452 MrxQB ot tbe Ibunttng-ffielO 



Williavt Silence, a study of Shakespearian and Eliza- 

 bethan sport which I commend to all lovers of hunting 

 and of Shakespeare. ' In each succeeding autumn,' says 

 the author, ' the thoroughly Shakespearian character of 

 the sport of stag-hunting and of its surroundings im- 

 pressed me the more.' And so he set himself to collect- 

 ing all the scattered allusions to field sports in Shake- 

 speare, who was, he contends, thoroughly versed in 

 hunting as it was then pursued in Gloucestershire and is 

 still pursued^ in Exmoor. There is an extraordinary 

 light thus thrown on many passages of Shakespeare 

 which have puzzled commentators, who were no sports- 

 men, but a key to which is to be found in the hunting 

 of the wild stag in Devon and Somerset. 



'If,' says Mr Justice Madden, 'we would realise in 

 some degree the England of three centuries ago, we 

 must seek it in the moorland districts of the west, where 

 the general elevation of the surface has restricted the 

 area of cultivation to the bottoms and the lower slopes 

 of the hills. Vast tracts of upland remain unenclosed, 

 the haunt of red deer and moorland ponies. There also 

 primitive manners linger, and ancient sport survives. 

 The hart is hunted as he was hunted throughout 

 England when Elizabeth was Queen. The Noble Arte of 

 Venerie is still cited as an authority. The village fair ; 

 the wrestling green ; the songs and catches of villagers 

 in the inn kitchen ; parson and yeoman discoursing at 

 the covert side on the mysteries of woodcraft ; the hare 

 hunt on the unenclosed hillside ; the assembly on the 

 opening day of the hunting season ; the " mort o' the 

 deer " in the moorland stream ; the frank recognition of 

 differences of rank ; the old-world games ; the harvest- 

 home dinner,— are all stray wafts of the Elizabethan age. 



