10 THE BELVOIR HUNT, 



Royal James was accustomed to enjoy on 

 chargers highly broken, and so completely 

 subservient to the hand, that going with 

 their haunches well under them, they never 

 exceeded three parts speed. The hounds, 

 therefore, must have been equally slow, or 

 the stately sovereign could not have en- 

 joyed their company. Some two centuries 

 and a half have, however, passed away since 

 that period. The poetical effusions of 

 Somervllle bear testimony that foxhunt- 

 ing had become an established pastime 

 ere he wrote his beautiful poem, '' The 

 Chase;" and as he died In 1742, at 

 fifty years of age, we have conclusive 

 evidence of the sport having been pre- 

 viously adopted. Passing over the times 

 when wild boars and wolves had been 

 hunted down and exterminated from our 

 woods and forests, the stag and the hare 

 were evidently the selected beasts of venery, 

 and it is apparent there was a transition, 



