56 Modern Dogs. 



and for that length of time the sport has been 

 carried on in England pretty much on the same 

 lines as now, taking into consideration the change in 

 our mode of living and in the cultivation of the 

 land. But long prior to this period, foxhunting was 

 a fashionable pastime, and Edward II. had a hunts- 

 man named Twici, who, early in the fourteenth 

 century, became an author and an authority on sport. 

 He said : 



Draw with your hounds about groves and thickets and bushes 

 near villages ; a fox will lurk in rude places to prey upon pigs and 

 poultry, but it will be necessary to stop up earths, if you can find 

 them, the night before you intend to hunt ; and the best time will 

 be about midnight, for then the fox goeth out to seek his prey 

 . . . The best time for hunting a fox is in January, February, 

 and March, for then you shall but see your hounds hunting 

 . . . Shun casting off too many hounds at once, because 

 woods and coverts are full of sundry chases, and let such as you 

 cast off be old and staunch hounds, which are sure. . . Let 

 the hounds worry and kill the fox themselves, and tear him as 

 much as they please. 



And so proceeds the ancient royal huntsman, who 

 doubtless enjoyed his sport in those times with as 

 much gratification as do we ourselves at the present 

 day. 



Although thus early there were hounds similar to 

 those of modern times, they were not kept entirely 

 for the purpose of hunting the fox, and to be actually 

 perfect in work they should not be entered to any 



