Part 14

The praises of the little beagle have been celebrated in Greek and Latin, verse and prose. Amongst the modern poets, he is found in the Album Dianæ Leporicidæ of Jac. Savary, under the title of “ululatorum ordo minorum”—“gens parvis devota feris;” and placed in the kennels of Britain—still sufficiently marked by her insular, geographical position, and the staunchness of her canine breed, but, unfortunately for the loyalty of Savary’s own countrymen, no longer _exclusively_ characterized by the traitorous, regicide spirit of her inhabitants:

Insula quos gignit septem vicina trioni, Terra canum laudata fide, damnata virorum Perfidiâ, Regisque sui execranda cruore, &c.

He is also mentioned by Angelinus Gazæus—see the Lagographia Curiosa of Paullini. Of the Greek portrait of Arrian we shall presently speak, under the Segusian dog.

[Sidenote: Countrey Contentments, B. +i.+ c. +iv.+ 14.]

It is to Gervase Markham, our “English master of economical philosophy,” as Wase calls him, that we are indebted for the fullest description of “the little beagle, which may be carried in a man’s glove;”—“bred,” says Gervase, “for delight only, being of curious scents, and passing cunning in their hunting, for the most part tiring, but seldome killing the prey, except at some strange advantage.” “Their musicke is very smalle, like reeds, and their pace like their body, onely for exercise, and not for slaughter.”

[Sidenote: Animadvers. in Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 373.]

The Segusian dog mentioned by Arrian, in the third chapter of his Treatise on Coursing, as a sorry brute, quick-scented, with a pitiful and dolorous whine, instead of bark—rough and unsightly, and the more high-bred the more ugly—I believe to be identical with the last variety. The Bithynian has devoted an entire chapter of his entertaining and original manual to a description of the Ἑγουσίαι κύνες: whose name, he tells us, is derived from a Celtic people,[406] amongst whom they were first bred, and held in repute for their nasal sagacity. For a full description of these smaller hounds of Gaul, the reader is referred to the cited chapter; and attached to my translation of the same, he will find a few illustrative notes. The remarks of Belin de Ballu, in his Animadversiones in Oppianum, show strange misapprehension of the ancient distinctions in the Celtic kennels. The _chiens courans_ of modern France are not the οὐέρτραγοι κύνες of the younger Xenophon; nor are the latter’s Ἑγουσίαι the “genus canum, quorum pili instar velleris ovium crispantur,” as incorrectly stated by this most learned editor of the Greek poet of the chase. The Segusians are rather the _bigles_ of the present day—perhaps the _bassets_, a small variety of terrier-beagle, used in rabbit-hunting.[407]

CANES VENATICI. +Class III.+

CANES CELERES.

[Sidenote: Claudian. de laud. Stilicon. L. +iii.+]

_Hæ pedibus celeres._

This class,[408] by far the least numerous of the three, contains only the Vertragus or Vertraha,[409] and possibly the Sicamber;—of the latter of whom I have nothing to communicate—being neither mentioned by Xenophon, Pollux, Oppian, nor Nemesian. If he be, as has been supposed, a Belgic hound, he cannot be the boar-hound of Silius Italicus, without losing his claim to admission on our present file. No Canis Venaticus can be enrolled here, who runs otherwise than on _sight_ of his game;—it is his characteristic property—[410]

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneget. vs. 205.]

premit inventas, non inventura latentes Illa feras.

and therefore the Belgian—Canis _occultos_ agitat cum Belgicus apros—must be banished from hence to the sagacious class: amongst the inductores of which division, I have already placed him as a lime-hound.

The best description of the type of the present class will be found in the copious Manual of Arrian, c. +iv.+ +v.+ and +vi.+—introduced by the memorable summary at the conclusion of c. +iii.+—τὴν δὲ ἰδέαν, καλόν τι χρῆμά εἰσι, κατά τε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αἱ γενναιόταται αὐτῶν καὶ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ἅπαν καὶ τὴν τρίχα καὶ τὴν χρόαν· οὕτω ταῖς τε ποικίλαις ἐπανθεῖ τὸ ποικίλον, καὶ ὅσαις ἁπλῆ ἡ χρόα ἐστὶν ἀποστίλβει καὶ αὕτη, καί ἐστιν ἥδιστον θέαμα ἀνδρὶ θηρευτικῷ. And the following of Nemesian, who may be designated the poet of the _pedibus celeres_, as Gratius of the _bellicosi_, is correct as far as it goes;

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 106.]

Elige tunc cursu facilem, facilemque recursu, Non humili de gente canem. Sit cruribus altis, Sit rigidis, multamque gerat sub pectore lato Costarum sub fine decenter prona carinam, Quæ sensim rursùs siccâ se colligat alvo, Renibus ampla satis vadis, diductaque coxas, Cuique nimis molles fluitent in cursibus aures.

Nor must I omit the beautiful and minutely faithful portrait of the Greek poet of Anazarbus, though aware that it has been appropriated to a variety of the _nare sagaces_, and that Rittershusius does not allude to any supposed resemblance to the Celtic dog in his commentary on Oppian. Bearing in mind, however, that this erudite scholar had only the writings of Xenophon and Pollux, and the scanty lines of the Faliscian and African poets, to aid his attempt to give name and place to a doubtful animal;—had no authorities to consult, particularly dedicated to the _pedibus celeres_ in opposition to the _nare sagaces_, to whose cause, and that of the _bellicosi_, the Greek Cynegetica were exclusively, and the Latin principally confined, (for the treatise of Arrian was at that period undiscovered in the Vatican,)—and therefore could not assimilate the Oppianic hound to the Celtic type;—I am not at all surprised that he has left this resemblance unnoticed. Subsequent commentators following in his footsteps, the Celtic dog has been as entirely disregarded on Oppian’s page, as if he had been never admitted on his muster-roll. The courser, I am confident, will recognize many of the features, as well as the wonted quarry, of his favourite hound, in the following extract;—which, if it cannot be exclusively appropriated to the Vertragus of Celtica, will assuredly admit only the swiftest of the sagacious class to a participation of its type:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneget. +i.+ vs. 401.]

μηκεδανὸν κρατερὸν δέμας, ἄρκιον ἠδὲ κάρηνον, κοῦφον ἐΰγληνον, κυαναὶ στίλβοιεν ὀπωπαί· κάρχαρον, ἐκτάδιον τελέθοι στόμα, βαιὰ δ’ ὕπερθεν οὔατα λεπταλέοισι περιστέλλοινθ’ ὑμένεσσι· δειρὴ μηκεδανὴ, καὶ στήθεα νέρθε κραταιὰ, εὐρέα· τὼ πρόσθεν δέ τ’ ὀλιζοτέρω πόδε ἔστων, ὀρθοτενεῖς κώλων ταναοὶ δολιχήρεες ἱστοὶ, εὐρέες ὠμοπλάται, πλευρῶν ἐπικάρσια ταρσὰ, ὀσφύες εὔσαρκοι, μὴ πίονες· αὐτὰρ ὄπισθε στριφνή τ’ ἐκτάδιός τε πέλοι δολιχόσκιος οὐρή. τοῖοι μὲν ταναοῖσιν ἐφοπλίζοιντο δρόμοισι δόρκοις, ἠδ’ ἐλάφοισιν, ἀελλόποδί τε λαγωῷ.

The advocate of the Celtic hound may allege, in support of his interpretation, that such ancient dogs as ran on scent were more or less long-eared,[411]—being so represented on the monuments of antiquity;—and may ask how the small ears of Oppian’s dog, if interpreted of the sagacious class, are to be reconciled with the representations of Tempesta, Montfaucon, and others, and the down-hanging ears of modern Canes Venatici of the keen-nosed class? Again—as the Cilician was a perfect adept at versifying with the materials furnished by his predecessors, and certainly made the best use of their labours, is it not improbable that he should have altogether omitted the Celtic greyhound, so faithfully portrayed by the younger Xenophon, (with whose description that of the poet in no essential point differs,) and have mentioned _two_ varieties of sagaces and _one_ of bellicosi, to the entire neglect of the Vertragus type?

The deficiencies, if any, of his classical predecessors have been judiciously and tastefully supplied by the elaborate pen of Bargæus:

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneget. L. +v.+]

Sin autem tete oblectant, qui præmia cursu Certa petunt, celerique fugâ lata æquora verrunt: Elige quos vultus tristes, demissaque cervix Ornat, et argutum supra stant lumina rostrum Nigra quidem, sed quæ multo splendore coruscant. Ollis os ingens ad tempora penè dehiscit, Lataque frons tenues consurgere suspicit aures. Ac veluti coluber frigus perpessus in altis Terrarum latebris hyemes effugit aquosas, Moxque adeò sub vere novo jam sole calente Exiit, et multo se suscitat improbus æstu, Ac si fortè aliquem propiùs persensit euntem, Explicat immensos orbes, atque arduus effert Cervicem, et rigido summum capite aëra findit. Vergat humi propior stomachus, latèque patescat Pectus: et haud longis insistant cruribus armi Sublimes: tum prona suis extantia costis Et latera, et lumbis quà jungitur alvus obesis, Pressa animis calidum ostendant, et viribus acrem. Præcipuè clunes inter si stricta supremos Ilia demittant caudam, quæ currat ad imum Tenuis, ubi extremâ vix tandem in parte residat: Et parvum sese sinuans deflectat in orbem. At verò tereti pronat vestigia plantâ, Quæ spatiis digitos nusquam discludat apertis, Et multùm solidos paulatim curvet in ungues. Lælapis haud aliam formam mirata vetustas Esse refert, &c.

Let the κύων Κελτικὸς of Arrian be the classic prototype of the modern greyhound—the Canis Gallicus of Ovid[412]—whose style of coursing is sketched to the life in the well-known, and often-cited simile;

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +i.+ vs. 533.]

Ut canis in vacuo leporem cum Gallicus arvo Vidit; et hic prædam pedibus petit, ille salutem: Alter inhæsuro similis, jam jamque tenere Sperat, et extento stringit vestigia rostro; Alter in ambiguo est, an sit deprensus, et ipsis Morsibus eripitur; tangentiaque ora relinquit.

[Sidenote: Dryden’s Ovid’s Metam. B. +i.+]

As when th’ impatient greyhound, slipp’d from far, Bounds o’er the glebe to course the fearful hare, She in her speed does all her safety lay, And be with double speed pursues the prey; O’erruns her at the sitting turn, and licks His chaps in vain, and blows upon the flix: She ’scapes, and for the neighbouring covert strives, And gaining shelter, doubts if yet she lives.

[Sidenote: Pausanias in Bœoticis. c. +xix.+]

And again, in the fable of Lælaps, the far-famed “grewnd” of Bœotia;

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +vii.+ vs. 781.]

Tollor eo capioque novi spectacula cursûs: Quà modò deprendi, modò se subducere ab ipso Vulnere visa fera est: nec limite callida recto, In spatiumque fugit; sed decipit ora sequentis, Et redit in gyrum, ne sit suus impetus hosti. Imminet hic, sequiturque parem: similisque tenenti Non tenet, et vacuos exercet in aëra morsus.

[Sidenote: Golding’s Ovid’s Metam. Seventh booke.]

I gat me to the knap Of this same hill, and there beheld of this strange course the hap, In which the beaste seemes one while caught, and ere a man would thinke, Doth quickely give the grewnd the slip, and from his biting shrinke, And like a wilie foxe he runs not forth directly out, Nor makes a winlas over all the champion fields about, But doubling and indenting still avoydes his enmies lips, And turning short, as swift about as spinning wheele he wips, To disappoint the snatch. The grewnd pursuing at a inch Doth cote him, never loosing ground; but likely still to pinch, Is at the sudden shifted off: continually he snatches In vaine: for nothing in his mouth save onely aire he catches.

Nor will the reader of modern Cynegetica forget the vivid sketch of Pterelas’s course by the Latin poet of Venusium:

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Ocyùs insequitur Pterelas, cursuque citato Intervalla facit lati decrescere campi. Jam propior propiorque micat, jam captat hianti Summa pedum rostro, jam terga fugacia stringit. Ille pavet, flexoque obliquat tramite cursus, Et dubiâ trepidans formidine, jamque teneri Se putat, et rursùm tangentis ab ore recedit, Fataque momento sibi prorogat, æmula donec Rostra levis mergat miserando in corpore victor, Fulmineus victor, gemino cui tramite lumbos Spina subit graciles, &c.

The many portraits of these classical and semi-classical Cynegetica will be fitly closed with the following elegiac verses on a Canis Venatrix, whose characteristic attributes, pathetically written on a monumental stone by an unknown hand, but at once applied by us to the Celtic type, exemplify in the entombed a few of the anecdotes of Arrian’s Hormé:

_Epitaphium Canis Venatricis._

[Sidenote: Poetæ Latini Minores. Wernsdorf. Tom. +i.+ p. 121.]

Gallia me genuit, nomen mihi divitis undæ Concha dedit, formæ nominis aptus honos. Docta per incertas audax discurrere silvas, Collibus hirsutas atque agitare feras. Non gravibus vinclis unquam consueta teneri, Verbera nec niveo corpore sæva pati. Molli namque sinu domini dominæque jacebam, Et noram in strato lassa cubare toro. Et plus, quam licuit muto, canis ore loquebar, Nulli latratus pertimuere meos. Et jam fata subî, partu jactata sinistro, Quam nunc sub parvo marmore terra teget.

The early history of the greyhound is confounded with the Epirote, as if they had a common lineage—a mistake which has arisen from their being considered equally of Grecian origin—whereas the greyhound has no connexion with ancient Greece. Fable, however, assigns them a common descent from the Lælaps of Bœotia,[413]—from whom also sprung other dogs of classic fame. The history of this celebrated hound, and the lineage and geographical distribution of his descendants, are particularized in the Cynegeticon of Bargæus:

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneget. L. +v.+]

Illum autem specie, præstantem animisque superbum Cynthia dilectæ dederat pro munere Nymphæ: Ipsaque mox juveni Æolidæ: genialia postquam Fulcra tori, et dulceis iterùm conjunxit amores, Jucundumque sinu fovit complexa maritum. Cujus ope innumeras sylvis prædatus, et agris Ille feras, ne tanta olim sublata periret Aut morte, aut sterili mox accedente senectâ, Et caderet simul extincto cum Lælape virtus: Subjecitque canem, sobolemque è matre recepit Optatam, Cretæque ultro concessit habendam. Inde autem vobis auctâ jam prole nepotes Allatos Graiæ primùm accepistis Amyclæ, Tempore quo gemini fidissima pectora fratres Nunc lepores canibus, cursu nunc dorcadas acreis, Et nunc Tænario cervas in littore agebant; Æripedes cervas, quibus haud velocior unquam Evolat Æoliis aquilo dimissus ab antris. Nec fuit ipsa diu tam magni muneris expers Epirus. Miscere genus monstravit: at ollis Ingentes animi, solersque industria crevit.

[Sidenote: De Venatione. c. +iii.+]

[Sidenote: J. Vlitii Venat. Novant.]

[Sidenote: Encyc. Méthod. Les chasses. p. 290.]

Arrian, from whose Manual of Coursing I purposely abstain to quote at length, because the reader can refer to my translation with little trouble, calls the greyhound by the barbarous title of οὐέρτραγος κύων,[414] expressly stating that he is so denominated in the Celtic tongue, not from any particular people, like the Cretan, Carian, and Spartan hounds, but from his quality of speed, as some of the Cretans are distinguished by certain peculiarities of character. Here, however, our author’s ignorance of the Celtic language has led him into an error. Being unable, probably, to explain a term which had reached him in a corrupt form, he falsely derived it from the dog’s most characteristic property, ἀπὸ τῆς ὠκύτητος: whereas in truth it is compounded of _Velt_, a plain or open country,[415] the “arvum vacuum” of Ovid, and _racha_, a hound of chase;[416] and consequently signifies a champaign-dog, _un lévrier de plaine_, a hound adapted for coursing over an open country.

The Vertagus, or Tumbler, (“quòd se, dum prædatur, vertat,” &c.) I scarce need observe, has no affinity whatever with the οὐέρτραγος κύων of Arrian. By Dr. Caius, in his Libellus de Canibus Britannicis, he is fully described; nor are his tricks forgotten by the Latin poet of Caen;

[Sidenote: Jac. Savary Alb. Dianæ Leporicidæ. p. 5.]

Seque volutantes, ludisque cuniculum amicis Fallentes, prædæ colludentesque futuræ, Informat catulos Angli solertia nanos.

The files of classical antiquity afford no counterpart to the British Tumbler, unless it be in the Vertagus of Martial—a dog already allotted to the Celtic family, as, in some copies of the epigrammatist, written Vertragus.

[Sidenote: Gloss. Arch. p. 113.]

[Sidenote: De bello Gallico. L. +iv.+ 12.]

[Sidenote: Symmachi Epist. L. +ii.+ Ep. 77.]

It remains for me to mention the distinctions which have been made by naturalists in the greyhound type of our own islands,[417] and to endeavour to trace its connexion with Gallia Celtica. The modern sub-varieties of our systematic writers on natural history are named from the countries in which the respective sorts most abound, English, Scotch, and Irish greyhounds. Spelman, whose authority is entitled to weight, in his remarks “De Canibus Veterum,” speaking of the “Leporarius levipes, qui ex visu prædam appetit arripitque, a greyhound, Ovidio Canis Gallicus,” subjoins, “sed propriè magìs _Britannicus_;” as if he deemed him of British origin,[419] a native of our isle, like the inhabitants of the interior mentioned by Cæsar, “quos natos in insulâ ipsâ, memoriâ proditum dicunt;”—but he cites no testimony in support of his opinion. I do not believe either of the three sub-varieties of the dog in question indigenous of Great Britain; but rather that all our insular sorts originally sprang from the Celtic Vertragus:—the probability of which is supported by the history of the distribution of the Celts themselves, and the name under which the dogs were sent by Flavian to his brother Symmachus at Rome. The Scots, a Celtic tribe, previously inhabiting some part of Western Europe, emigrated into Ireland during the third century, and gave to that, isle, _pro tempore_, the name of Scotland. Thence they spread over the Western islands, and took possession of the neighbouring district of Argyle, the land of the _Gael_ or _Gaul_—giving eventually their name to the Northern part of Britain generally. May we not suppose the Irish and Scotch greyhounds to have been primevally derived from the same Celtic stock, accompanying these emigrants of Celtic Europe to Ireland, and thence to Scotland; in one or other of which territories they received the name of Canes Scotici, from the Scotish emigrants of Celtica, who accompanied them?[420] and may not the English greyhound, improved in speed by careful management and judicious breeding, as his master increased in civilization and became more reclaimed, be derived, through such intermediate links, from the same parent source? The coarser varieties of the North, and of the sister Isle, are rarely seen in South Britain; and though at first closely connected with the Celt, and amongst his earliest descendants, are now considered farther removed from the genuine type of Celtica, the οὐέρτραγος κύων of the Greek manual, in consequence of commixture with the _canes bellicosi_ and _sagaces_.

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 124.]

The strongest evidence we possess of the greyhound’s existence in Britain, in the reigns of Carus, his sons, and Diocletian, is afforded by the Cynegeticon of the African poet. For although I deny that this hound can be entitled to the local epithet _Britannicus_, bestowed on him by Spelman, to the superseding his usual titles, I readily grant, at the same time, that the exported _veloces_ of Britain, of the Cynegeticon alluded to, were greyhounds. Nemesian must be considered almost entirely the poet of the _pedibus celeres_;—at least, in that portion of his hunting-poem which has survived the ravages of time. But the usual terms by which the greyhound is designated in Ovid, Gratius, Martial, and Arrian, are no where found in the poet of Carthage; in place of which invariably occur the terms _catuli veloces_. That by these terms the latter author intends hounds of the Celtic type, I have, on a careful re-perusal of his work, not the least doubt; though, when writing the note to the Preface, p. 11, I was inclined to view the _veloces_, particularly specified by Nemesian as of British export, as nimble harriers, rather than genuine greyhounds; and did not in consequence adduce the passage alluded to, when there endeavouring to fix the period of the latter’s introduction into Britain. Indeed, J. Vlitius, himself sceptical at first as to the nature of these swift-footed hounds, (see his remarks on Nemesian vs. 124.,) comes round to my conclusion in the progress of his annotations, (see his notes on vs. 233.). Nearly the whole of Nemesian’s instructions have reference to _canes cursores_, beginning with their exportation from our own island—where, doubtless, they had been previously imported from Gaul—

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 124.]

divisa Britannia mittit _Veloces_, nostrique orbis venatibus aptos;

and pursuing the subject in the departments of breeding, feeding, and entering of puppies to their game,[421] (his remarks on these subjects being _essentially_ applicable to hounds of the Celtic type,[422]) he adds,

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 200.]

Sic tibi _veloces catulos_ reparare memento Semper, et in parvos iterùm protendere curas;

and then speaking of Tuscan dogs of scent, sagacious _Inductores_, he contrasts their form with that of the hounds in question,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 230.]

Quin et Tuscorum non est extrema voluptas Sæpè canum: sit forma illis licèt obsita villo, Dissimilesque habeant _catulis velocibus_ artus....

at which point he suddenly arrests his pen, and changes his subject, deferring till a subsequent part of his poem, unfortunately lost, the qualities of this keen-nosed tribe of hounds,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 235.]

Horum animos, moresque simul, naresque sagaces Mox referam: nunc omnis adhuc narranda supellex Venandi, cultusque mihi dicendus equorum.

The latter subjects completed, he again takes up the _catuli veloces_, and slips them on the sporting field, at the period of the year usual with modern coursers for the commencement of their diversion, viz. the beginning of winter;

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 321.]

hiemis sub tempus aquosæ Incipe _veloces catulos_ immittere pratis, Incipe cornipedes latos agitare per agros.

[Sidenote: Symmachi Epist. L. +ii.+ Ep. 77.]

From the view, then, here taken of the identity of these _veloces catuli_ of Nemesian with the _Vertragi_ of Arrian, we may conclude that greyhounds had been exported from the British Isles to some more southern state, Rome or Carthage, when the native poet of the latter place sung their praises in his Cynegeticon. And from the same source, a supply of these rare and valuable dogs was kept up at Rome, in the reign of Theodosius, by the instrumentality of Flavian. Inmates, therefore, of Celto-Britannic kennels, they must have been, on the twofold evidence of Nemesian and Symmachus, at this early period of our dark and semi-fabulous annals. Whether the dogs transported from these isles, as rarities, by Flavian, “solennium rerum largus, et novarum repertor,” to grace with their “incredible force and boldnesse,” the Quæstorate of his brother Symmachus at Rome, “quos prælusionis die ita Roma mirata est ut ferreis caveis putaret advectos,” are to be considered Irish or Scotch, according to modern distinctions, is quite unimportant; for probably at the period of the “oblatio” both were included under the same name. Indeed, it is well known, the inhabitant of Ireland bore the name of Scotus in the age of Claudian, who wrote, as well as Symmachus, in the reigns of Theodosius and Honorius,

[Sidenote: Claudian. de Laud. Stilic. L. +ii.+]