WILLIAM in. AS A SPORTSMAN. 197 



was this. On the 21st of February being a Hunting near Hampton 

 Court, his Majesty's Horse unfortvmately stumbling, fell down under 

 him with great Violence, throwing him on a rising Ground, which 

 broke his Collar-bone, and was immediately set again by his chief 

 Surgeon. . . ." — The History of the Life and Reign of William III., 

 King of Englayul, Prince of Orange and Hereditary Stadtholder of 

 the United Provinces ... by John Banks, of the Middle Temple. 

 London, 1744, 8'^., page 374. 



"Feb. 21, 1701-2. The King, though ailing, frequently hunted 

 in the neighbourhood of Hampton Court Palace, where he was 

 then resicUng. After the accident he is reported to have said 

 to Dr. Bidloo that ' while I endeavoured to make the horse change 

 his walking into a gallop, he fell upon his knees. Upon that I 

 meant to rise him with the bridle ; but he fell forward on one side, 

 and so I fell with my right shoulder upon the ground.' It is a 

 strange thing, for it happened upon smooth level ground." — TindaVs 

 History of England, suh dato. 



According to the evidence cited above there seems to be very 

 little doubt that William III. met with the mishap in the 

 hunting field, from the effects of which he died at Kensington 

 Palace, between seven and eight o'clock, on the morning of 

 March 8, 1702. At any rate he, like all the monarchs of this 

 kingdom who bore the name of William, met his fate in the 

 saddle. It is somewhat remarkable to notice that in the reign 

 of William III. staghunting and buckhunting were synonymous 

 terms.* Nevertheless the former phrase usually applied to the 

 latter in its technical sense. Officially, " buckhounds " was 

 invariably the term from the ea,rliest times down to the de- 

 position of James II. ; and when the Hanoverians came in, the 

 correct appellation of this pack had necessarily to be employed 

 to distinguish it from the Royal Staghounds north of the 

 Trent, and so on until that pack was abolished and suppressed 

 by Act of Parliament in 1782. 



* It seems the Royal Harthounds were nominally amalgamated with the 

 Royal Buckhounds, in the reign of William III., for the purpose of economy, 

 and apparently placed under the latter Master and his staff. Hitherto these 

 two packs were totally distinct : the former being partly supported out of 

 the issues of Somerset and Dorset. In after times the Harthounds practically 

 became a pack of Harriers. 



