celtic dog, there is no interval of idleness with the well-read courser ; Nor dull between each merry chase, Passes the intermitted space : For we have fair resource in store, In Classic and in Gothic lore. Oppian. Hali eut. 1. vs. 28. Vlitii Venatio Coursing has ever been held an honourable and gentlemanly amusement in Great Britain, from its earliest annals to the present time. Nor can I discover any authority for the truth of Vlitius's opinion, as given in his note on the Veltraha of Gratius. "Ne ideò Vertragis suis sagaces posthabeat ille Xenophon: nam hodiè in Angliê sagaces nobilissimi quique exercent; Vertrago autem leporem conficere, indignum benè nato parum abest quin habeatur." Such never was the opinion entertained of "greyhound hunting," in King James's phrase :-indeed the farther we go back into the history of the leash, the higher it ranked in the scale of British field-sports. See the "Constitutiones Canuti Regis de forestâ"—and Blount's Ancient Tenures passim, for instances of the high repute in which the courser's hound has ever been held in Great Britain. But there are those who anathematize hunting and coursing, and other rural recreation, either as sinful, or indicative of barbarism and mental degradation, in the ratio of the pursuit. Vanit. &c. c. of Abuses. Like Cornelius Agrippa, they view venation in genere as the De Incert. et worst occupation of the worst of mankind; and say with LXXVII. Philip Stubbes, that "Esau was a great hunter, but a re- The Anatomie probat; Ismael, a great hunter, but a miscreant; Nemrode, a great hunter, but yet a reprobat, and a vessell of wrath;" and bid us, in the poetic badinage of the poet of Cyrene, leave off coursing: ἔα πρόκας ἠδὲ λαγωοὺς οὔρεα βόσκεσθαι· τί δέ κεν πρόκες ἠδὲ λαγωοὶ swearing, with the melancholy Jaques, that we Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what's worse, To fright the animals, and to kill them up, But if " some habites and customes of delight" are allowable and indispensable to the "contentment" of the human 1. The reader will be amused with Simon Latham's epilogue to the third edition of his " Faulconry," wherein he combats (for he wrote in ticklish times, 1658) with his usual quaintness of style and illustration, the notion of the sinfulness of rural sports: inferring that they may " be lawfully and conscientiously used with moderation by a magistrate or minister, or lawyer or student, or any other seriously employed, which in any function heat their brains, waste their bodies, weaken their strength, weary their spirits; that as a means (and blessing from God) by it their decayed strength may be restored, their vital and animal spirits quickened, refreshed, and revived, their health preserved, and they better enabled (as a bow unbended for shooting) to the discharging of their weighty charges imposed upon them." C Callimachus, H. in Dian. vs. 154. As You Like It. act II. |