A HUNTING CATECHISM 



INTRODUCTION 



That hunting has ever been the sport of kings, 

 and the occupation of their leisure hours, there is 

 ample evidence besides that of the immortal John 

 Jorrocks ; and in connection therewith the tragic 

 fate of King Edward the Martyr, who was so 

 treacherously stabbed by the direction of his 

 stepmother, Queen Elfrida (who wanted the 

 Crown for her own son), w^hile stopping on his 

 way home from hunting to drink a cup of wine 

 at her residence at Corfe Castle, and the accident 

 to William Rufus in the New Forest will occur 

 to every one. English history further relates the 

 fondness of the imperious Queen Elizabeth for 

 the chase, and how she shot at stags driven past 

 her in Windsor Forest ; while tradition yet lingers 

 in the dales of Yorkshire that King James I., 

 whose love of hunting became actually a passion, 

 when staying at Nappa Hall in Wensleydale, had 

 all the stags driven from the mountainous regions 

 of Bishopdale and Langstrothdale Chase into Ray- 

 dale, and made a " bag " of three hundred stags 

 in one day. 



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