Part 14

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 199.]

at te leve si qua Tangit opus, pavidosque juvat compellere dorcas, Aut versuta sequi leporis vestigia parvi: Petronios (sic fama) canes, volucresque Sicambros, Et pictam maculâ Vertraham delige falsâ. Ocyor affectu mentis pinnâque cucurrit, Sed premit inventas, non inventura latentes Illa feras; quæ Petroniis benè gloria constat.

We here see the distinction between the harrier and greyhound, the former running on scent, the latter on sight. That the Petronii opened as soon as they hit upon the trail of their game, before it was roused, is much regretted by the poet—

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 207.]

Quod si maturo pressantes gaudia lusu Dissimulare feras tacitique accedere possent: Illis omne decus, quod nunc, Metagontes, habetis, Constaret sylvis; sed virtus irrita damno est!

Herein, however, they strikingly resemble their modern representatives; for, with Ducange, I readily grant that the Canes Petronii “ii sunt quos vulgò chiens courans appellamus.” Whoever has heard the din of the fox or hare-chase,

[Sidenote: Titus Andronicus, Act +ii.+ Sc. +iii.+]

—whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds, Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns, As if a double hunt were heard at once,

will grant that no Petronian pack could have been more noisy on the trail than their modern representatives.

[Sidenote: Pope’s Essay on Man.]

[Sidenote: Encyclopédie Méthodique: sur les Chasses, p. 138.]

The Britannus sagax, “the hound sagacious on the tainted green,” next claims our attention. Of the Britannus bellicosus we have already spoken under the first class. The earlier cynegetical writers are silent on the subject of British hounds: nor do they appear to have been known in Italy till towards the decline of the Roman empire; when, having been introduced into Celtic Gaul, their merits became gradually known in southern Europe. And here, in spite of the French encyclopedists, (the copyists of Messieurs D’Yauville and Le Verrier de la Conterie,) who gratuitously assume “qu’en général les chiens Anglois n’ont pas autant de noblesse que les beaux chiens François,”—and that where the breed is improved, as they allow it to be in some cases, the amelioration is attributable to Norman crosses,—we must, with our native poet, claim the palm for Britain;

[Sidenote: Somerville. Chace, B. +i.+]

In thee alone, fair land of liberty! Is bred the perfect hound, in scent and speed As yet unrivall’d, while in other climes Their virtue fails, a weak degenerate race!

By name, British hunting-dogs (as distinct from the pugnacious class) are mentioned by the poets of Carthage and Anazarbus alone; by the former, where singing the praises of different canine breeds, the merits of the blood of distant countries;

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 123.]

Sed non Spartanos tantùm, tantùmve Molossos Pascendum catulos: divisa Britannia mittit Veloces, nostrisque orbis venatibus aptos;

—by the latter, in the conclusion of his first cynegetic, vs. 467, hereafter cited. Of Nemesian’s “veloces,” probably not of the sagacious class, I shall, in the sequel, speak. In the absence of any assigned habitat for the Petronius, may we not consider him indigenous of Britain? Our happy isle has ever been famous for excellent breeds of hunting-dogs, for skilful sportsmen, and horses both fleet and patient of the chase. All the Celtic nations indeed, and our ancestors among the rest, were passionately addicted to the diversions of the field, considering the prosecution of such laborious callings a kind of apprenticeship and initiation for war. Thence the superiority of the Celtic breeds of sporting-dogs, and more especially of the Britannus sagax and Britannus bellicosus. With the latter, perhaps, the former may have been sent to Italy by the resident Procurator Cynegii, as worthy of admission into Roman kennels; for at this early period I believe there were only these two native varieties of the canine race in Britain. In the field of battle, in public spectacles, and in the wolf and boar-chases, the bellicosus, the rival of the truculent Epirote, stood pre-eminent: and in the ordinary hunting of timid and fugacious quarry, the hound “naribus utilis,” acquired an early name and character. For hideousness of aspect, and ugliness of shape, both were remarkable;

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 177.]

Si non ad speciem, mentiturosque decores Protinùs: hæc una est catulis jactura Britannis:

—a notification of Ovid’s contemporary, which may be interpreted of the sagacious with as much truth as of the pugnacious sorts.

[Sidenote: J. Caii de Canibus Britan. Libellus.]

Modern ingenuity has taught British hounds of chase to pursue many varieties of prey. “Alius leporis, alius vulpis, alius cervi, alius platycerotis, alius taxi, alius lutræ, alius mustelæ, alius cuniculi tantùm odore gaudet.” The dog does not himself necessarily differ, for adaptation to different game; and possibly, the old English Talbot was the parent stock, whence all the sub-varieties, at present found in the kennels of Great Britain, originally sprung, modified in shape and character by judicious breeding, and careful management as to quarry:

[Sidenote: Somerville’s Chace, B. +i.+]

strong, heavy, slow, but sure, Whose ears down-hanging from his thick round head, Shall sweep the morning dew; whose clanging voice Awake the mountain echo in her cell, And shake the forest: the bold Talbot kind Of these the prime, &c.

The hounds of Theseus would be correctly placed, from the description of our great dramatic poet, under the old English breed. With it they have more points in common than with their fabled progenitors;

[Sidenote: Midsummer Night’s Dream.]

My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flew’d, so sanded, and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew; Crook-knee’d, and dew-lap’d, like Thessalian bulls; Slow in pursuit; but match’d in mouth like bells, Each under each. A cry more tuneable Was never halloo’d to, nor cheer’d with horn, In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.

The vigorous and fleet Leverarius being a supposed representative of some ancient types, I cite the masterly picture of Somerville for the purpose of comparison with the classic poets of the Chase:

[Sidenote: Somerville’s Chace, B. +i.+]

See there with countenance blithe, And with a courtly grin, the fawning hound Salutes thee cowering; his wide opening nose Upwards he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes Melt in soft blandishments, and humble joy; His glossy skin, or yellow-pied, or blue, In lights or shades by nature’s pencil drawn, Reflects the various tints; his ears and legs Fleckt here and there, in gay enamell’d pride, Rival the speckled pard; his rush-grown tail O’er his broad back bends in an ample arch; On shoulders clean, upright and firm he stands; His round cat-foot, straight hams, and wide-spread thighs, And his low-dropping chest, confess his speed, His strength, his wind, or on the steepy hill, Or far-extended plain; in every part So well-proportion’d, that the nicer skill Of Phidias himself can’t blame thy choice.

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. +v.+]

[Sidenote: De Canibus et Venatione Libellus.]

The Talbot, whose portrait is also sketched by the Latin poet of Barga, as well as by the authors cited, is at present fallen into disrepute—his slowness of foot being scarce compensated by his keenness of scent. The fleeter Leverarius, whose consimilarity with the Gratian Petronius almost approaches to identity, was apparently unknown to M. A. Biondi; for he holds it quite impossible (like the elder Xenophon in regard to the fair capture of the hare with his ἀλωπεκίδες at force) that any hounds should have speed sufficient to run down a fox, without the aid of wily instruments of destruction. But the largest varieties of Somerville’s last picture are found a match for the arch-felon, “vulpem captare dolosam,”—the only approach to the modern mode of pursuing whom, which the classics afford, is in the fourth book of Oppian’s Cynegetics, where the κύνες ἀολλέες are evidently a pack of hounds, though we look in vain for the well-mounted hunters;

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +iv.+ vs. 448.]

κερδὼ δ’ οὔτε λόχοισιν ἁλώσιμος, οὔτε βρόχοισιν, οὔτε λίνοις δεινὴ γὰρ ἐπιφροσύνῃσι νοῆσαι, δεινὴ δ’ αὖτε κάλωα ταμεῖν, ὑπὸ δ’ ἅμματα λῦσαι, καὶ πυκινοῖσι δόλοισιν ὀλισθῆσαι θανάτοιο ἀλλὰ κύνες μιν ἄειραν ἀολλέες, οὐδ’ ἄρ’ ἐκεῖνοι καὶ κρατεροί περ ἐόντες ἀναιμωτεὶ δαμάσαντο.

In no case does he fall an easy prey to the disturbers of his cunningly-wrought latibulum:

[Sidenote: Cyneg. +iii.+ vs. 450.]

μάλ’ ἀρήϊος ἐν πραπίδεσσι, καὶ πινυτὴ ναίει πυμάτοις ἐνὶ φωλειοῖσιν, ἑπταπύλους οἴξασα δόμους, τρητάς τε καλιὰς τηλόθ’ ἀπ’ ἀλλήλων, μή μιν θηρήτορες ἄνδρες ἀμφὶ θύρῃ λοχόωντες ὑπὸ βροχίδεσσιν ἄγωνται ἀργαλέη γενύεσσι καὶ ἀντία δηρίσασθαι θηρσί τ’ ἀρειοτέροισι, καὶ ἀγρευτῆρσι κύνεσσιν.

Even when, with the din of huntsmen and hounds, driven into nets, the entangled felon, according to Martial, still fights it out, to the no little discomfiture and injury of his canine antagonists;

[Sidenote: Martial. Epigr. L. +x.+ Ep. 37.]

Hic olidam clamosus ages in retia vulpem, Mordebitque tuos sordida præda canes...

[Sidenote: Brodæus in Oppianum, p. 46.]

[Sidenote: Rittershusius in Oppianum, p. 42.]

Identical with the least of the hound tribe of the British isles, the Canis venaticus minor of Ray’s Synopsis, and Charleton’s Onomasticon, is the Oppianic Agassæus; the derivation of whose name has puzzled Broadæus and other classic commentators not a little. With the hint that Ἀγασσεὺς may be connected with Agassa of Macedonia, Agasus a port of Apulia, the Thracian Agessus, and Agathia a city of Phocis, no reason is alleged why a British dog should deduce his name from countries and places so remote. Of the existence of such a tiny hound of chase in this country, Rittershusius seems not to have been aware. British dogs, he remarks, are exceedingly keen-scented, but he cannot divine why called small, βαιὸν γένος, being, in his days at least, of great size. Brodæus, too, ignorant of any other than the Britannus of Claudian, cannot reconcile the “Anglici canes prodigiosæ staturæ” of this poet, and his own experience, with the portrait of the Oppianic Ἀγασσεύς.

[Sidenote: J. Caii de Can. Brit. Libellus.]

It is scarce necessary to observe that the dog in question has no affinity with the Agasæus of Dr. Caius, who very absurdly borrows, for his gazehound, a name previously engaged by a totally different dog; as if to gratify his etymological mania by connecting the terms Agasæus, a gaze, a gazehound—“neque enim odoratu, sed prospectu attento et diligenti feram persequitur iste canis—(Agasæus, a gazehound)—etsi non sum nescius etiam apud Latinos Agasæi vocabulum inter canum nomina reperiri”—“Agasæum nostri abs re quòd intento sit in feram oculo vocant.”

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

Camden has fallen into the same error with Caius, and confounded the Agasseus of Oppian with the gazehound of Britain; and even Ray has made the gazehound a variety of the Canis venaticus sagax, distinguished from his supposed consimilars of the same family by running on sight of his game—“qui aspectu feras insequitur.”

From the following portrait, compared with that drawn by Markham, we may decide the identity of the Agassæus and Beagle:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ vs. 467.]

ἔστι δέ τι σκυλάκων γένος ἄλκιμον ἰχνευτήρων, βαιὸν, ἀτὰρ μεγάλης ἀντάξιον ἔμμεν’ ἀοιδῆς τοὺς τράφεν ἄγρια φῦλα Βρετανῶν αἰολονώτων, αὐτὰρ ἐπικλήδην σφὰς Ἀγασσαίους ὀνόμῃναν τῶν ἤτοι μέγεθος μὲν ὀμοίϊον οὐτιδανοῖσι λίχνοις οἰκιδίοισι τραπεζήεσσι κύνεσσι, γυρὸν, ἀσαρκότατον, λασιότριχον, ὄμμασι νωθές ἀλλ’ ὀνύχεσσι πόδας κεκορυθμένον ἀργαλέοισι, καὶ θαμινοῖς κυνοδοῦσιν ἀκαχμένον ἰοφόροισι. ῥίνεσι δ’ αὖτε μάλιστα πανέξοχός ἐστιν Ἀγασσεὺς, καὶ στιβίῃ πανάριστος, ἐπεὶ κατὰ γαῖαν ἰόντων ἴχνιον εὑρέμεναι μέγα δὴ σοφὸς, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴν ἴδμων ἠερίην μάλα σημῄνασθαι ἀϋτμήν.

Let the reader compare these little pet-like, weakly, crooked, lank, wire-haired, dull-looking creatures, keen however, and excellent of nose, with his own experience of the beagle’s type and properties, and the representations of authors.

The poet gives some amusing instructions for breaking in the puppy of the Agassæus;

[Sidenote: Ejusd. vs. 489.]

αὐτὰρ ὅγ’ αἶψα ὠρίνθη, φριμάα τε λαγωείης ὑπ’ ἀϋτμῆς, ἴχνια μαστεύει τε κατὰ χθονὸς, κ. τ. λ.

comparing his restlessness to that of a young woman in travail with her first child,

[Sidenote: Ejusd. vs. 493.]

ὡς δ’ ὅτε τις κούρη δέκατον περὶ μῆνα σελήνης πρωτοτόκος λοχίῃσιν ὑπ’ ὠδίνεσσι τυπεῖσα, κ. τ. λ.

[Sidenote: Lib. +ii.+ p. 18.]

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, 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.

CANES VENATICI. +Class III.+

CANES CELERES.

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

Hæ pedibus celeres.

This class, by far the least numerous of the three, contains only the Vertragus or Vertraha, 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—

[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,—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—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.