CHAPTER I 



CHIEFLY HISTORICAL 



Antiquity of hare-hunting — Roland's horn — James I.'s 

 harriers — Queen Ehzabeth — Hunting bishops — • 

 Nicholas Coxe on hare-hunting — Old statutes — 

 The English squires — Somervile and his hounds — 

 His huntsman Hoitt — Somervile, the father of 

 modern sport — His lifelike description of hare- 

 hunting — Peter Beckford on harriers — Journey of 

 his pack of beagles — Various schools of hare- 

 hunters — Paucity of writers on this sport 



HARE-hunting can claim a more respectable antiquity 

 even than the chase of the fox. It may be doubted 

 whether Tickell, the poet, is correct when he designates 

 that mighty hunter, Nimrod, a follower of the timid 

 hare as well as of the noblest of great game, two 

 thousand years before the Christian era. He says 

 of that kingly sportsman : 



" Bold Nimrod first the Lion's Trophies wore, 

 The Panther bound, and lanc'd the bristling Boar ; 

 He taught to turn the Hare, to bay the Deer, 

 And wheel the Courser in his mid Career." 



Whether or not Nimrod occasionally descended to the 

 pursuit of the hare, it is certain that this form of chase 

 is a sufficiently ancient one. Xenophon, who flourished 

 three hundred and fifty years before the birth of Christ, 

 hunted hare with as much enthusiasm as our English 

 squires of the eighteenth century, and has left minute 



A 



