"Aut trudit acres hinc et hinc multâ cane Apros in obstante plagas, Aut amite levi rara leiidit retia, Turdis edacibus dolos; Pavidumve leporem, et advenam laqueo gruem, Jucunda captat præmia."
Even after the introduction of the Celtic hound, who, as before stated, was far inferior as regards speed to the present race, it was no easy matter to take the hare, it being necessary to carry several couples of dogs into the field, and let them slip at certain intervals in the chase, so that the fresh dogs might, in this way, overtake the little animal, already frightened and fatigued by previous exertion.
In reference to this mode of coursing, the younger Xenophon particularly enjoins that to prevent confusion in the field, naturally arising from the hunters letting their dogs loose at improper intervals, from eagerness to see them run,
"that a steward should be appointed over the sport, should match the dogs, and give orders to the field:--if the hare start on this side, you and you are to slip, and nobody else; but if on that side, you and you: and let strict attention be paid to the orders given." (Arrian, chap. xx.)
Alciphron, in his familiar epistles descriptive of the domestic manners of the Greeks, gives a lively description of a course not very different from those of the present day, as will be seen in the following extract:
"In trying whether the young dogs were fit for the chase, I started a hare from a little bush; my sons loosed the dogs from the slips. They frightened her confoundedly, and were very near taking the game. The hare, in her flight, climbed a steep place, and found a retreat in some burrow. One of the more spirited of the dogs, pressing close upon her, gasping, and expecting to take her in his gripe, went down with her into the hole. In endeavouring to pull out the hare, he broke one of his fore-legs. I lifted up my good dog, with his lame leg, and found the hare half devoured: thus, when I hoped to get something, I encountered a serious loss." (Letter ix.)
We will close our remarks upon this subject by introducing a few descriptive lines, selected from one of the very rare English authors who have attempted a versification of this exciting sport.