QUEEN ANNE IN THE HUNTING FIELD. 249 



failed to accomplish this vindictive intention ; but by her 

 enmity the Princess was excluded from all approach to 

 Windsor Castle and Park. Beyond the confines of Windsor 

 Park the Royal Hunt was free to all who desired to join in 

 with the hounds, a boon which even the " Knights of the 

 Road " appreciated. In this juncture Anne cleared the obstacles 

 placed in their path without turning a hair. Hunt she would, 

 and hunt she did. She purchased a cottage near the Castle, 

 and from this humble villa venatica joined in with the Royal 

 Hunt every summer, from 1689 to 1694, in which latter year, 

 by the death of Queen Mary, the unnatural severit}' to which 

 she had been subjected by her sister was removed. As heir- 

 apparent to the Crown, she was from this time onward treated 

 with all respect and deference at the Court of William III. 

 During those seven years we may depend she missed few 

 opportunities of hunting with the Royal Buckhounds. Un- 

 fortunately the chroniclers and Court gossips of the day rarely 

 condescended to notice passing events of that description; 

 indeed, the only specific instance we have met with being 

 recorded in September 1700, on which occasion, the heat 

 being excessive, the Princess was suddenly taken so ill that 

 Dr. Hanns was summoned from London to attend her. But 

 before the Court physician arrived, " an apothecary at Windsor, 

 by letting blood and other applications," quite restored her; 

 and what appeared to be of equal importance, the Court 

 physician " mightily approved of what the apothecary had 

 done"; consequently, as those doctors did not differ, H.R.H. 

 was able to resume hunting on the following Monday. 



When she ascended the throne in the spring of 1702, Queen 

 Anne, or her Ministers, committed an unintentional mistake in 

 placing the Royal Buckhounds on the Establishment of her 

 consort, the Prince of Denmark. As above explained, the 

 adoption of that course tended to diminish the dignity and 

 impair the efiiciency of the Royal Hunt from the Spring of 

 1702 to the Midsummer of 1709. During those seven years, 

 it appears to have been customary with Queen Anne to 

 drive in her calash from Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, or 



