[Sidenote: Book of Hunting. p. 246.]
This method of coursing (if it deserve the name) was much in use in France two centuries or more ago. “They use their greyhounds,” says Turberville, “only to set backsets, or receytes for deare, wolfe, fox, or such-like. Whereas we here in England do make great account of such pastime as is to be seen in coursing with greyhounds at deare, hare, foxe, or such-like, even of themselves, when there are neyther hounds hunting, nor other meane to help them.”
[Sidenote: c. +xvii.+ fol 69.]
Edmund De Langley, in his =Mayster of Game=, condemns the union of sagacious and fleet hounds, “spaynels and greihoundes,” in the same field; for “the spaynel wil make al the ryot and al the harme.” The latter’s mode of hunting is beautifully described by Darcius of Venusium:
[Sidenote: Canes.]
Hi si forte levis toto lepus errat in arvo, Pone legent rostro vestigia nota sagaci: Et modò transverso, modò recto jugera sulco Scrutantur, &c.
[182]
[Sidenote: Xenophon. de Venatione. c. +v.+ 14.]
Τὰ μὲν οὖν λίαν νεογνὰ οἱ φιλοκυνηγέται ἀφιᾶσι τῇ Θεῷ. But the same mercy was not extended to fawns: see Xenoph. de Venat. c. +ix.+ 1.
[183] Τῇ Θεῷ. Diana ἀγροτέρα, or Venatrix.
[Sidenote: Homer. Iliad. φʹ.]
——πότνια θηρῶν Ἄρτεμις ἀγροτέρη.
[Sidenote: Homer. Hymn. in Dian.]
ἡ κατ’ ὄρη σκιόεντα καὶ ἄκριας ἠνεμόεσσας ἀγρῇ τερπομένη παγχρύσεα τόξα τιταίνει.
So, in the Anacreontic Λιτανεία,
γουνοῦμαι σ’ ἐλαφηβόλε, Ξανθὴ, παὶ Διὸς, ἀγρίων δέσποιν’, Ἄρτεμι, θηρῶν.
[Sidenote: Polluc. Onom. L. +v.+ c. +i.+ 13.]
By Pollux the worshipful goddess is variously called ἀγροτέρα, καὶ κυνηγέτις, καὶ φιλόθηρος, καὶ ὀρεία. For the popular belief respecting her many vocations, see Callimach. H. in Dian. How graphically is she decked out, in all her sylvan trim, by Nemesian, in the following address to her, to aid, with her many sporting associates, the essay of his Cynegetical Muse!
[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. 86.]
Tu modo quæ saltus placidos silvasque pererras Latonæ, Phœbe, magnum decus, eja age suetos Sume habitus, arcumque manu: pictamque pharetram Suspende ex humeris: sint aurea tela, sagittæ: Candida puniceis aptentur crura cothurnis: Sit chlamys aurato multum sub tegmine lusa, Corrugesque sinus gemmatis baltheus arctet Nexibus: implicibus cohibe diademate crines. Tecum Naiades faciles, viridique juventâ Pubentes Dryades, Nymphæque, unde amnibus humor, Adsint, et docilis decantet Oreadas Echo. Duc age, Diva, tuum frondosa per avia vatem. Te sequimur: tu pande domos et lustra ferarum.
See Lucian’s Deorum Dialogi, Venus et Cupido, for the pursuits of Diana; and for several elegant representations of her in her sporting attire, see Montfaucon, Tom. +i.+ perrier, tab. 64. goltzii numismata græciæ, &c. tab. +vii.+ f. 1. Insular Medals, Tab. +xvii.+ f. 1. morell. tab. +xv.+ passerii tom. +iii.+ Tab. 88. &c. A few of the most classic gems and medals have been faithfully copied in outline by Mr. Haghe from the antique, and annexed to this work; they are taken from Montfaucon, who had previously borrowed them from La Chausse and Beger.
The translation of Mr. Blane does not extend beyond this Chapter.
[184] Xenophon De Venat. c. +ix.+ recommends Indian dogs for deer-hunting, as they are strong, large, swift-footed, and resolute.
In the ancient field sports of Britain we find the deer, the wolf, and the fox, and even sometimes the wild cat, (of which last the =Mayster of Game= c. +x.+ reports, “he hath the Devyllis spyryt,”) coursed with greyhounds: but at present these diversions are discontinued, and the hare alone deemed worthy of the honourable distinction of competing in speed with the Celtic hound:
[Sidenote: Book of St. Alban’s.]
And where that ye come in playne or in place, I shall you tell whyche ben bestys of enchace: One of theym is the bucke: a nother is the doo: The foxe and the marteron: and the wylde roo.
The coursing of deer was a recreation of high repute, and was divided into two sorts; _the paddock_, and _the forest_ or _purlieu_. See Daniel’s Rural Sports. But a better authority, Turberville, in “a short observation set downe by the Translatour, concerning coursing with greyhoundes,” attached to “The Booke of Hunting,” has given us his remarks on coursing deer, and the method of doing it in the olden time with “_teasers_,” (“to start the deare from the whole heard, or make a low deare strain,”) “_side laies_,” (“to way-lay him by the midway,”) and “_back-sets_, or _receits_,” (to meet him “full in the face—to the end they may the more amase him.”) See Turberville’s Appendix to his translation of Fouilloux, and “The Governour,” B. +i.+ c. 17.
[185]
[Sidenote: Hist. Naturelle.]
Μέγα τε γὰρ τὸ θηρίον, &c. “He is of all beasts,” says Gervase Markham, “the goodliest, stateliest, and most manly:” and Buffon, after describing the stag with his wonted eloquence, concludes, “sa grandeur, sa légèreté, sa force le distinguent assez des autres habitans des bois: et comme il est le plus noble d’entre eux, il ne sert aussi qu’aux plaisirs des plus nobles des hommes; il a, dans tous les temps, occupé le loisir des héros.”
[Sidenote: Booke of Hunting. p. 247.]
“A red deare will beare sometimes foure or five brase of greyhounds before they can pull him downe: such wonderfull force he is of, and can so easily shake off a greyhound when he pincheth him.”
[186]
[Sidenote: p. 247.]
Ὁ κίνδυνος οὐ σμικρὸς, &c. “He that hath a good hare greyhound, shal do very evill to course a deare with him, for it wil both bruse him and make him lyther: and the course at the hare is much the nobler pastime.”
Oppian denies that deer butt with their horns, and thereby endanger the dogs:
[Sidenote: Cynegeticus +ii.+ 184.]
οὔποτε γὰρ κεφαλῇφιν ἐναντία δηρίσαιντο, οὐ θηρσὶ κρατεροῖς, οὐκ ἀργαλέοισι κύνεσσι:
[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +ix.+]
but Xenophon, a practical authority, affirms it—τοῖς κέρασι παίει καὶ τοῖς ποσίν. The thrust from the tynes, or branches, of the stag’s horns, were accounted far more dangerous to a human being than those of the boar’s tusk:
If thou be hurt with horn of stag, it brings thee to thy bier: But barber’s hand shall boar’s hurt heal; thereof have thou no fear.
[187]
[Sidenote: Hippolyt. Act. +i.+ 71.]
Ἔνθα τὰ πεδία εὐήλατα. The Homeric scholar will remember the Nomade tribes of this champaign region, on whom Jupiter cast his eyes in looking from Mount Ida towards Thrace. The Mysians were of the number:
[Sidenote: Iliad. νʹ. 3.]
——αὐτὸς δὲ πάλιν τρέπεν ὄσσε φαεινὼ, νόσφιν ἐφ’ ἱπποπόλων Θρῃκῶν καθορώμενος αἶαν, Μυσῶν τ’ ἀγχιμάχων, καὶ ἀγαυῶν Ἱππημολγῶν, &c.
[Sidenote: De +iv.+ Consul. Honorii.]
Seneca speaks of the “Vacuisque vagus Sarmata campis,”—Claudian, of the “gens exercita campo,”—and an earlier poet, the exiled Ovid, in one of his mournful elegies, commemorates the Scythian’s skill in horsemanship:
[Sidenote: Tristium L. +iii.+ El. x.]
Protinùs æquato siccis aquilonibus Istro, Invehitur celeri barbarus hostis equo: Hostis equo pollens longèque volante sagittâ Vicinam latè depopulatur humum.
[Sidenote: Hist. of Rome. vol. +iv.+ c. +xxvi.+]
Strabo notices the hunting propensities of the inhabitants of the Scythian and Sarmatian plains (L. +xvii.+); and the eloquent historian of the Decline and Fall enlarges on the vigour and patience both of the men and horses in the continual exercise of the chase. From the way in which these pastoral tribes of the Scythian plains are introduced by Arrian in connexion with the Celtic coursing, we may conclude that they were Celto-Scythians.
[188]
[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ 272.]
The highest praise is bestowed by Oppian on Sicilian horses, ὠκύτατοι Σικελοί: but fleeter than these are the Armenians and Parthians; and fleetest of all, the Iberians.
[189] Ὁ δὲ ἐς τοσοῦτον ἄρα ἀντέχει.
[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]
——non illum unquam genibusve labantem Videris, aut animam fessum vix ore trahentem. Verùm importuno potuit superesse labori Acrior, atque novas currendo acquirere vires, Velocem quandoque fugâ prævertere cervum, Et premere immanes animis optavimus apros.
[190] Ἔξεστιν ἤδη, εἰ μὲν βούλοιο, ἀκοντίσαι ἐγγύθεν ὡς πεπεδημένην.
[Sidenote: Virgil. Georg. L. +iii.+ v. 374.]
Cominùs obtruncant ferro, graviterque rudentes Cædunt, et magno læti clamore reportant.
Xenophon gives a full description of the mode of ensnaring deer in a variety of trap called ποδοστράβη, and adds: ἁλίσκονται δὲ καὶ ἄνευ ποδοστράβης διωκόμεναι, ὅταν ᾖ ἡ ὥρα θερινὴ, ἀπαγορεύουσι γὰρ σφόδρα, ὥστε ἑστῶσαι ἀκοντίζονται.
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +iv.+ 54.]
ξυνὸν ἀκοντίζειν δὲ καὶ ἀντία τοξάζεσθαι θῆρας ἀρειοτέρους.
[191] Βρόχον—a noose-rope. Such ropes were generally used by rude nations in battle as well as the chase. For a clever representation of this mode of catching deer, see the Venationes Ferarum of Stradanus and Galle, and the accompanying quatrain of Kilian Dufflæus.