Note 426 — CANES VENATICI. Class III.
William Dansey translation
The hound described in the Linnean Society’s Transactions is stated to have been only 61 inches in length—a size surpassed by an example of the Canis Graius of the purest blood and greatest speed, (“facilis cui plurima palma,”) 62 inches long, now in myDe Venatione c. v. possession—ἔτι γάρ μοι ἦν, as Arrian says of his much-loved Hormé, ὁπότε ταῦτα ἔγραφον. But it is probable that the beautifully-majestic animal, which assisted in extirpating the wolf from the sylvan fastnesses of our islands, was heretofore of far greater size than the writer’sDe Venatione c. xxxii. ἄῤῥην κύων τῇ ἀληθείᾳ γενναῖος—of whom he might farther say in the words of Ovid,
Ovid. Metam. L. x. 562.
non dicere posses Laude pedum formæne bono præstantior esset.
Indeed Mr. Ray’s definition of the Canis Graius Hibernicus makes him of the greatest size of the whole canine race;Raii Synopsis Animal. “Canis omnium quos hactenùs vidimus maximus, Molossum ipsum magnitudine superans—quod ad formam corporis et mores attinet, cani Græco vulgari per omnia similis. Horum usus est ad lupos capiendos.”
If the reader be interested in the arcana of wolf-catching, he will find illustrations, and anecdotes thereof, in Oppian. Cyneg. iv. vs. 212.—in the Venationes Ferarum of Strada and Galle (pl. 49.)—Lupos Venandi Ratio of J. A. Lonicer—La Chasse du Loup of Jean de Clamorgan—Mayster of Game, c. vii. fo. 40.—Turbervile’s Art of Venerie, p. 208.—Venationis Lupinæ Leges of Savary, &c. The latter author turns out his whole kennel and armoury for the annihilation of this “fera bellua”—even the anathematized lévrier is now admitted:
Jac. Savary Venatio Lupina.
Non hanc, quæ lepori, nec quæ indulgentia cervo Debetur, meruêre lupi: fera bellua nullo Non sternenda modo: non illam sexus et ætas, Nullaque tempestas violento à funere servet. Non hîc Spartani canis interdicitur usu; Lina placent, catapulta juvat, venabula, cippus, Decipulæ, foveæ, atque podostraba, pardalianches, Et concurrentis vaga vociferatio plebis.
Derived from the Irish greyhound, and not very far removed from the original stock, was the gazehound of past days:
Tickell’s Miscellanies.
Seest thou the gazehound, how with glance severe From the close herd he marks the destined deer; How every nerve the greyhound’s stretch displays, The hare preventing in her airy maze, &c.
By Dr. Caius, he is supposed to be faithfully portrayed in the following extract:De Canibus Brit. Libel. “Quod visu lacessit, nare nihil agit, sed oculo: oculo vulpem leporemque persequitur, oculo seligit medio de grege feram, et eam non nisi bene saginatam et opimam: oculo insequitur: oculo perditam requirit: oculo, si quando in gregem redeat, secernit, cæteris relictis omnibus, secretamque cursu denuò fatigat ad mortem. Agasæum nostri abs re quod intento sit in feram oculo, vocant,” &c. To this portrait I can assimilate no dog at present known in this country, (though, it is probable, such might be produced between the Irish greyhound and blood-hound,) nor do the classic ages afford any counterpart to it.
Hor. Od. i. L. i. 27.
For Dacier’s explanation of the “catuli fideles” of Horace—“seu visa est catulis cerva fidelibus”—as des chiens qui suivent bien la bête, qui ne prennent jamais le change, so readily acceded to by the Delphin annotator, as portraying the English gazehound, is far too fanciful to establish a race of these “chasseurs à vue” in ancient Italy. Horace merely gives sagacity and steadiness to deer-hounds, or possibly the negative quality of not opening in pursuit of their game.