We find no mention of this dog in the early Grecian records. The 'pugnaces' and the 'sagaces' are mentioned; but the 'celeres'--the swift-footed--are not spoken of as a peculiar breed. The Celtic nations, the inhabitants of the northern continent of Europe and the Western Islands, were then scarcely known, and the swift-footed dogs were peculiar to those tribes. They were not, however, introduced into the more southern parts of Europe until after the dissolution of the Roman commonwealth. The dog is, however, mentioned by Ovid; and his description of coursing the hare is so accurate that we cannot refrain from inserting it. We select a translation of it from Golding. "I gat me to the knap Of this same hill, and there behelde of this strange course the hap, In which the beaste seemes one while caught, and ere a man would thinke Doth quickly give the grewnd [9] the slip, and from his biting shrinke; And, like a wilie fox, he runs not forth directly out, Nor makes a winlas over all the champion fields about, But, doubling and indenting, still avoydes his enemie's lips, An turning short, as swift about as spinning-wheele he wips, To disappoint the snatch. The grewnd, pursuing at an inch, Doth cote [10] him, never loosing. Continually he snatches In vaine, but nothing in his mouth, save only hair, he catches." There is another sketch by the same poet: "As when th' impatient greyhound, slipped from far, Bounds o'er the glade to course the fearful hare, She in her speed does all her safety lay, And he with double speed pursues the 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." [11] The English, Scotch, and Irish greyhounds were all of Celtic derivation, And their cultivation and character correspond with the civilization of the different Celtic tribes. The dogs that were exported from Britain to Rome were probably of this kind. Mr. Blaine gives an account of the progress of these dogs, which seems to be evidently founded on truth. "Scotland, a northern locality, has long been celebrated for its greyhounds, which are known to be large and wiry-coated. They are probably types of the early Celtic greyhounds, which, yielding to the influences of a colder climate than that they came from, became coated with a thick and wiry hair. In Ireland, as being milder in its climate, the frame expanded in bulk, and the coat, although not altogether, was yet less crisped and wiry. In both localities, there being at that time boars, wolves, and even bears, powerful dogs were required. In England these wild beasts were more early exterminated, and consequently the same kind of dog was not retained, but, on the contrary, was by culture made finer in coat, and of greater beauty in form."