Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/40

 24 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. In this memoir he gives a brief accoimt of the variety of dogs existing, in his time, in this coun- try, and adds a systematic table of them, subjoin- ing, for the instruction of his correspondent, their English names, which are as follows : " Terrare — harier — bludhunde — gasehunde — grehunde — leviner, or lyemmer — tumbler — spainel — setter — water- spainel, or fynder — spainel- gentle, or comforter — shepherd's dog — mastive, or bande- dog — wappe — turn-spit — dancer." Of his manner of treating his subject, the fol- lowing may be given as specimens : — The Terrare takes its name from its subterraneous em- ploy, being a small kind of hoimd, used to force the fox, or other beasts of prey, out of their holes. The Harier derives its name from hvmting the hare. The Bludhunde, or Slothunde, was of great use, and in high esteem, among our ancestors. Slot means the impres- sion left by the foot of the dog in the mire. This dog was remarkable for the acuteness of his smell, tracing any wounded game that had escaped from the hunter, and fol- lowing the footsteps of the thief, let the distance of his flight be ever so great. The bloodhound was in great request on the confines of England and Scotland, when the Borderers were continually preying on the herds and flocks of their neighbours, and was used also by Wallace and Bruce, during the civil wars. The Gasehunde would select from the herd the fattest and fairest deer, pursue it by the eye, and, if lost for a time, recover it, and again select it from the herd which it might have rejoined. (This species is novv extinct, or, at least, unknown.) The Grehunde was the first in rank among dogs, as appears from the forest-laws of Canute, who enacted, ' That no one tmder the degree of a gentleman should presume to keep a greyhound;' as also from an old Welsh saying, which signifies that you may know a gentleman by his hawke, his horse, and grehunde. Notwithstanding the rank