CUSTOMS AT THE GATHERING 13 



the venison cutlets were being prepared, with a drink 

 of wine, merry companions, and all the agremens of 

 conviviality, before retiring to the clean sheets, we 

 must accede to them the credit of having known how 

 to enjoy themselves. If those exertions did not invoke 

 the favours of Somnus, he must have been an unap- 

 proa-chable deity. 



We are often apt to imagine that the worthies of 

 olden times were wont to enjoy much more happiness 

 than we do at the present. If the foregoing sketches of 

 sporting life in the fourteenth century could be taken 

 as a faithful representation of daily occurrences, the 

 inference would be correct ; but when we contemplate 

 the wars, tumults, and contentions with which England 

 was beset, we must fairly conclude that the heroes of 

 those days did not drink from the cup of pleasure 

 without participating in much gall. 



Quaintly as the aforesaid directions are laid down, 

 they contain many very shrewd ideas, and conspicuously 

 as many of the customs in England have from time to 

 time undergone changes, most of them appear to be 

 continued to the very letter on the Continent. In a 

 very interesting narrative by " Acteon," published in 

 the Sporting Review, we read the following description 

 of the events which he witnessed at the place of meeting 

 of a hunting party in France during the autumn of 1852. 



" The party is at length arrived, and reposing under 

 the picturesque canopy of this ancient monarch of the 

 forest [an old oak tree previously mentioned]. The 

 centre is occupied with divers baskets of cold game 

 pies, roasted meats of various descriptions, and 

 numerous other delicacies, with hampers of wine, and 

 bags and boxes of sporting tackle. On some of the 

 already empty hampers repose the chasseurs, laughing, 

 joking, and chattering in the most degage hilarity." 



*' Of the ordainance, and of the manner of hunting when 

 the king will hunt in the forest or in the pork for the 

 hart with bows and with greyhounds. 



