The Merry Past 



more first started during his minority with his stag- 

 hounds and sporting equipment it resembled the 

 hunting estabHshment of Louis the Fourteenth at 

 Fontainebleau, rather than the private hunt of a 

 British subject ! Four Africans were in this spend- 

 thrift's retinue, superbly mounted and dressed in 

 scarlet and silver. They were skilled performers on 

 the French horn, and occasionally, to quote a con- 

 temporary writer, '' in the woods and the vallies, 

 gladdened Diana with Handel's harmony, and at once 

 alarmed and pleased the browsing herds within the 

 compass of their mellifluous sound." 



The royal hunt as it existed under Louis XVI was 

 a fine sight. 



About a hundred and twenty horses would start 

 for the rendezvous in relays of three, a groom form- 

 ing the centre, with a led-horse on either side, the 

 grooms in royal livery, dark blue, deep red, and silver, 

 huge silver-laced cocked hats and demi-jack boots, 

 heavy enough to frighten an English horse to look at. 

 Then came the King in a carriage and eight, with his 

 gardes du corps. In due course, he mounted his strong, 

 bony, bay hunter, surrounded by nobles and courtiers 

 dressed in the royal livery, and in similar manner with 

 heavy boots and silver-laced hats. Many of them 

 had the seams of their coats laced, and some had three 

 stripes of alternate gold and silver lace, disposed in 

 the same way as certain grooms had alternate red 

 velvet and silver stripes. The King wore his own 

 livery, was very fat, very easy - looking, and very 

 healthy ; he sat back in his saddle, rode at almost full 



7* 



