It is, therefore, important that the conformation of the dog should be such as to combine speed with a strength and suppleness that will, as far as possible, enable him to control and guide the velocity with which he is moving, as his quick eye sees the game swerve or turn to one side or another.

As the death of the hare when it is a kill of merit - that is, when accomplished by superior speed and cleverness, and not by the accident of the foremost dog turning the hare, as it were, into the killer's mouth - is a consideration in reckoning up the total of good points made, it is important that the dog should be formed to do this, picking up and bearing the hare in his stride, and not stopping to worry her as a terrier would a rat; and here many points come in which should be narrowly scanned and compared in the show ring, but too seldom are not, and these I will allude to in going over the several points.

In addition, there are other requirements for which the dog must possess qualities, to make him successful in the field and give him a right to a prize in the show ring, and which will be noticed in detail. A good idea of a course, with the gallant efforts of pursuer and pursued, is given in the following lines from Ovid, translated by Golding:

As when the impatient greyhound, slipped from far,

Bounds o'er the glade to course the fearful hare,

She in her speed does all her safety lie,

And he with double speed pursues his prey,

O'erruns her at the sitting turn; but licks

His chaps in vain; yet blows upon the flix.

She seeks the shelter which the neighbouring covert gives

And, gaining it, she doubts if yet she lives.

In forming an opinion of a dog, whether in selecting him for some special purpose of work or merely choosing the best out of a lot in the prize ring, first impressions are occasionally deceptive, get confirmed into prejudices, and mislead the judgment. But, in the great majority of cases, to the man who knows what he is looking at, what he is looking for, and what he has a reasonable right to expect, the first impression conveyed to the mind by the general outline or contour, and the way it is filled in, will be confirmed on a close critical and analytical examination of the animal point by point; and it is only by such close and minute examination that a judge can become thoroughly master of his subject, and arrive at a position where he can give strong, clear, and intelligible reasons for the opinions he has formed and the decision he has given. Moreover, there is that to be weighed and taken into account in the final judgment on the dog's merits which is referable to no part alone, which can only be appreciated on taking him as a whole, that is, life - that indefinable something which evades the dissector's knife, yet permeates the whole body, the centre power which is the source of movement in every quivering muscle, and is variously seen in every action of the dog and in every changing emotion of which he is capable.

This, I conceive to be the only difficulty in the way of judging by points, and it is not insuperable: this is probably what is often meant by condition and quality.

The judge must, however, as already said, consider, and, if need be, describe, not only the general appearance of the animal and the impression he conveys to his (the judge's) mind, but, as it were, take him to pieces, assessing the value of each particular part according to its fitness for the performance of the special function for which it is designed, and under the peculiar conditions in which it will have to act; and, having done so, he will find his first opinion confirmed precisely in the ratio of his fitness to judge.

Before taking the points of the greyhound one by one, I must give the description of a greyhound, as laid down in the doggrel rhymes of the illustrious authoress of "The Book of St. Alban's," Dame Juliana Berners or Barnes, somewhile Abbess of Sopewell, and since described as "a second Minerva in her studies and another Diana in her diversions." It would be sheer heresy to write of greyhounds without introducing her description, so universally has this been done; I therefore give it in full, which I have never seen done by any of our modern authorities. In doing so, I must confess there are two lines that to me are somewhat obscure. I, however, venture to suggest that in his eighth year he is only a lick ladle - fit to lick a trencher, and in his ninth year cart and saddle may be used to take him to the tanner.

The Properties of a Good Grehounde.

A grehound shold be heeded lyke a snake

And neckyd lyke a drake,

Footed lyke a catte,

Tayllyd lyke a ratte,

Syded lyke a teme,

And chynyd lyke a beme.

The fyrst yere he must lerne to fede,

The second yere to felde nim lede,

The thyrde yere he is felowe lyke.

The fourth yere there is none syke.

The fyfth yeare he is good enough,

The syxte yere he shall hold the plough,

The seventh yere he woll avaylle

Grete bytches for to assaylle,

The eygthe yere licke ladyll,

The nynthe yere cartsadyll;

And when he is comyn to that yere

Have him to the tannere,

For the best hounde that ever bytche had

At nynthe yere he is full badde.

To begin the detailed description with the head - which includes jaws teeth, eyes, ears, and brain development - first, the general form must be considered. It must be quite evident that "headed like a snake" cannot mean "like a snake's head," which is short, flat, and blunt, or truncated. I understand the Abbess to use the snake itself, not its head only, as a simile of the length and thinness of the greyhound's head.

Arrian says: "Your greyhounds should have light and well-articulated heads, whether hooked or flat-nosed is not of much consequence, nor does it greatly matter whether the parts beneath the forehead be protuberant with muscle. They are alone bad which are heavy-headed, having thick nostrils, with a blunt instead of a pointed termination." Edmund de Langley, in his "Mayster of Game," says, "The greihound should have a long hede and somedele grete, ymakyd in the manner of a luce; a good large mouth and good sessours, the one again the other, so that the nether jaws passe not them above, ne that thei above passe not him by neither;" and coming down to "Gervase Markham," in the sixteenth century, we have his description: "He should have a fine long leane head, with a sharp nose, rush grown from the eyes downward."