The Boke of Seynt Albans (or Book of Saint Albans) was the last of eight books printed by the 15th century British printing press, St Albans Press. Printed in 1486, the book was the “Esquire Magazine” of its time, a compilation of matters relating to the interests of gentleman at the time, and as such, dealt with essays on hunting, hawking, angling, and heraldry.

It also listed the names of “diverse manner of hounds,” or dogs that were known as the time. They included the Greyhound, “bastard” (a Greyhound cross), “mongrel,” “mastiff,” “lymer,” “spaniel,” “rache” (a running hound), “kenet” (a small hunting hound), “terrier,” “butcher’s hound,” “midden-dog,” “trundle-tail,” “prick-eared cur,” and small ladies’ puppies to bear away fleas.

Greyhound owners may be interested to know how a good example of their breed was described at the time:

A Greyhound should be headed like a snake
And necked like a drake,
Footed like a cat
Tail like a rat
Backed like a Beam,
Sided like a Bream

Some believe this to be the first written description of any breed, and it was said to be written in 1486 by a woman, Dame Juliana Berners, the Abbess of Sopwell Priory. For anyone interested in this lady, who is also said to have written the first bestseller on angling, read The Nun that Got Away.

Image: Medieval: c 1500 Gaston Phoebus ~ Greyhounds; Book of the Hunt; Pierpont Morgan Library M.1044, f.37v