10 Ikinos of tbe 1buntin9*J'iel& 



Julian Beckford of Stapleton, Dorset, and was born there 

 in the year 1740. He was educated at one of the 

 Universities, but I cannot find any definite statement 

 to enable me to decide whether it were Oxford or 

 Cambridge. Perhaps, from the classical character of his 

 studies, one may infer that it was the former. In 1773 

 he married Louisa, daughter of Lord Rivers, and by 

 special patent granted in 1802, his son, William Horace 

 Beckford, succeeded to the baron}^ as third Lord Rivers. 

 In 1768 Peter Beckford was elected member for Morpeth, 

 and sat in the House of Commons for several years. 



But cultured and accomplished though he was, Peter 

 Beckford's heart was in sport. With the exception of 

 William Somerville, whose long poem ' The Chase ' is as 

 full of practical information as of vivid word-painting, 

 Beckford was the first English writer to produce an 

 elaborate and accurate treatise on hunting, with some 

 literary merit. In 1781 appeared the first edition of his 

 famous and popular work, ' Thoughts upon Hare and Fox- 

 hunting : also an account of the most celebrated Dog- 

 Kennels in the Kingdom.' And a year later appeared 

 * Essays 07i Hunting : containing a philosophical inquiry 

 into the matters and properties of scent : on different 

 kinds of Hounds, Hares, etc., with an introduction describ- 

 ing the method of Hare-hunting among the Greeks.' 



The Thoughts on Hunting were first published anony- 

 mously in the form of familiar letters to a friend. The 

 book was supposed to be the work of a clergyman, I 

 am unable to say why, unless it were that no mere 

 country squire was thought capable of displaying so 

 much erudition, and the author was charged with in- 

 humanity, the more flagrant because of his sacred call- 

 ing. In self-defence Beckford published a second edition 



