Taking the rough with the smooth?

These wonderful Roman mosaics of coursing were photographed in the Bardo Museum in Tunis. They date probably from the third century AD, and confirm that the Roman dog of choice by this period was a smooth-coated greyhound. A fragment of a vase of the same period found at Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England also shows smooth-coated greyhounds coursing hares.

The origin of the greyhound has never interested me greatly, anymore than the truth about evolution. As far as the latter is concerned, the state of humanity might persuade one that scientists have been “hunting the heel line” as foxhunters would put it, following the trail in the wrong direction.

Charles Darwin and I have something in common as we both went to the same college, but, after observing some human specimens, I would have liked to have asked him whether it was not just as likely that modern apes were a higher life form descended from homo so-called sapiens rather than the other way round.

For me, an Anglo-Saxon, the history of my country begins in 871 with Alfred the Great, and the history of greyhound sport begins in 1776 with the founding of the Swaffham Society, the first public coursing club. Even so, art and literature assure us that the greyhound probably existed several thousand years BC, although supporters of pharaoh hounds, salukis, and all sorts of curious hairy creatures would maintain that the same evidence would justify their claims to have on the sofa at home the original competitive hunting dog.

It cannot be denied, however, that by the sixth century BC the author of the Book of Proverbs could write:

“There be three things that go well, yea, four are comely in going:

A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any;

A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up.”

King James I, (reigned 1603-1625), who had commissioned this translation of the Bible, was a keen coursing man, and so there may be a suspicion for some that a sycophantic translator went for “greyhound” rather than pharaoh hound, saluki, afghan, whippet, or Arabian hunting dog, but we may be pretty confident that two thousand six hundred years ago the greyhound was already considered top dog. Mind you, a greyhound being ranked only just in front of a billy goat might seem to devalue its standing somewhat, although“an he goat” probably would have given some of my dogs a run for their money, but at least both greyhound and goat outranked the king in comeliness, not difficult in the case of the rather unappealing James I.

Arrian, that famous coursing apologist from the second century AD, tells us that the devotees of the Celtic hound, as he called the greyhound, had special spiked dog clothing to ensure that the breed’s pure blood wasn’t adulterated.

Rough-coated coursing dogs were still about at the dawn of organised coursing in England. Rule XIV of the Swaffham Society in 1776 stated, "No rough haired dog to be deemed a greyhound,” showing that the Swaffham members shared my own deep-seated prejudices in this matter. One famous Scottish breeder of the early 1800’s used to have both smooth and rough-coated dogs in his kennel, but the running ground north of the border in those days was often so poor that speed was hardly at a premium. The same man was notorious for skinning his dogs if they were put down, and wearing them as waistcoats. There was much speculation whether he wore them with the hair inside or out.