[172]
[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +v.+ 10.]
Ἀναπαυόμενος λαγώς. No description can surpass in accuracy and elegance that of the hare in her form by the elder Xenophon: Κατακλίνεται δὲ ὑποθεὶς τὰ ὑποκώλια ὑπὸ τὰς λαγόνας, τὰ δὲ πρόσθεν σκέλη τὰ πλεῖστα συνθεὶς καὶ ἐκτείνας, ἐπ’ ἄκρους δὲ τοὺς πόδας τὴν γένυν καταθεὶς, τὰ δὲ ὦτα ἐπιπετάσας ἐπὶ τὰς ὠμοπλάτας· εἶτα δὲ ὑποστέγει τὰ ὑγρά· ἔχει δὲ καὶ τὴν τρίχα στεγανήν· πυκνὴ γὰρ καὶ μαλακή.
[173] The example of the Celtic nobility of Arrian’s days was followed by those of a later date. Bruyerinus relates (de Re Cib. c. 24.) “Gallia omnis leporibus scatet, ideoque horum venatio peculiaris est mediocri nobilitati et primariæ non invisa.” And Baptista Guarinus notes of the Veronese territory, that it abounds with hares, and affords opportunities for long courses:
Namque hic si studeas lepores agitare fugaces, Cursibus effusis æquora longa patent.
[174]
[Sidenote: Schediasm. L. +v.+ c. +xvi.+]
[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ v. 148.]
Αὐτουργοὶ κυνηγεσίων. Upon this expression Henry Stephens merely remarks, “quod loquendi genus observatione dignum est,”—offering no explanation: Zeune interprets “qui pedites venantur, studio rei capti:” Holsten, “qui ipsi per se venationis studio incumbunt:”—those who have to do with the practical part of the sport, as the slippers, leaders of the hounds, &c. the actual workmen. Such were the ἐργοπόνοι κρατεροὶ of Oppian, the bearers of the hunting gear to the covert, &c.
[175]
[Sidenote: Turberville’s Booke of Hunting, &c.]
Ἐκπεριΐασι δὲ ἐπὶ μετώπου ταχθέντες. We here see the military tactician: after the lapse of nearly seventeen centuries, no improvement has taken place in the mode of beating for a hare. One of our best English manuals of coursing, whose author was probably as expert in the field as his predecessor of Bithynia, thus describes the plan adopted in the days of good Queen Bess: “To course y^e. hare you must send either hare-finders before you to find some hare sitting, or els yourself w^h. your company may range and beat over the fields until you either find a hare sitting, or start her. I have marked y^e. hare-finders in their seeking of a hare in Northamptonshyre, and they will never beat but one end of a furlong: and that shall be the end which is downe the wind or from the wind; for they hold opinion that a hare will not (by her wil) sit with her head into the wind. He that will seeke a hare must go overthwart the lands; and every land that he passeth over, let him beginne with his eye at his foot, and so looke downe the land to the furlong’s end, first on the one side and then on the other; and so shall he find y^e. hare sitting in her forme: assoone as he espyeth her he must cry _Sa how_. Then they which lead the greyhounds may come neare: and you may appoynt which greyhounds shall course. Then let him which found the hare, go towards her and say, _Up, pusse, up!_ untill she rise out of her forme.”
[176] Ἄρχοντα—“the judge expert in coursing” of Turberville, p. 249.
It appears to me from this passage that the Celts coursed with each hound held in a single slip and collar, and started probably simultaneously with his appointed compeer, held in juxta-position by a second person. Some commentators, however, are of opinion, from the term _συν_δυαζέτω, that the dogs were held in double collars, or couples; but if so, we must still suppose, from the words σὺ καὶ σὺ ἐπιλύειν, that two persons were appointed to let the dogs loose at the same time:
[Sidenote: Ovid. Met. L. +vii.+ 769.]
Copula detrahitur canibus.
[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +vi.+]
Xenophon particularly enjoins, in his instructions on hare-hunting, that the Spartan hounds should be held in separate collars at the covert-side: ἑκάστην χωρὶς, (each apart) ὅπως ἂν εὔλυτοι ὦσι.
[Sidenote: See the lithograph of Chrysis and Aura.]
The ancient slip or slippe (ab elabendo Vlit. p. 94.) was formed by a leading thong or lyam, passed through the ring of the dog’s collar, the two ends being held in the hand of the slipper, or keeper. When the dog was loosed, the slipper let go one end of the thong, and drew the other with his hand from the eye of the collar, whereby the dog was liberated with the collar on his neck, the lyam remaining in the slipper’s hand. (See Xenophon, Pollux, and Conrad Gesner, on these accoutrements: the latter is copious on the subject in his Hist. Quadrup. “Canis.”) Such a representation of greyhounds coursing, with collars on their necks, we have in Montfaucon, Tom. +iii.+ liv. +iv.+ pl. 176. (Chasse au Lièvre.) Nor are the incumbrances, which envelop the necks of Chrysis and Aura in this beautiful gem, got rid of in the coursing plates of “The Gentleman’s Recreations,”—so few are the improvements in the practical department of the leash, from the days of Arrian till those of Richard Blome. The modern method of slipping a brace of greyhounds, at the same instant of time, from double spring or wedge collars, is of recent introduction; having its origin, probably, at the institution of public coursing meetings.
[177]
[Sidenote: Arriani Tactic. 71. Ed. Blancard.]
Οἱ δὲ ἐμπεδούντων τὸ ταχθέν. Obedience to the orders of the ἄρχων or ἀγωνοθέτης, in a coursing field, is an essential point of discipline: indeed, we could not select any more important for the regulation of such an assemblage than the brief and emphatic injunction of our author in his Tactics, “silence and attention to orders”—σίγα καὶ πρόσεχε τῷ παραγγελλομένῳ.
[178]
[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xxxv.+ fol. 99.]
This method of coursing was practised in England in the days of Edmund De Langley (A. D. 1380). From the instructions which he gives relative to it, it appears that the greyhounds were placed, as amongst the Celts, on the outside of the covert. So also in the beautiful poetry of Scott:
[Sidenote: Marmion. Introduction to Canto +ii.+]
And foresters in greenwood trim Lead in the leash the gazehounds grim, Attentive as the brachet’s bay From the dark covert drove the prey To slip them as he drove away. The startled quarry bounds amain, As fast the gallant greyhounds strain.
[Sidenote: De Canibus et Venatione Libellus.]
“Nos autem vidimus,” says Blondus, “venantes in capiendis leporibus hunc modum servare insidiandi. Divisi ac sparsi venatores per inculta frequentiùs quàm per culta, arte quâdam incedunt laqueis canem leporarium detinentes: spineta et sentes, sive dumeta, saltusve potiùs celebrantes quàm nemora. Nonnunquam etiam præmittunt odorum canem qui è latebris pellat timidum leporem, post quem è laqueis mittunt canem fugacem, altis clamoribus persequentes, qui sunt exhortationes fugacium canum.”
[Sidenote: U. Aldrovand. de Quad. Digit. Vivip. L. +ii.+]
“In montosis locis (agri Bononiensis) ob rubetorum frequentiam, canibus sagacibus ad lepores excitandos utuntur, deinde visis leporibus canes leporarios solvunt,” &c.
The classic poet of Barga, although we look in vain for a description of the hare-course throughout his varied and copious Cynegeticon, has left us the following counterpart in the machinery of the fox-chase with swift-footed hounds:
[Sidenote: P. Angel. Barg. Cyneg. L. +vi.+]
Intereà juvenes quà sunt asperrima campi Dumeta, et spinis clivus consurgit acutis, Obsedêre vias, alii quà mane tepenti Flamine in adversos auras fert Eurus odoras, Veloces tenuere canes: turbamque sagacem Immisêre, premant patulis, quæ naribus hostem Obscenam, et dumis sese occultare parantem, Conantemque animam tristi subducere letho. Quam postquam certo latratu ursere propinquam, Solvuntur canibus curracia vincla Lacænis:
and this is again followed by other chases, wherein the wolf and stag are the greyhound’s quarry.
[Sidenote: Vénerie Normande. c. +vii.+]
See also L’Ecole de la Chasse, (Rouen, 1788,) “Manière de prendre les loups avec les lévriers.”
[179] Ὅπως ἄν τοι προχωρῇ. “Quâcunque ratione fieri potest,” Ind. Græc. Z. “When she is going off,” Blane.
[180] Καὶ εἰσὶν αἱ κύνες αὗται, ὅ τι περ αἱ ἄρκυς Ξενοφῶντι ἐκείνῳ. From some curious Dialogues composed by Elfric, Duke of Mercia, in Latin, Mr. Turner has shown that our ancestors resembled their continental neighbours in these field sports.
[Sidenote: Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons.]
“I am a hunter to one of the kings.—How do you exercise your art? I spread my nets, and set them in a fit place, and instruct my hounds to pursue the wild deer till they come to the nets unexpectedly, and so are entangled, and I slay them in the nets.—Cannot you hunt _without_ nets? Yes, with _swift hounds_ I follow the wild deer.—What wild deer do you chiefly take? Harts, boars, and rein-deer, and goats, and sometimes hares,” &c.
[181]
[Sidenote: Apollon. Rhod. L. +iii.+ 13.]
[Sidenote: Journey thro’ Albania, &c. Letter +xvii.+]
Ὑπὸ τῆς κλαγγῆς τῶν κυνῶν, &c. Κυνῶν ἐφόβησεν ὁμοκλή: for a practical exemplification of a course conducted upon the principle of uniting speed and sagacity in the same pack, see Mr. Hobhouse’s description of his sport with his host at Votizza. To “four wire-haired Lacouni” were added “three mongrel pointers, and several curs ... with a large party of men on foot and horseback, making as much noise as possible.” It is scarce necessary to state the poor hare was killed “after a short run.”