8 PREFACE. 



Script, iiiiist. And the Dame ^ being: no ordinary personage — ** Illustris foe- 



M. B. auct. I. ^ J r =. 



BaieoCent.8. niina, corporis et animi dotibus abundans, ac formse elegantia 

 oidys in Bio- gpectabilis — heroica mulier, in2;eniosa virago" — " a second 



graph. Britan- ^ > & o 



nica, in voce Minerva in her studies, and another Diana in her diversions" — 



Caxton, note. ' 



her contemporaries would doubtless receive a cynegetical trea- 

 tise from her cloister at Sopewell, with gratitude and admi- 

 ration. 



After the publication of the book of St. Albans, other cyne- 

 getica poetical arid prosaic, in various languages, followed in 

 rapid succession ; of which the earliest in my possession are 

 from the presses of Aldus and Feyerabendi ; but collectively 

 they afford very scanty instruction on the history and practice 

 of the leash. 

 Venaf. Hercu- The Epicedium of the Florentine poet, Hercules Stroza, ad- 



lis Strozje, &c. 



Francofoit. dresscd to the Duchess of Ferrara ; the hendecasyllables of 



1582. 



Adrian. Cardi- Adrian Castellesi, and the quatrains of John Adam Lonicer, 



nal. Venat. Al- ^ 



dus, 1534. with their accompanvina; *' icones artificiosissimae ad vivum 



Venat. et Au- r J & 



cup. per J. A. expressae," add nothing; to our stock of information. And the 



Lonicer. iran- ° 



p"^ L^d^ii Se ^^'^^ ™^y b^ ^^^^ of the chaste cynegetical eclogues, *' Sarnis 

 emit' Poem!'"' ^^ Viburnus," of Pctrus Lotichius Secundus, 



omnia. Burman- 

 mAmstel.1754. 



Qui cithara primus, qui primus carminis arte 



Inter erat vates, Teutonisora, tuos. 



1. The Biographia Britannica is amusingly severe in its strictures on the renowned 



Mrs. Barnes, and her incongruous occupations in the field and cloister. " There 



Biograph. Brit, appears such a motley masquerade — such an indistinctness of petticoat and breeches, 



note, Caxton, — such a problem and concorporation of sexes, according to the image that arises out 



"' * of the several representations of this 'religious sportswoman or virago, that one can 



scarcely consider it, without thinking Sir Tristram, the old monkish forester, and 



Juliana, the matron of the nuns, had united to confirm John Cleveland's ' Canonical 



Hermaphrodite.' " 



