The English, Scotch, and Irish greyhounds were all of Celtic derivation, And their cultivation and character correspond with the civilization of the different Celtic tribes. The dogs that were exported from Britain to Rome were probably of this kind. Mr. Blaine gives an account of the progress of these dogs, which seems to be evidently founded on truth.
"Scotland, a northern locality, has long been celebrated for its greyhounds, which are known to be large and wiry-coated. They are probably types of the early Celtic greyhounds, which, yielding to the influences of a colder climate than that they came from, became coated with a thick and wiry hair. In Ireland, as being milder in its climate, the frame expanded in bulk, and the coat, although not altogether, was yet less crisped and wiry. In both localities, there being at that time boars, wolves, and even bears, powerful dogs were required. In England these wild beasts were more early exterminated, and consequently the same kind of dog was not retained, but, on the contrary, was by culture made finer in coat, and of greater beauty in form."
The canis leporarius, or greyhound of the present day, is quite an inferior animal in point of size, when compared with his forefathers, who alone were occupied in the chase of the boar, wolf, bear, deer, and other animals both powerful and savage.
As these wild animals gradually disappeared under the hand of civilization, these hardy dogs were less wanted; and thus, by slow degrees, have degenerated into the less powerful, but more beautiful and symmetrical proportions that we now see. This change, however, has better adapted him for speed, and the coursing of such quadrupeds as depend upon nimbleness and activity of motion, to secure their escape.
Owing, in some measure, to the climate, but more particularly to the inactive life that they lead in this country, so much at variance with that of England, we can lay claim to but few dogs that would be considered above mediocrity among British sportsmen. We have seen several of these dogs which, living in a state of idle luxury, have degenerated considerably even in the third generation; and we cannot now recall but one dog, in the possession of a young lady in Philadelphia, that would at all come up to the English standard of perfection; and this one is a descendant from a fine imported stock in the second generation. The ancient Greeks were much devoted to coursing, but previous to the time of Arrian, their hounds were not a sufficient match, in point of speed, for the hare, and it was seldom that their sports were attended with success in the actual capture of this fleet animal by the dogs alone. If [taken] at all, it was generally by running them down in a long chase, or driving them into nets, toils, and other similar contrivances, as forcibly described in the following lines of the ancient poet, when extolling the pleasures of a country life.
"Aut trudit acres hinc et hinc multâ cane
Apros in obstante plagas,
Aut amite levi rara leiidit retia,
Turdis edacibus dolos;
Pavidumve leporem, et advenam laqueo gruem,
Jucunda captat præmia."
(Horace, Epode ii., v. 31.)
Even after the introduction of the Celtic hound, who, as before stated, was far inferior as regards speed to the present race, it was no easy matter to take the hare, it being necessary to carry several couples of dogs into the field, and let them slip at certain intervals in the chase, so that the fresh dogs might, in this way, overtake the little animal, already frightened and fatigued by previous exertion.
In [reference] to this mode of coursing, the younger Xenophon particularly enjoins that to prevent confusion in the field, naturally arising from the hunters letting their dogs loose at improper intervals, from eagerness to see them run,
"that a steward should be appointed over the sport, should match the dogs, and give orders to the field: — if the hare start on this side, you and you are to slip, and nobody else; but if on that side, you and you: and let strict attention be paid to the orders given."
(Arrian, chap. xx.)
Alciphron, in his familiar epistles descriptive of the domestic manners of the Greeks, gives a lively description of a course not very different from those of the present day, as will be seen in the following extract:
"In trying whether the young dogs were fit for the chase, I started a hare from a little bush; my sons loosed the dogs from the slips. They frightened her confoundedly, and were very near taking the game. The hare, in her flight, climbed a steep place, and found a retreat in some burrow. One of the more spirited of the dogs, pressing close upon her, gasping, and expecting to take her in his gripe, went down with her into the hole. In endeavouring to pull out the hare, he broke one of his fore-legs. I lifted up my good dog, with his lame leg, and found the hare half devoured: thus, when I hoped to get something, I encountered a serious loss."
(Letter ix.)
We will [close] our remarks upon this subject by introducing a few descriptive lines, selected from one of the very rare English authors who have attempted a versification of this exciting sport.
"Yet if for silvan sport thy bosom glow,
Let thy fleet greyhound urge his flying foe.
With what delight the rapid course I view!
How does my eye the circling race pursue!
He snaps deceitful air with empty jaws;
The suttle hare darts swift beneath his paws;
She flys, he stretches, now with nimble bound
Eager he presses on, but overshoots his ground:
Then tears with goary mouth the screaming prey."
(Gay's Poems, vol i. — Rural Sports, v. 290), — L.