time formed the introduction to an extended work corresponding to that of Oppian.

That the Romans had borrowed some things in the art of hunting from the Gauls may be inferred from the name canis gallzcus (Spanish galgo) for a greyhound, which is to be met with both in Ovid and Martial, also in the words (cams) 'vertragiis and scquszur, both of Celtic origin ' According to Strabo (p zoo) the Britons also bred dogs well adapted for hunting purposes. Phe addiction of the Franks in later centuries to the chase is eudenced by the frequency with which not only the laity but also the clergy ere warned by provincial councils against expending so much of their time and money on hounds, hawks and faltons, and we have similar proof with regard to the habits of other l'eutonic nations subsequent to the introduction of Chrtsttctntty - Originally among the northern nations sport

.is open to every one 3 except to slaves, who were not permitted

to bear arms, the growth of the idea of game-preserving kept pate 1»'1 the development of feudalism. For its ultimate dex clopmtn' tn Britain see FOREST LAW, where also the distinction btt sein lvetists of forest or venery, beasts of chase and l)L¢lbl'~ in l tm in of v arren IS explained. See also GAME LAWS l/nlmz Hznzftizg -The term “ hunting ” has come to be applied specially to the pursuit of such quarries as the stag or lox, or to tolloning an artthcially laid scent, with horse and hound lt thus corresponds to the Fr chasse au courre, as distinguished from chasse au tir, ti l'oiseau, &c, and to the Ger. hetzjagd as distinguished from bzrsth In the following article the English practice ts mainly considered

Doubtless the early inhabitants of Britain shared to a large extent in the hal its of the other Celtic peoples; the fact that they kept good hunting dcps is vouched for by Strabo; and an interesting illustration of the manner in which these were used la given in the inscription quotctl by Orelli 1603)-*H Sllvano Inxicto Sacrum-ob .tprum eximiae formae captum, quem multi antetessores praedart non potucrunt ” Asser, the biographer of Alfred the (freat states that before the prince was twelve years of age he “ was a most expert and active hunter, and excelled in all the branches of that noble art, to which he applied with incessant labour and amanng success "4 Of his grandson Athelstan it ts related by Vl illiam of Malmesbury that after the victory of Brunanburgh he imposed upon the vanquished king of Wales a yearly tribute, hich included a certain number of “ hawks and sharp scented dogs at for hunting wild beasts.” According to the same authority, one of the greatest delights of Edward the Confessor nas “ to follo a pack of svtift hounds in pursuit of game, and to cheer them with his voice.” It was under the Anglo-Saxon kings that the distinction between the higher and lower chase first came to be made-the former being expressly for the ling or those on whoni he had bestowed the pleasure of sharing in it, hile only the latter was allowed to the proprietors of the land To the reign of Cnut belong the “ Constitutiones de l'oresta, ” according to hich four thanes were appointed in every province for the administration of justice in all matters connected ith the forests, under them were four inferior thanes to whom as committed immediate care of the vert and venison 5 The severity of the forest laws which prevailed during the Norman period is sufficient evidence of the sporting ardour of William and his successors The Conqueror himself “loved the high game as if he were their father ”; and the penalty for the unauthori7ed slaughter of a hart or hind was loss of both eyes

Hehn, Kullurpfianzen u. Hausthiere, p. 327

2 References will be found in Sm1th's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities -art on “ Hunting."

3 “ ta omnts in venattontbus . conslstit, " Caes B G, vi. 21. “ Quottes bella non meunt, multum venattbus, plus per ottum transigunt, " Tacitus, Germ 15.

4 See Strutt, Sporls and Pasltmes, who also gives an illustration, “ taken from a manuscrtptal painting of the 9th century in the Cotton Library, " representing “ a Saon ch.cfta1n, attended by his huntsman and a couple of hounds, pursuing the wild swine in a forest." 5 See Lappcnberg, Hts! of Ffigland under lhe Anglo-Saxon Kings (n 361 Thorpe's trans)

94-7

At an early period stag hunting was a favourite recreation with English royalty. It seems probable that in the reign of HenryVIII the royal pack of buekhounds was kennelled st at Swinley, where, in the reign of Charles II. (1684), a hu';'€, ng deer was found that went away to Lord Petre's seat in Essex; only five got to the end of this 70 m. run, one being the king's brother, the duke of York. George III. was a great stag hunter, and met the royal pack as often as possible. In T he Chase of the Wild Red Deer, Mr Collyns says that the earliest record of a pack of stag hounds in the Exmoor district is in 1598, when Hugh Polland, Queen Elizabeth's ranger, kept one at Simonsbath. The succeeding rangers of Exmoor forest kept up the pack until some 200 years ago, the hounds subsequently passing into the possession of Mr Walter of Stevenstone, an ancestor of the Rolle family. Successive masters continued the sport until 1825, when the fine pack, descended probably from the bloodhound crossed with the old southern hound, was sold in London. It is difficult to imagine how the dispersion of such a pack could have come about in such a sporting country, but in 1827 Sir Arthur Chichester got a pack together again. Stag hunting begins on the 12th of August, and ends on the 8th of October, there is then a cessation until the end of the month, when the hounds are unkennelled for hind hunting, which continues up to Christmas, it begins again about Ladyday, and lasts till the 10th of May The mode of hunting with the Devon and Somerset hounds is briefly this: the whereabouts of a warrant able stag is communicated to the master by that important functionary the harbour er; two couple of steady hounds called tufters are then thrown into cover, and, having singled out a warrant able deer, follow him until he is forced to make for the open, when the body of the pack are laid on. Very often two or three hours elapse before the stag breaks, but a run over the wild country fully atones for the delay.

It is only within comparatively recent times that the fox has come to be considered as an animal of the higher chase. William Twici, indeed, who was huntsman-in-chief to Edward II, and who wrote in Norman French a treatise on § ::t, ng hunting, ° mentions the fox as a beast of venery, but obviously as an altogether inferior object of sport. Strutt also gives an engraving, assigned by him to the 14th century, in which three hunters, one of whom blows a horn, are represented as unearthing a fox, which is pursued by a single hound. The precise date of the establishment of the first English pack of hounds kept entirely for fox hunting cannot be accurately hxed In the work of “ Nimrod ” (C. J. Apperley), entitled The Chase, there is (p. 4) an extract from a letter from Lord Arundel, dated February 1833, in which the writer says that his ancestor, Lord Arundel, kept a pack of foxhounds between 1690 and 1700, and that they remained in the family till 1782, when they were sold to the celebrated Hugh Meynell, of Quorndon Hall, Leicestershire Lord Wilton again, in his Sports and Pursuits of the English, says° that “ about the year 17 5o hounds began to be entered solely to fox.” The Field of November 6, 1875, p. 512, contains an engraving of a hunting-horn then in the possession of the late master of the Cheshire hounds, and upon the horn is the inscription:-“ Thomas Boothby, Esq., Tooley Park, Leicester. With this horn he hunted the first pack of foxhounds then in England fifty-five years. Born 1677. Died 1752. Now the property of Thomas d'Avenant, Esq, county Salop, his grandson.” These extracts do not finally decide the point, because both Mr Boothby's and Lord Arundel's hounds may have hunted other game besides fox, just as in Edward I'.'s time there were “ fox dogs ” though not kept exclusively for fox On the whole, it is probable that Lord V'ilton's surmise is not far from correct. Since fox hunting first commenced, however, the system of the sport has been much changed. In our great-grandfathers' time the hounds met early, and found the fox by the drag, that is, by the line he took to his kennel on his ieturn from a foraging expedition Hunting the “Le Art de venerie, translated with preface and notes b Sir Henry Dryden (1893), new edition by Miss A. Dryden <1909§ , including The Craft of Venerzf from a 15th-century MS and a 13thcentury

poem La Chasre d'nn ferj