SPORT ANCIENT AND 



MODERN 



1 



county of Hertford has from 

 the earliest times of British his- 

 tory been an important centre of 

 sport. It contained many large 

 forests which formed ideal strong- 

 holds for all beasts of the chase. 



Hunting is the oldest form of sport. In 

 the earliest times dogs were used for chasing 

 wolves and other beasts of prey, as well as to 

 catch animals suitable for food, such as deer, 

 hares, rabbits, etc. The earliest treatise in 

 England on hunting was written in French 

 by William Twici, huntsman to Edward II. 

 which was referred to as having been seen by 

 Strutt in the Cotton Library at the British 

 Museum. The next, called The Maister of 

 the Game, was written by the Duke of York, 

 son of Edward III. who was noted for his 

 skill and delight in hunting and hawking. 

 After which we have the well-known work 

 on hunting and hawking, called The Bake of 

 St. Albany written by Dame Juliana Berners, a 

 prioress of Sopwell nunnery, which was printed 

 and published at St. Albans in the year 1466, 

 therefore one of the earliest books printed 

 in England, and certainly the earliest printed 

 book on sport. Whether or no it was really 

 written by a lady, the author exhibits great 

 knowledge of the art of hunting and hawking, 

 and it was undoubtedly written and printed 

 by some one connected with the abbey of St. 

 Albans, to which Sopwell nunnery was a cell. 

 Britain has ever since remote ages been justly 

 celebrated for her hardy race of hunters and 

 for the excellence of her sporting hounds. 



Elizabeth's celebrated minister, Lord 

 Burghley, was a sportsman with a keen 

 eye for a good hound, and hunted in this 

 county. Writing from Theobalds, in 1580, 

 to Leicester, he thanks him for a hound, 

 observing, ' she maketh my hunting very 

 certain ; she hath never failed me, and this 

 last week brought me to a stagg which my- 



self had stricken with my bow being forced 

 to soyle when with the help of a water 

 spaniel your good brache helped to pluck her 

 down.' 



In pre-Norman times the nobles were less 

 restricted in sporting on their own lands than 

 they were after the Conquest, for William I. 

 introduced game laws of a much more 

 stringent nature and arrogated to himself 

 the entire right of hunting, not only in his 

 own forests but over all the lands of his sub- 

 jects. Sporting rights, hampered by many 

 restrictions as to the number of days and 

 the head of game, were but sparingly granted 

 by him to a few of his most powerful sub- 

 jects, both lay and clerical ; and the break- 

 ing of the forest laws was punishable by 

 severe penalties. 



William the Conqueror granted ' free 

 warren ' (i.e. the right of taking hares, 

 conies, partridges and pheasants) to the abbots 

 of St. Albans, Ely and Westminster, over 

 many of the manors in Hertfordshire ; indeed, 

 the abbots of St. Albans claimed the right of 

 ' free warren' over all the lands they possessed. 

 The king's claims to the sporting rights over 

 the lands of his subjects became in course of 

 time a great hardship, as owners of property 

 never knew when the king would swoop 

 down and take possession of their property 

 without compensation. The ' Charta de 

 Foresta,' which was granted by John's suc- 

 cessor, was therefore hailed with delight by 

 the people of England, and was almost of as 

 much benefit to them as the ' Magna Charta ' 

 had been. It limited the king's right of 

 hunting over other people's land to the king 

 himself, instead of allowing him to pass on 

 his right to the nobles, abbots and other 

 gentlemen of his court. It also provided 

 compensation to the people whose lands were 

 forcibly taken from them in order to form a 

 chase or hunting forest. 



345 



