Note 390 — CANES VENATICI. Class II.
William Dansey translation
The Canis ductor, or lime-hound of the middle ages, the ἐμβιβαστὴς and μηνυτὴς of ancient glossaries, “qui odorisequâ nare spelæa ferarum, et diverticula deprehendit,” was strongly allied to, if not identical with, the Sleut-hound of Scotland, the blood-hound, lyme-dog, or limer (from the lyam or leash with which he was led) of authors, employed in the pursuit of animals of chase, and the discovery of murders and ambuscades. See the Glossaries of Spelman and Ducange, in voce.
Etymolog. Ling. Anglic.
De Canibus Britannicis Libellus.
Venationis Cervinæ Leges L. ii.
Skinner defines the Limmer “Hybris, i. e. canis vilior ex cane sagace venatico cum Molosso copulato prognatus,”—and such probably was the parent stock of this much-famed dog. The Lorarius of Caius must have been a more nimble animal than the Sleut-hound—“propter velocitatem et gravius feram urget, et citiùs capit.” The Lymer is fully treated of in De Langley’s curious manuscript intitled Mayster of Game, c. xx. et seqq. Much also will be found relative to him in the Book of St. Alban’s, Fouilloux, Turberville, and Blome: and he is particularly described by the Latin poet of Caen, under the title of “Canis armillaris.”
The following portrait by the poet of Barga is worthy of exhibition:
P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. L. v.
Ille quidem multâ virtute insignis, et usu Venandi, saltum si quando ingressus apertum est, Evinctus loro dominum trahit. Atque ubi signa Invenit, aut auras acer persentit odoras, Pergit iter, rostrum et pressâ vix tollit ab herbâ, Huc illuc volvens oculos, et singula solers Scrutatur: donec subter virgulta latentem Conspexit leporem, et constrata cubilia fronde. Tum vero gressum caudâ blanditus, et ore Accelerat, montemque omnem latratibus implet.
He is the “Prævius it loro catulus devinctus” of Vanière’s Prædium Rusticum, L. xvi. Great, however, as was his celebrity in the sporting field of the classic and middle ages, and even till a century and a half ago,—
G. Douglas’s Palace of Honour.
syrchand to and fra, To hunt the harte, the bare, the da, the ra,—
the Limier, in a state of pure blood, is considered almost extinct.