462 ikings of tbe 1Rofc t IRifle, anfc 6un 



man the Vicomte d'Anchold. The Vicomte had read 

 accounts of Berkeley's famous hound Druid and his 

 single-handed feats against the wild deer of the New 

 Forest ; and, being anxious to see how the chase was 

 pursued in England, came all the way from his chateau 

 on the Nievre, two hundred miles south of Paris, to 

 gratify his curiosity. He was Berkeley's guest for 

 some time at Beacon Lodge rode, hunted, and fished 

 with his host, and had such a good time that he made 

 Grantley promise to visit him at his chateau and taste 

 the enjoyments of French sport. 



In his entertaining book "A Month in the Forests 

 of France," published in 1851, Berkeley has chronicled 

 his experiences of that visit. They were not exhil- 

 arating. His host, indeed, was a good sportsman, 

 according to his lights, but his notions of what con- 

 stituted sport were such as to excite the supreme 

 contempt of an English sportsman. " Their hunting 

 establishments," writes Berkeley, " are the greatest farce 

 I ever saw. The wolf, wild-boar, roe-deer, and fox are 

 the beasts of chase, and they had not a pack of hounds 

 able to catch any of them unless assisted by the gun." 

 This is not surprising when we read that the hounds 

 in a French kennel were rotting of mange, cooped up 

 without exercise from March to August, allowed no 

 meat food, and then, without even a day's preliminary 

 preparation, taken out to hunt cub-wolves in the blazing 

 heat. The huntsman was selected solely for his musical 

 abilities on the huge French horn which he carried he 

 was expected to play a variety of pieces of music, for 

 every animal of the chase had a separate air assigned 



