INTRODUCTORY 7 



therefore, which was a necessity of human 

 welfare could not be accounted sport as 

 we now understand the term. In which 

 category are we to place the " mighty 

 hunter " Nimrod, the prototype of all his 

 successors ? What he hunted ; how he 

 hunted, the Scriptures sayeth not, and 

 Ave are left to conjecture. In the earliest 

 ages the dog was probably the chief, if 

 not the sole assistant of man in his quest 

 of wild animals ; but, as time went on, 

 various manual weapons for the destruc- 

 tion of birds and beasts were doubtless 

 invented and used. Clubs, darts, arrows, 

 springs, traps, and nets were all brought 

 into action, until in process of events the 

 fowling-piece was invented, and has been 

 evolved from the rude matchlock to the 

 highly complex, beautifully finished, and 

 deadly effective guns and rifles of our own 

 day. None of the earlier instruments and 

 methods of the chase, with the exception 

 perhaps of hawking or falconry, which 

 are of high antiquity and go back to the 

 Saxon occupation of Britain, could have 



