2 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



devoted their talents and labours to a similar purpose. 

 That our m.anh'^ sports have been considered worthy 

 the pens of the most able ^vriters of their respective 

 ages, cannot be refuted ; and their appreciations must 

 be received as evidence of the importance with which 

 these sports were regarded. 



The manner of conducting field sports has varied very 

 considerably at different periods, not only with reference 

 to the customs which have been obsierved in the pursuit 

 of animals of the same kind, but, taking into account 

 the great numbers which in the feudal ages infested 

 our wilds and forests, and the essential differences in 

 the habits of those creatures, it was evidently impera- 

 tive to approach and pursue them with various strata- 

 gems. The sturdy bristly boar and ferocious wolf 

 could not be secured on the same terms as the fleet 

 and bounding deer, or the more cautious, timid hare. 

 Hunting was an expression evidently not confined to 

 the pursuit of any particular animals ; every creature, 

 from the active squirrel to the sullen wild boar, was, if 

 found in the woods, considered a suitable subject for 

 exercising the talent and feeding the passion — amor 

 venandi — of the hunter. The term hunting in those 

 days took a wide range ; for it was used to signify the 

 pursuit and destruction, by any means that could be 

 devised, of any of the wild natives of the woods calcu- 

 lated for food, or of the ferocious ones whose presence 

 was dangerous and annoying. But the word in its 

 present acceptation is confined to chasing animals with 

 hounds. 



Without being able to describe from personal 

 experience the customs connected with "La Chasse " 

 in France, as pursued at the present time, the accounts 

 with which we are favoured by various friends, both 

 orally and in print, savour vastly of those which we 

 read of in the earliest ages. Whether it be the boar, the 

 stag, or the wolf, a few hounds only are cast off in 

 seaxch ; the body of the pack, as we should call it, 

 being kept in reserve till the game is fairly roused from 



