CHAPTER IV. 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE 

 SPORT. 



Otter-hunting seems to have been one of the earliest 

 organised sports indulged in in the British Isles. It 

 is not improbable that our Celtic ancestors pursued 

 the Otter for sport in the boulder-strewn streams of 

 mountainous Wales, Cumberland, Devon, and Corn- 

 wall with some species of rough-haired water-dog 

 and flint-headed spears. At any rate, it is in these 

 districts, to which the dispossessed Celt was driven 

 by subsequent invaders, that Otter-hunting has always 

 existed, and is to-day most popular and most flourish- 

 ing; while, as I have shown elsewhere, the various 

 descriptive names for the Otter in the different Celtic 

 languages exhibit a close knowledge and appreciation 

 of the animal's characteristics. 



King John of England was the first M.O.H. of 

 whom we have any record, and we may perhaps be 

 allowed the speculation that his Otter-hunting 

 experience encouraged him to '^ swim the Wash," 

 with such disastrous results. 



