Note 145 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
The rush of the greyhound from slips is splendidly described in the Ovidia Lælaps:
Metamorph. L. vii. vs. 772.
jamdudum vincula pugnat Exuere ipse sibi, colloque morantia tendit. Vix bene missus erat; nec jam poteramus, ubi esset, Scire; pedum calidus vestigia pulvis habebat: Ipse oculis ereptus erat. Non ocyor illo Hasta, nec excussæ contorto verbere glandes, Nec Gortyniaco calamus levis exit ab arcu.
Many of the coursing terms employed in the present, the 19th, and 20th chapters, on the Celtic mode of following the sport, are illustrated by Michael Drayton’s prosaic muse:
Polyolbion. Song xxiii.
In the proper terms the Muse doth thus report— The man whose vacant mind prepares him to the sport, The finder sendeth out, to seek out nimble Wat, Which crosseth in the field, each furlong, every flat, Till he this pretty beast upon the form hath found; Then viewing for the course, which is the fairest ground, The greyhounds forth are brought, for coursing then in case, And choicely in the slip, one leading forth a brace; The finder puts her up, and gives her courser’s law. And whilst the eager dogs upon the start do draw, She riseth from her seat, as though on earth she flew, Forced by some yelping cute to give the greyhounds view, Which are at length let slip, when gunning out they go, As in respect of them the swiftest wind were slow; When each man runs his horse, with fixed eyes, and notes Which dog first turns the hare, which first the other coats: They wrench her once or twice, ere she a turn will take, What’s offer’d by the first, the other good doth make; And turn for turn again with equal speed they ply, Bestirring their swift feet with strange agility: A harden’d ridge or way, when if the hare do win, Then as shot from a bow she from the dogs doth spin, That strive to put her off, but when he cannot reach her, This giving him a coat, about again doth fetch her To him that comes behind, which seems the hare to bear; But with a nimble turn she casts them both arrear: Till oft for want of breath to fall to ground they make her, The greyhounds both so spent that they want breath to take her.
For the indications of speed, and strength of course, in the hare, see L’Ecole de la Chasse, c. iv. “Lièvre vigoureux, bon à chasser,” &c. “The hare that renneth,” says De Langley, Mayster of Game. c. iii. fol. 19.“wt. right stondyng eeres is but litel a ferd and is strong; and zit whan she holdeth that oone eere upryght stondyng and that other y leyde lowe upon her ryge, she fereth but litel the houndes. An hare that crompes hure tayle upon hure rumpe whan she sterteth out of here forme, as a conyng, it is token she is stronge and wele rennyng.”