It will be evident, however, from the story of the noble hound whose history is just related, that the greyhounds of the time were very different from those which are used at the present day. There are no Gêlerts now to combat successfully with the wolf, if these ferocious animals were yet to be met with in our forests. The greyhound of this early period must have resembled the Irish wolf-dog of the present day, a larger, stronger, fiercer dog than we are accustomed to see. The owner of Gêlert lived in the time of John, in the early part of the thirteenth century; but, at the latter part of the fifteenth century, the following singular description is given of the greyhound of that period. It is extracted from a very curious work entitled "The Treatise perteynynge to Hawkynge, Huntynge, &c., emprynted at Westmestre, by Wynkyn de Werde, 1496." A greyhounde should be headed lyke a snake, And neckyd lyke a drake, Fotyd lyke a cat Tayled lyke a ratte, Syded like a teme And chyned like a bream. The fyrste yere he must lerne to fede, The seconde yere to feld him lede. The thyrde yere he is felow lyke. The fourth yere there is non syke. The fifth yere he is good ynough. The syxth yere he shall hold the plough, The seventh yere he will avaylle Grete bytches for assayle. But when he is come to the ninth yere Have him then to the tannere; For the best hounde that ever bytch had At the ninth yere is full bad. As to the destiny of the poor animal in his ninth year, we differ from the author; but it cannot be denied that few dogs retain their speed beyond the eighth or ninth year. There can scarcely be a better description of the greyhound of the present day; but it would not do for the antagonist of the wolf. The breed had probably begun to degenerate, and that process would seem to have slowly progressed. Towards the close of the last century, Lord Orford, a nobleman enthusiastically devoted to coursing, imagined, and rightly, that the greyhound of his day was deficient in courage and perseverance. He bethought himself how this could best be rectified, and he adopted a plan which brought upon him much ridicule at the time, but ultimately redounded to his credit. He selected a bull-dog, one of the smooth rat-tailed species, and he crossed one of his greyhound bitches with him. He kept the female whelps and crossed them with some of his fleetest dogs, and the consequence was, that, after the sixth or seventh generation, there was not a vestige left of the form of the bulldog; but his courage and his indomitable perseverance remained, and, having once started after his game, he did not relinquish chase until he fell exhausted or perhaps died. This cross is now almost universally adopted. It is one of the secrets in the breeding of the greyhound.