Note 69 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.

Xenophon de Venat. c. iii. condemns blink-eyed and grey-eyed hounds as bad and unsightly, αἰσχραὶ ὁρᾶσθαι: but Oppian particularly specifies blue eyes as preferable to all others; and I have known many azure-eyed dogs of great merit. The darker the eye, however, the better. Mayster of Game, c. xv. fol. 66.“Her eynne shuld be,” according to De Langley, “reed or blak as of a sphauke:”—“full and clear, with long eye-lids,” according to Markham. The reader of Anacreon will understand the sort of eye admired in the greyhound, from the

Anacreon. Od. xxix.

of the 29th Ode; and at the same time, perhaps, smile at the quotation.