GIANTS OF THE PAST 



Better to hunt in fields for health unbought, 

 Than fee the Doctor for a nauseous draught. 



Dryden. 



The Antiquity of the Chase o ^:> 



IN the remotest period of our history, hunting is 

 mentioned as the principal diversion of our fore- 

 fathers ; and it forms a somewhat singular exception 

 to the laws of mutability, which appear to govern 

 all things beneath the moon, that, notwithstanding 

 the changes of laws, customs, usages, religion, 

 governments, habits, occupations, and of everything 

 of every kind connected with the inhabitants of 

 Great Britain, there is no time when the ardour of 

 the chase abated. 



After the expulsion of the Danes, and during the 

 restoration of the Saxon monarchy, the sports of 

 the field still maintained their ground. Edward the 

 Confessor, who was more suited for the cloister 

 than the throne, would join in no secular amuse- 

 ment but the chase. This, however, he took great 

 delight in, and " loved to follow a pack of swift 

 hounds in pursuit of game," says William of 

 Malmsbury, "and to cheer them with his voice." 



William the Conqueror, and his two sons who 

 succeeded him, were greatly devoted to the chase ; 

 and increased the restrictions concerning the 

 killing of game. . . . 



169 



