Note 419 — CANES VENATICI. Class III.
William Dansey translation
Description of Irelande, p. 8.
“The Greihounde of King Cranthlynth’s dayes,” says Holinshed, “was not fetched so far as out of Grecia, but rather bred in Scotland.”
From Hector Boethius it is clear that the Canes Scotici (qu. Canes Celtici) were superior to the native dogs of the isle: “Ut Picti suos canes Scoticis, pulchritudine, velocitate, laboris patientià, simul atque audaciâ longè inferiores animadvertissent: hujusmodi generis canum cupidi, ut penès se essent, è quibus nascerentur, quosdam utriusque sexûs à Scotis nobilibus dono accepêre: alios finito venatu, rege abeunte in Atholiam, à custodibus clàm abstraxêre, et inter eos venaticum quendam candore nivali, eximiâ pernicitate, formâ eleganti, audentiâque suprà communem canum facultatem, quem Crathlintus habuit in deliciis, insignem,” &c. See also Fordun. Scotichron. L. ii. c. xlii. (Regnante Diocletiano).