REMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAX. 



CHAP. XXXIV. 



OLD COrNTEY GEIS'TLEMAJSr, 1638. — A " CEXTUEION." 



I READ lately an account which amused me of the cha- 

 racter and modes of living of a keen and thorough 

 sportsman of the year 1638. 



" There lived at that period," says the memoirs 

 of the Honourable William Hastings, as written by 

 the Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury, "Mr. Hastings, of 

 Woodlands, in the county of Southampton; by his 

 quality, son, brother, and uncle to the Earl of Hunt- 

 ingdon. He was, perad venture, an origiDal in our age, 

 or rather the copy of our ancient nobility, in hunting, 

 not in warlike times. He was very low, strong, and 

 active, with reddish flaxen hair. His clothes, which when 

 new were never worth five pounds, were of green cloth. 

 His house was jDerfectly old fashioned, in the midst of a 

 large park, well stocked with deer and rabbits, and 

 many fish ponds ; a great store of wood and timber ; a 

 bowling green in it, long but narrow, full of high ridges, 

 never having been levelled since it was ploughed ; round 

 sand bowls were used, and it had a banqueting-house 

 like a stand, built on a tree. Mr. Hastings kept all 



