Part 28

The people of Hyrcania fostered their savage race of dogs for the express purpose, amongst others, of devouring the bodies of the dead—a practice noticed by Theodoret as being discontinued by them and the Caspians after their conversion to Christianity.

[350]

[Sidenote: Numismata Siciliæ et Magnæ Græciæ T. +xxvi.+ T. +xxxv.+]

The hare on the reverse of Locrian numismata cannot be considered as proof of the pursuit of such quarry being the popular diversion of the country, nor as militating against the Locrian hound’s introduction here;—for the same impression occurs on other coins—on those of the Falisci, a colony of Argos, and others—having reference to historical or mythological subjects, unconnected with the field sports of the country.

[351]

[Sidenote: De Nat. Anim. L. +vii.+ c. +xxxvii.+]

[Sidenote: Plin. L. +viii.+ c. 40.]

Οἱ Μαιάνδρῳ παροικοῦντες Μάγνητες. The same are mentioned by Ælian, in his work de Naturâ Animalium, in conjunction with the Hyrcanians, as being attended to battle by canine auxiliaries—καὶ ἦν καὶ τοῦτο συμμαχικὸν ἀγαθὸν αὐτοῖς καὶ ἐπικουρικόν. And Pliny, speaking of the Colophonii and Castabalenses, says they had “cohortes canum—fidissima auxilia, nec stipendiorum indigna.”

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

His Colophoniacæ (si vera est fama) phalanges Auxiliis, hostem valido fregêre duello: Infaustoque olim cecidissent Caspia marte Agmina, ni tali defensa cohorte fuissent.

[352]

[Sidenote: De Naturâ Animalium L. +vii.+ c. +xxxviii.+]

Ælian tells us of a war-dog, perhaps an Epirote, συστρατιώτην κύνα—who so distinguished himself with his Athenian lord at the battle of Marathon, as to be honoured with an effigy on the same tablet with his master.

[353] For a fine representation of the Canis Molossus Venaticus, see De la Chausse, Museum Romanum, Tab. +lxiv.+ and Montfaucon Antiquité expliquée, _Chasse au Sanglier_, Tom. +iii.+ pl. 179. Several hunters are returning from the chase with the Magister Venationis, bearing in his hand a shield;—a cart drawn by oxen conveys a dead boar, on which lies a huge dog apparently killed in the fray, and by the side walks a second hound of the type alluded to. See also the Venationes Ferarum of Stradanus and Galle, plate +viii.+ and the Genii hunting, from Maffei, at the beginning of this Appendix, where a Molossian-like hound is on the point of seizing a wild boar.

[354] Lucan has “ora levis clamosa Molossi”—and Claudian “Molossi latrantes”—and into the error of his poetical predecessors Cardinal Adrian has fallen, in his Venatio ad Ascanium Cardinalem;—as if the Molossi were _remarkably latrant_, whereas _closeness_ of mouth was their more distinctive quality: unless indeed this Cardinal of St. Chrysogonus refer to two different sorts of Molossi, the one latrant, the other mute and sagacious:

[Sidenote: Poetæ Tres, p. 40. Ed. Ald. 1534.]

Deducunt alii canum phalanges. Latrantes abeunt simul molossi Mox indaginis unicæ sagaces:

for he subsequently slips some boar-hounds, “per invia lustra _mussitantes_,” and others again are distributed about the covert by the harbourers or huntsmen; the latter being denominated “feros molossos.”

[355] Refer to Surflet’s translation of _Maison Rustique_, good reader, if you have it, and smile at the portraiture of the watch-dog, the joint execution of _my_ medical brethren, “Charles Stevens and John Liebault, Doctors of Physicke.” C. 27. p. 168.

[356]

[Sidenote: Xenophon Memorab. L. +ii.+ c. +vii.+]

The answer of the Canis Pastoralis (ὅτε φωνήεντα ἦν τὰ ζῶα) to the dissatisfied sheep is beautifully illustrative of his services in the economy of pastoral life:—ἐγὼ γάρ εἰμι ὁ καὶ ὑμᾶς αὐτὰς σώζων, ὥστε μήτε ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων κλέπτεσθαι, μήτε ὑπὸ λύκων ἁρπάζεσθαι· ἐπεὶ ὑμεῖς γε, εἰ μὴ ἐγὼ προφυλάττοιμι ὑμᾶς, οὐδ’ ἂν νέμεσθαι δύναισθε, φοβούμεναι μὴ ἀπόλησθε—thereby making good his claim to a share of his master’s food.

[357] Statues and pictures of κύνες φρουροδόμοι were sometimes exhibited on the entrance doors, or walls of vestibules—of which kind were the dogs wrought of gold and silver by Vulcan for Alcinous, Δῶμα φυλασσέμεναι μεγαλήτορος Ἀλκινόοιο—and the Canis Catenarius of Petronius Arbiter—“ad sinistram intrantibus non longè ab ostiarii cellâ, canis ingens catenâ vinctus in pariete erat pictus, superque quadratâ literâ scriptum, _CAVE CAVE CANEM_.”—Even Mercury himself was sometimes there exhibited—upon the principle, I suppose, of _setting a thief to catch a thief_.

[358] Aristotle alludes to Porter dogs in his Nicomachean Ethics, L. +vii.+ c. +vi.+ introducing them in a very pertinent illustration of the difference between incontinency of anger, and incontinency as to pleasure: anger seems to listen to reason, though it does not hear it distinctly, &c.—καθάπερ οἱ κύνες, πρὶν σκέψασθαι εἰ φίλος, ἂν μόνον ψοφήσῃ, ὑλακτοῦσιν· οὕτως ὁ θυμὸς, διὰ θερμότητα κ. τ. λ.

[359]

[Sidenote: Valerii Maximi L. +ix.+ c. 13.]

On which the indignant historian observes with warmth, “quò tam latè patens imperium? quò tantus liberorum numerus? quò denique tam arctâ benevolentiâ constricta Romana amicitia, si ad hæc tuenda nihil canino latratu ac morsu valentius duxit?”

[360]

[Sidenote: Minshæi Emendat. p. 451.]

The duke considers alauntz primarily derived from Spain, not natives of Britain; “As men clepyn greihoundes of England of Scotland and of Bretayn right so the alauntez and the houndes for the hawke cometh out of Spayn.” Minsheu deduces Alani “à regione quadam Epyri, quæ Albania dicitur, undè primùm advecti creduntur hi canes.” But they probably were bull-dogs in the common acceptation of the term.

The reader will remember the Alauntes of Chaucer, on which Dryden has bestowed _rejuvenescence_ under the type of greyhounds, attendants of “the surly king of Thrace:”

[Sidenote: Palamon and Arcite. B. 3.]

Ten brace, and more, of greyhounds, snowy fair, And tall as stags, ran loose, and cours’d around his chair; A match for pards in flight, in grappling for the bear.

[361]

[Sidenote: Cuvier Regn. Animal.]

[Sidenote: Description of Britaine. B. +iii.+ c. 13.]

It has been observed by an eminent living naturalist, that the cerebral capacity of the bull-dog is sensibly smaller than of any other race: and it is doubtless to the decrease of the encephalon that we must attribute his inferiority to all others, in every thing relating to intelligence. He is scarcely capable of any education, and is fitted for nothing but ferocious combat. In the ancient translation of Caius’s libellus by Holinshed, this savage brute is sketched to the life, as “an huge dogge stubborne, ougly, eagre, burthenous of body (and therefore but of little swiftnesse,) terrible and feareful to behold, and more fearse and fell then any Archadien curre.” Nor is our estimate of his might in conflict weakened by Raphael’s statement that “alone and wythout anye help at al, he pulled downe first an huge beare, then a parde, and last of al a lyon, each after other, before the Frenche King in one day.”

[362]

[Sidenote: Pegge in Archæolog. vs. +x.+ p. 156.]

Amongst the coins of Cunobelin is a representation of a dog, probably of this native variety, tall enough, according to Pegge, and of sufficient strength “to carry a lady.” And in Thoresby’s Museum is a British coin “exhibiting a dog under a man on horseback.” (p. 338.)

[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xviii.+ fol. 69.]

The mastiff is at present principally used in this country as a watch-dog; and such appears to have been his vocation of old. “His office is for to kepe his maistre’s beestis,” says Duke Edmund, “and his maistre’s hous. and it is a good nature of houndis for thei kepen and defenden at her power al her maister goodes. thei byn of cherlich nater and of foule shap &c.”—“ther byn many good for men that hunten for profit of housold as for to gete fflesh. Also of maystifs and of alauntis ther byn many good for the wilde boor;”—but “it is of no greet maistrie ne of grete redynes the huntyng that thei do for here nature ys not tendre nosed in harde nor in sandy nor in dusty grounde.” For the etymology of the term _mastiff_, the reader is referred to Dr. Caius, Minsheu, Skinner, and Holinshed—and for that of _ban-dog_, a variety of the same, to Skinner in voce. The _Mandatarius_, _Sarcinarius_, _Defensor_, &c. of Caius, the _custos curtis_, _pastoralis_, _porcaritius_, _ursaritius_, _catenatus_, &c. of Spelman and others, are all probably Canes Mastivi.

[363] The existence of these noxious beasts of prey, in the sylvan fastnesses of our islands, is too well authenticated by ancient records to be doubted.

[Sidenote: Book of St. Alban’s.]

Foure manere bestis of Venere there are: The fyrste of theym is the harte: the seconde is the hare. The boore is one of tho: the wulfe and not one mo.

[Sidenote: The Governour. B. +i.+ c. +xviii.+]

On referring to Blount’s ancient tenures, we find many estates held _per serjantiam_, whereby the possessor was compelled to furnish these dogs for the destruction of wolves. See A. T. p. 15. p. 52. p. 60. p. 94. “But Almighty God be thanked,” in the ejaculatory language of Sir Thomas Elyot, “in this realme be no such cruel beastes at present to be pursued!”

See Wase’s Illustrations, c. +vi.+ “of the Styles of Hunting different from the English, both Antique and Forreigne.”

[Sidenote: Memoirs of the Celts or Gauls. Note, p. 161.]

Mr. Ritson, in a posthumous work on the Celts, has left it on record that “the Britons, in the last decade of the eighteenth century, made use of Spanish dogs in a war with the Maroon negroes; having no longer any of their own fit for the purpose.”

[364]

[Sidenote: Hist. Natur. L. +viii.+ c. +xl.+]

In Pliny’s animated description of the Indian or Albanian dog’s assault, we observe the crafty wiles or _fraudes_ of the Illyrian and Acarnanian breeds. “Horrentibus quippe per totum corpus villis, ingenti primùm latratu intonuit: mox inruit assultans, contraque belluam exurgens hinc et illinc artifici dimicatione quà maximè opus esset, infestans atque evitans, donec assiduâ rotatum vertigine afflixit.” Indeed all the _bellicosi_ thus attack their prey—but generally in silence. The Indian was latrant, it seems, the Acarnanian mute.

Athamania, called also Illyricum, bordered on Thessaly and Acarnania.

[365]

[Sidenote: Geography of Gratius.]

_Acyrus_, says Wase, is “suspicious of corruption;” which Gronovius proposes to amend by reading _Epirus_, Vlitius substitutes _Taygetus_, and Heinsius _Argivus_.

[366]

[Sidenote: Apollon. Rhod. L. +i.+ vs. 50.]

Pheræ was situate between Demetrias and Pharsalus in Thessaly, near the lake Bœbe—ὑπὸ σκοπιὴν ὄρεος Χαλκωδονίοιο. I am not aware of the dogs of these several places being mentioned by any other author. Pheræ was probably celebrated for its breed of game; for, being one of the many haunts of Dian, it bestowed on the Goddess the local name of Pheræa:

[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Dian. vs. 259.]

Πότνια, μουνυχίη, λιμενοσκόπε, χαίρε, Φεραίη.

[367] This class appears to answer to the second of M. F. Cuvier, having the head and jaws shorter than those proper to our third class of _pedibus celeres_, but not so much truncated as in the _canes bellicosi_. The parietal bones, in such types as are supposed to resemble those of antiquity, do not approach each other above the temporal fossæ, but widen so as to enlarge the cerebral cavity of the forehead.

[368] Perhaps Xenophon’s τὰ δὲ γένη τῶν κυνῶν ἐστὶ δισσὰ may not have so confined an application as here stated. The Καστόριαι and ἀλωπεκίδες may comprehend all the Canes Venatici of the Athenian’s day collectively—at least all such as were used by him in hare-hunting at Scillus.

[369] With some of the descendants of the κυνοσουρίδες, the latrant sagacious Lacouni of the modern Votizza, Mr. Hobhouse reports that he enjoyed the sport of coursing with his Grecian host in the Morea. See Journey through Albania, Letter +xvii.+

[370]

[Sidenote: Xenophon de Venat. c. +x.+]

A limehound—ἡ δὲ κύων ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ ἀφίξεται τόπον ὑλώδη ἰχνεύουσα——...—ἐπειδὰν δ’ ἀφίκηται ἐπὶ τὴν εὐνὴν, ὑλακτεῖ, κ. τ. λ.

[371]

[Sidenote: Illustrations of Shakspeare. Vol. +i.+ p. 66.]

A term borrowed, according to Mr. Douce, from the Spaniards, who call the wild cat _gato-montes_.

[372] Hagnon Astylides—as the Cretans used ἀγνεῖν, according to Hesychius, for ἄγειν, ὁ ἀγνῶν may stand for ὁ κυνηγός. See Wernsdorf, Excursus +iii.+ ad Gratii v. 215. Poetæ Latini Minores, Tom. +i.+ p. 242.

[373]

[Sidenote: J. Caii de Canibus Brit. Libell.]

Caius’s love of the marvellous in natural history surpasses (considering the age in which he lived) that of Ælian and Albertus Magnus. Under the heads of Urcanus and Lacæna, this credulous correspondent of the acute Conrad Gesner notes, seemingly in good earnest, that the former is the offspring of the Canis Catenarius and bear, the latter of the dog and fox, “quos, licèt inimicos, pruriens tamen libido sæpè ita hic conjungit, ut alibi solet.” The truth, however, of the latter maybe doubted, after the impossibility of the former.

[374]

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 259.]

We may suppose the far-famed hound of Sparta, the foxite harrier, “vulpinâ specie,” not very unlike the prick-eared, or at least semi-pendulous-eared lurcher of modern days, employed by a poaching shepherd to guard his flock, and too often to catch at force, κατὰ πόδας, his master’s hares, or drive them into the wily laqueus or snare:

[Sidenote: Theocriti Idyll. +i.+ vs. 110.]

ἐπεὶ καὶ μᾶλα νομεύει, καὶ πτῶκας βάλλει, καὶ θηρία τ’ ἄλλα διώκει.

[Sidenote: Cowper’s Task. B. +v.+]

Shaggy, and lean, and shrewd, with pointed ears, And tail cropp’d short, half lurcher and half cur;

he is too well known by his depredations in the hare-warren to need a fuller delineation.

Janus Vlitius considers the Spartan a long-eared hound, and proposes to read ὦτα μακρὰ instead of μικρὰ in Xenophon’s minute description of the type of excellence in this breed: but Horace’s “aure sublatâ” would rather favour the notion that the ear was small and _pricked up_ in pursuit of game, as we see in lurchers, and such-like poaching tikes:

[Sidenote: Hor. Od. L. +v.+ Ode +vi.+]

Nam qualis aut Molossus, aut fulvus Lacon, Amica vis pastoribus, Agam per altas aure _sublatâ_ nives Quæcunque præcedet fera.

on which Dacier observes, “plus les chiens sont courageux, plus ils dressent les oreilles en courant;” a quality for which a prick-eared sharp-scented lurching cur might be praised—which is characteristic of the Molossus, but odious in the genuine well-bred greyhound, with which the “veloces catuli” and “fulvus Lacon” of the contemporary poets of Rome have been ignorantly identified by monkish annotators.

[375] This quality Aristotle justly attributes to the length of the nostrils of the Spartan hound, affording a more extensive surface for the distribution of the minute branches of the olfactory nerves—ὅσων οἱ μυκτῆρες μακροὶ, οἷον τῶν Λακωνικῶν, ὀσφραντικά.

[376] To Darcius of Venusium we owe the following description of the ardour of the Spartan pack;

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Inde suos etenim Lacedæmon Achaica laudat, Assueti quoniam sylvis, cupidique ferarum Præcipiti fervore ruunt, perque invia lustra, Convallesque cavas, et sentibus horrida duris Arva, et vulnificis dumeta rigentia spinis Dente rotant prædas, indefessique sequuntur Quod semel emissum est. Illos non obvius amnis Vicinos dirimens sinuoso gurgite colles, Sistit, nec rapidos lato tenet obice cursus. Et licet assiduo frangantur anhela boatu Ora, trahantque ægros afflictis viribus artus, Assequier tamen est animus, &c.

[377]

[Sidenote: Solini Polyhistor. c. +xi.+]

Solinus and Pliny, while they admit the religious adoration of Diana by the natives of Crete, deny to the soil many of the common beasts of chase. “Ager Creticus,” says the former naturalist, “sylvestrium caprarum copiosus est, cervo eget. Lupos, vulpes, aliaque quadrupedum noxia nusquam educat.”

[378]

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 231.]

This canine name is not found in any other Cynegeticon. From the construction put on the passage by Wernsdorf, it appears that he would derive the Metagon from a Spartan and Cretan cross: but how, let me ask, could the huntsman breed a _mute_ inductor, whose essential attribute was _closeness_, “ne voce lacesseret hostem,” from the union of two such latrant races?—A litter, so bred in Actæon’s pack, was any thing but mute, “Labros, et Agriodos, et _acutæ vocis_ Hylactor,” as above cited. Wase’s interpretation of the passage is more correct—see his version, vs. 211. where the lines of Gratius are differently rendered than in the chapter on the geography of the poem, p. 38.

[379] Claudian bestows the title Molossian on the entire pack, to designate, it may be, their ferocity:

[Sidenote: In Rufinum L. +ii.+]

Sic mons Aonius rubuit, cum Penthea ferrent Mænades; aut subito mutatum Actæona cornu Traderet insanis Latonia visa Molossis.

[380]

[Sidenote: Dryden. Palamon and Arcite. B. +ii.+]

The stag Actæon in the stream had spied The naked huntress, and, for seeing, died: His hounds, unknowing of his change, pursue The chase, and their mistaken master slew!

[381] The loud _latrancy_ of the tribe escaped not the notice of the bard of Avon, who has cleverly appropriated much of the borrowed shape and κλαγγὴ of a modern pack (Sir Thomas Lucy’s, perhaps, or other Warwickshire squire’s) to our classic breed of the olden time:

[Sidenote: Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act +iv.+]

I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, When in a wood of Crete they bay’d the bear With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear Such gallant chiding; for besides the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seem’d all one mutual cry: I never heard So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

With Angelio’s description of the Cretan hounds, the more striking features of which are drawn from passages already cited, I close their portraiture.

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

Est eadem facies, et eidem proxima formæ Corpora: membrorum sed non æquantia molem Dictæis, animus tamen, et constantia pugnax, Quandoquidem serus litem si fortè diremit Vesper, et obtentis umbrantur rura tenebris; Nusquam abeunt, nusquam vestigia pressa relinquunt, Verùm hærent vigiles, &c.

[382]

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +viii.+ vs. 272.]

The dog, which sits at the foot of the noble statue of Meleager, is, probably, a representation of the animal which assisted the hero of Calydon in his attack of the wild boar—(“infestæ famulus, vindexque Dianæ”)—that had laid waste the domain of his father Œneus. (See F. Perrier, Tab. 51. and 52. ex Ædibus Pichiniis, and Montfaucon Antiq. Expliq. Tom. I.) He is apparently a boar-hound, and perhaps of the type of Etolia or Calydon—the names being indifferently applied to the same dog, from Calydon, (the rocky Calydon of the Homeric catalogue, Iliad +ii.+ 640.) the capital of the state, over which the sons of Œneus once reigned.

[383] Such a sire was most likely to correct the “vanæ linguæ vitium” of the Calydonian breed; and from such parentage may have been deduced the Glympicus of the son of Astylus. No dam could cross more appropriately with a Molossian sire, contributing, on her part, the important qualities of speed, sagacity, and unwearying ardour of pursuit; and receiving, from the male side, courage, strength, and closeness of mouth. The cited lines of Gratius, carefully perused in connexion with those which follow in the text, will, I think, warrant the parentage assigned to the hound in question; and such a view will materially assist the general understanding of a somewhat obscure part of the Cynegeticon.

[384] Without such auxiliaries all the hunter’s toil will be fruitless, says Bargæus:

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. L. +i.+]

Ni tecum canis acer eat, qui naribus auras Ducat odoratas, et nusquam impressa ferarum Insistat cupidè vestigia: nec tamen ullos Latratus, vocesque hilari de pectore mittat, Cum latebræ non longè absunt, fidique recessus.

[385] See the mode of _breaking-in_ the limier, _chien de traict_, in J. Savary’s rare work, Venationis Cervinæ Leges, L. +ii.+ sub initio.

[386] The Ascrean Poet’s hunting-picture on the shield of Hercules is rather a chase at speed, than trailing after leporine game;

[Sidenote: Hesiod. Scut. Hercul. vs. 302.]

τοὶ δ’ ὠκύποδας λαγὸς ᾕρευν ἄνδρες θηρευταὶ, καὶ καρχαρόδοντε κύνε προ ἱέμενοι μαπέειν, οἱ δ’ ἱέμενοι ὑπαλύξαι.

[387] “Umber is here,” says Wase, “the _Bracco_ of Italy; and as their dog is timorous, so their bore is not very courageous. Whence the poet,—Thuscus aper generosior Umbro.”

[388] A close-mouthed hound, probably, with much of the pugnacious disposition of our first class, added to his sagacity. Many of the limehound tribe, at least those used in trailing after fierce prey, must have had a strong dash of the same daring spirit—not so, however, the uncrossed Umbrian and Gelonian.

[389]

[Sidenote: Wase’s Illustrations, &c. c. +vi.+ p. 61.]

“The hunting used by the ancients was much like that way which is at present taken with the Raindeare which is seldome hunted at force, or with hounds, but onely drawne after with a blood-hound, and forestall’d with nets and engines. So did they with all beasts; and therefore a dog is never commended by them for opening before hee hath by signes discover’d where the beast lyeth in his layre, as by their drawing stiffe our harbourers are brought to give right judgment. Therefore I doe not finde that they were curious in the musique of their hounds, or in a composition of their kennell and pack, either for deepenesse or lowdnesse, or sweetnesse of cry like to us,” &c.

[390] The Canis _ductor_, or lime-hound of the middle ages, the ἐμβιβαστὴς and μηνυτὴς of ancient glossaries, “qui odorisequâ nare spelæa ferarum, et diverticula deprehendit,” was strongly allied to, if not identical with, the _Sleut-hound_ of Scotland, the blood-hound, _lyme-dog_, or _limer_ (from the _lyam_ or leash with which he was led) of authors, employed in the pursuit of animals of chase, and the discovery of murders and ambuscades. See the Glossaries of Spelman and Ducange, in voce.

[Sidenote: Etymolog. Ling. Anglic.]

[Sidenote: De Canibus Britannicis Libellus.]

[Sidenote: Venationis Cervinæ Leges L. +ii.+]

Skinner defines the _Limmer_ “Hybris, i. e. canis vilior ex cane sagace venatico cum Molosso copulato prognatus,”—and such probably was the parent stock of this much-famed dog. The _Lorarius_ of Caius must have been a more nimble animal than the Sleut-hound—“propter velocitatem et gravius feram urget, et citiùs capit.” The _Lymer_ is fully treated of in De Langley’s curious manuscript intitled =Mayster of Game=, c. +xx.+ et seqq. Much also will be found relative to him in the Book of St. Alban’s, Fouilloux, Turberville, and Blome: and he is particularly described by the Latin poet of Caen, under the title of “Canis armillaris.”

The following portrait by the poet of Barga is worthy of exhibition:

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

Ille quidem multâ virtute insignis, et usu Venandi, saltum si quando ingressus apertum est, Evinctus loro dominum trahit. Atque ubi signa Invenit, aut auras acer persentit odoras, Pergit iter, rostrum et pressâ vix tollit ab herbâ, Huc illuc volvens oculos, et singula solers Scrutatur: donec subter virgulta latentem Conspexit leporem, et constrata cubilia fronde. Tum vero gressum caudâ blanditus, et ore Accelerat, montemque omnem latratibus implet.

He is the “Prævius it loro catulus devinctus” of Vanière’s Prædium Rusticum, L. +xvi.+ Great, however, as was his celebrity in the sporting field of the classic and middle ages, and even till a century and a half ago,—