INTRODUCTION. 5 



Queen Elizabeth was extremely fond of this sport, and 

 the nobility who entertained her in her different pro- 

 gresses, made large hunting parties, which she usually 

 joined when the weather was favourable. She frequently 

 amused herself in following the hounds. " Her Majesty," 

 says a courtier, writing to Sir Robert Sidney, "is well 

 and excellently disposed to hunting, for every second day 

 she is on horseback, and continues the sport long."* At 

 this time Her Majesty had just entered the seventy- 

 seventh year of her age, and was then at her palace at 

 Oatlands. Often, when she was not disposed to hunt 

 herself, she was entertained with a sight of the sport. 

 At Cowdray Park, Sussex, then the seat of Lord Montagu 

 (1591), Her Majesty one day after dinner saw "sixteen 

 bucks, all having fayre lawe, pulled downe with grey- 

 hounds in a laund or lawn."-f- 



No wonder, then, that the ladies of England, with the 

 royal example before their eyes, found such delight in 

 the chase during the age of which we speak, and not 

 content with being mere spectators, vied with each other 

 in the skilful use of the bow. 



To this pastime Shakespeare has made frequent 

 allusion. 



In Love's Labour's Lost, the first scene of the fourth 

 act is laid in a park, where the Princess asks, 



* Letter from Rowland White to Sir Robert Sidney, dated i2th Sept. 1600. 

 f Nichols' ' ' Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of Queen 

 Elizabeth," vol. iii. p. 90. (17881805.) 



