Celtic dogs; Welsh legislation as to hunting and the dog, 357. Various The chief huntsman, his office, his privileges, and Enactments of the three codes, 361, 362. The 363. Value of certain skins; legal needles; penalties for killing or injuring the horse, hawk, or greyhound, 364. Value of different kinds of dogs, 365, 366. Penalties, 367. Signs of inhabitancy of a country; worth of a greyhound's furniture, Forests mentioned in Domesday; forest-laws before the Conquest, 372. Those of the Normans; ameliorated by the Charter of the Liberties of the Forest; game-laws of Canute written in Danish, 373. Canute's laws as translated (from the Latin) by Manwood, 374, 375. Compul- sory maiming of dogs, 375. King John's rigorous enforcement of game-laws; his hatred of priests, 376. Different methods of maiming dogs, 377. Little dogs allowed to labourers; penalty for keeping a dog not expeditated, 378. Laws regarding greyhounds; derivation of expeditating of dogs, 379. The practice under control; derivation of the word "mastiff,;" regulations respecting mastiffs, 380. Manner of expeditation; the practice continued down to the seventeenth century, 381. Assizes of Henry II. at Woodstock; Forest Charter of Henry III., 382. Legislation of Edward I. concerning dogs, 383. Maiming of dogs not introduced by the Normans, 384. Privileges granted by THE DOG. CHAPTER I. F all animals, the dog appeals most strongly to the OF hearts of human beings. It is the dog that by feeling, instinct, and education, can best appreciate our care, our love. Take the dog in the aggregate, weigh him against ourselves in moral qualities, such as patience, trustfulness, unselfishness -has he not often proved an example to shame man? How frequently the brute is our superior! If the world fail you, go home, and if you have a dog, there you will find a friend ever to be depended on. How many unhappy beings in neglect and solitude pass their hands fondly over the coats of their sympathising dumb companions, and say (perhaps unconsciously), “ You will never leave me nor desert me!" 66 In our own country alone, in addition to their utility, were it possible to prove how great is the amount of pleasure and amusement given by dogs, our surprise would only be equalled by our doubt, till reflection dispelled the latter. Yet with what ingratitude, with what selfishness is this gentle, generous, brave, and affectionate, but despised creature, too often treated by man-by the human, which is not, however, always the humane race! No sooner has he lost his teeth in our VOL. I. B service, like old Adam, than he is frequently either wilfully lost or remorselessly hanged, drowned, poisoned, or shot. The latter fates are merciful compared to the former; for then, added to the distress of mind in losing his god, the sole object of his love, and pole-star of his existence, he is exposed to the insults and ill-treatment of the cruel. In his case And being low, never relieved by any." At least by few; and those few who have had the feeling and moral courage to endeavour to alleviate his sufferings in this vast city, have met with the derision of the callous or unreflecting. There is to be observed this difference between the affections of the canine race and those of man, that in the dog they are centred mainly on one object. The whole stream of his being flows in one direction; he rides by a single cable, and his love is the sheet-anchor of his existence. Man, though he may, and often has, one loved creature in whom his heart finds its home and its repose, has also other tiesthose of offspring, of kindred, and of friendship. These are comparatively unknown to the dog. Man is, in truth, his deity, his absorbing object; and when the tie between them is severed, agonizing must be the heart's pangs the poor animal has to endure. "And now I'm in the world-alone!" Painful to witness is the despairing look of hopeless anguish in this faithful animal when death, or accident, or wilful 1 As You Like It, A. i. S. 1. 2 Venus and Adonis. |