THE BUCK-HUNTING SEASON — SPORT. 225 



yours came yesterday, I was a-hunting buck on Putney Heath 

 with the Queen's buck hounds, there was a great appearance 

 of gentlemen, tho' a bad day, they did not thin out before 

 1 o'clock, so we had fair riding and good, tho' short sport." 

 Still, the legitimate season with the Royal Buckhounds, at and 

 for many years after the period now under notice, began in 

 July and continued until the end of September. When the 

 cares of state permitted, Queen Anne and the high officers of 

 the Court usually repaired to Windsor in July for the avowed 

 purpose of buck-hunting. The Royal Diana Venatrix was 

 early and " well entred " to the chase under the personal 

 supervision of her Royal father, who (before he wore the weary 

 crown) was the most ardent huntsman of his day. Imbued 

 with such venatic associations, Anne became a mighty hun- 

 tress. She continued to follow hounds on horseback until the 

 gout precluded the continuance of that exhilarating exercise. 

 Nevertheless her ardour for the chase remained undiminished ; 

 when she could not use the saddle she hunted on wheels. 

 Her Majesty's hunting calash was a light two-wheeled carriage, 

 containing a single seat, on which the Royal " whip " sate 

 gracefully poised, skilfully " tooling " the splendid black roadster 

 in the shafts.* In this vehicle she was enabled to follow a run 

 with the Buckhounds through the forest glades t of Merry 

 Windsor, sometimes covering forty miles in a single day. Her 

 personal expenses, for hunting hospitality, during the buck- 

 hunting season at Windsor — " from the first of July to the last 

 of September " — ^^usually came to about 550^., while the extra- 



* The Dnchess of Somerset, in a familiar letter to the Duchess of Devonshire, 

 dated Windsor, September 29, 1707, mentions that when out with the Buck- 

 hounds on the preceding day, she was thrown from her calash ; adding that 

 " everybody thought I had broken my bones, but, thank God, I had as little 

 hurt as was possible." 



f To William Lowen for making 8 ridings 40 foot broad for the Queen's hunt- 

 ing at 20Z. each, putting up posts and painting them, trenching Whitmore bog 

 to lay it dry, brick arching, trenching and leveling Condit and South hill 

 warrens, sowing them with fir-seed and broom-seed to make covers for the game, 

 destroying the coneys, and other works vsdthin Windsor Forest, by command of 

 H.R.H. Prince George of Denmark — 300^. — Treasury Papers, vol. xcv., 122 

 (p. 415). 



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