Note 142 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
The laws of the leash in England, subscribed by Thomas Duke of Norfolk, in the reign of Elizabeth, speak to these points:
“That not above one brace of greyhounds do course a hare at one instant.
“That the fewterer shall give the hare twelve score law, ere he loose the greyhounds, except it be in danger of losing sight.”
The Booke of Venerie, &c. p. 249.
Iliad. L. xx. v. 360.
Turberville, however, gives a little more licence as to number of dogs: “If the greyhounds be but yong or slowe, you may course with a lease at one hare, but that is seldome seene, and a brase of dogges is ynow for such a poore beast.” No fair courser would slip more than a brace of tried and swift dogs (δύω κύνε, εἰδότε θήρης) after a hare.
As to the distance at which the hounds are to be slipped to the hare, which in the ancient English Cynegetica is called law, “it should be,” says Turberville, “xii score yardes or more, according to the ground and country where she sitteth.” So Ben Jonson, in the Sad Shepherd,
Act ii. sc. 8.
But you must give her law: and you shall see her Make twenty leaps and doubles, &c.