ight a gazehound, who hunteth by the eye: the fifth a
greyhound, cherished for his strength and swiftness and stature, commended
by Bratius in his _De Venatione_, and not unremembered by Hercules Stroza
in a like treatise, and above all other those of Britain, where he saith:
"Magna spectandi mole Britanni;" also by Nemesianus, libro Cynegeticon,
where he saith: "Divisa Britannia mittit Veloces nostrique orbis venatibus
aptos," of which sort also some be smooth, of sundry colours, and some
shake-haired: the sixth a liemer, that excelleth in smelling and swift
running: the seventh a tumbler: and the eighth a thief whose offices (I
mean of the latter two) incline only to deceit, wherein they are oft so
skilful that few men would think so mischievous a wit to remain in such
silly creatures. Having made this enumeration of dogs which are apt for
the chase and hunting, he cometh next to such as serve the falcons in
their time, whereof he maketh also two sorts. One that findeth his game on
the land, another that putteth up such fowl as keepeth in the water: and
of these this is commonly most usual for the net or train, the other for
the hawk, as he doth shew at large. Of the first he saith that they have
no peculiar names assigned to them severally, but each of them is called
after the bird which by natural appointment he is allotted to hunt or
serve, for which consideration some be named dogs for the pheasant, some
for the falcon, and some for the partridge. Howbeit the common name for
all is spaniel (saith he), and thereupon alluded as if these kinds of dogs
had been brought hither out of Spain. In like sort we have of water
spaniels in their kind. The third sort of dogs of the gentle kind is the
spaniel gentle, or comforter, or (as the common term is) the fistinghound,
and those are called Melitei, of the Island Malta, from whence they were
brought hither. These are little and pretty, proper and fine, and sought
out far and near to falsify the nice delicacy of dainty dames, and wanton
women's wills, instruments of folly to play and dally withal, in trifling
away the treasure of time, to withdraw their minds from more commendable
exercises, and to content their corrupt concupiscences with vain
disport--a silly poor shift to shun their irksome idleness. These
Sybaritical puppies the smaller they be (and thereto if they have a hole
in the fore parts of their heads) the better they are accepted, the more
pleasure also they provok