THE CHACE. 
About half-way between these pieces appeared Somer- 
ville's poem of "The Chace," in which fox-hunting is 
treated of with less of detail, and much less of enthu- 
siasm, than either stag-hunting or hare-hunting ! 
It is difficult to determine when the first regularly 
appointed pack of fox-hounds appeared among us. 
Dan Chaucer gives us the thing in embryo : 
" Aha, the fox ! and after him they ran ; 
And eke with staves many another man. 
Ran Coll our dogge, and Talbot, and Gerlond, 
And Malkin with her distaff in her hond. 
Ran cow and calf, and eke the veray hogges, 
So fered were for berking of the dogges, 
And shouting of the men and women eke, 
They ronnen so, hem thought her hertes brake." 
At the next stage, no doubt, neighbouring farmers kept 
one or two hounds each, and, on stated days, met for 
the purpose of destroying a fox that had been doing 
damage in their poultry yards. By-and-by, a few 
couples of strong hounds seem to have been kept by 
small country esquires, or yeomen, who could afford the 
expense, and they joined packs. Such were called 
trencher hounds implying that they ran loose about 
the house, and were not confined in kennel. Of their 
breed it would be difficult to speak at this distance of 
time ; but it is conjectured that they resembled the 
large broken-haired harriers now to be met with in the 
mountainous parts of Wales, which, on good scenting 
days, are nearly a match for anything by their perse- 
verance and nose. Slow and gradual must have been 
