PRESENTED BY THE DOMESDAY BOOK OF DOGS Lightning raghound, snap dog, whippet. Old time whippet race. Mason 1915. "Frankly, there is little one can say in favour of small lurchers for a good coursing whippet with a lot of fire in its veins will do anything a small lurcher will do and have a 'sight more' dash and speed besides" Plummer, 1984 Unfortunately, those of the lower classes who might have indulged in poaching forays, rabbit coursing or terrier racing were not the same people who authored dog books or dictionaries. Many works are linked to this article but the inferences may, or may not, be accurate. For the bulk of the nineteenth century 'snap dog' was a term used for a greyhound cross (Murray, 1919), synonymous with lurcher, or a small lurcher at least. By the end of that century it had come to mean specifically 'whippet'. The reverend Hinchcliffe, 1856, recounts meeting a poacher and describes his dogs thus: "one, a we