Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/370

dap. X. OF MARCHES TIEl*R. 339 v Deer 6 . And thefe a&ually continued in Ireland to the tWfcfcth century, being evidently defcribed by an author the cotempo- . rary of Henry the Second among the wild beafts ' of the jftfcad, * as flags little calculated for flight becaufe of their extreme: l)tt&; kinefs, rather low in ftature, but greatly fuperior to all other* > in the largehefs of their head6 and the dignity of their antlers V; Thefe however muft have been only a peculiar fpecies : of our . ifland deer. The common race muft have been the large red doer, * which have hofris much greater than our prefent bucks, are, ft Hi i found wild in bur' own foreft of Bowland and ia feveral jothep/ parts of Britain, and formerly abounded in all our woods. And the t latter was hunted by the Britons in all probability with that btgt bold dog. which exifts only in Ireland at prefent, and which -isr popularly denominated the Irifli wolf-dog. The buduhorftidi of the Britons, like the dog of Ireland, was grey-coloured; fcmgtii bodied, -and well-fcented, a&ive enough to run down andfhrongt enough to maftef a Britiflx ftag B . But very different muft have been the original game of the Manchefter hound. The^un-' common length of its body and the confiderable ftrength of it** jaws .are both evidently ufelefs in its prefent courfes after 'the* l^are. And the heavy bulkinefs of its frame and the confequent' flowncfa of its motions muft have equally difqualified it for the* chace of the ftag. And as the race has been long dwindling af Manchefter, fo from the great negleft and the gradual extinc- tion of it in the fouth it appears to have been there equally* dwindling for ages, and in all probability before the ftfain was introduced into Manchefter. Large therefore and flow as the dog is at prefent, it muft have been once confiderably larger and prqportionably flower. The fize of the dog has been ftudioufly' diminifhed at Manchefter in order to increafe its fpeed. And' in this view of the hound, enormoufly tall and long, arid un- cojximoaly .heavy and flow, we can find only one fp'ecies of game that is properly adapted to it. The bpar the wolf and the ftag are all evidently top fleet for its motions. . Its gehuine ob-' je&muft have been forae animal that } was at jeaft as hea'vy a? Xx 2 « ' .itfelf ,;