Note 116 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
Cynosoph. p. 263.
A short section of the Cynosophium is given to kennel management—κύνας μετὰ ἀνθρώπων κοιμᾶσθαι καλόν· πραεῖς γὰρ ἐκ τούτου γίνονται, καὶ φιλάνθρωποι, καὶ εὐκόλως καλοῦνται—a practical allurement of canine affection heretofore more common than at present. Modern refinement would ill bear the intimate association recommended by Arrian and Demetrius, and practised by James V. of Scotland, with his favourite Bagsche, who was wont
Sir D. Lyndsay’s Complaynt of Bagsche.
To lap upon the king is bed, With claith of gold thoch it were spred.
Indeed, we rarely see the high-bred and elegant Celtic hound within the vestibule of a modern dwelling; though heretofore, in the hall of banquet,
Lay of the Last Minstrel.
The stag-hounds, weary of the chase, Lay stretch’d upon the rushy floor, And urged in dreams the forest race From Teviot-stone to Eskdale-moor.
Mayster of Game. c. xx. fol. 71.
Whether the Duke of York’s “childe” lay with the hounds, I know not; but it seems that he did, though not with the intention specified by our author: “alway bi nyght and bi day I wil that some childe lye or be in the kenel with the houndes for to kepe hem from fyghteng,” &c.
I no where find the close cutaneous contact of man and dog, enjoined in the text, recommended in the ancient Cynegetica; but Xenophon advises an intimate acquaintance between the parties in the kennel at the hours of feeding, &c.: if the hounds be fed by the huntsman, they become attached to his person, τὸν διδόντα στέργουσιν, &c. (c. vi.): and so if the Veltrarii Encyc. Méthod. Les chasses. p. 434.(“les valets de lévriers, qui exercent les lévriers, et qui les lâchent à la courre”) superintend the feeding their charge, the attachment thereby produced will render actual cohabitation unnecessary.
Natalis Comes de Venatione. L. i.
Quod superest, celeris catuli cui credita cura, Nutriat illecebris hunc, et sibi jungat amore. Sic facilè et noto domino parere jubenti Disceret, acceptisque sequi vestigia signis.