4 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



hounds £38 IS. 5^., so that it is apparent that Queen 

 Elizabeth's harriers were reckoned at least as important 

 as any other part of her hunting establishment. The 

 hare, however, was always held from very early ages 

 in a highly honourable estimation as a beast of chase ; 

 far more so, in fact, than the fox, which, until towards 

 the end of the seventeenth century, was classed merely 

 as vermin to be destroyed anyhow and anywhere. 



Down to the time of the Reformation, not only the 

 noblemen and gentry, but churchmen of almost every 

 degree — save the poorer priests — hunted. Many of 

 the higher dignitaries maintained great state and 

 devoted most of their time to field sports. Walter, 

 Bishop of Rochester, who flourished in the thirteenth 

 century, and lived to the age of eighty, made hunting 

 his sole occupation, " to the total neglect of the duties 

 of his office." Becket, on his embassy to the Court 

 of France, took with him hounds and hawks, and no 

 doubt used them freely. The greater dignitaries of 

 the Church saw to it that they had ample hunting- 

 grounds. At the date of the Reformation the See of 

 Norwich possessed no less than thirteen parks, " well 

 stocked with deer and other animals of the chase." 

 Even in Charles I.'s time. Bishop Juxon was a keen 

 follower of the chase ; he maintained a good pack of 

 hounds, " and had them so well ordered and hunted," 

 says Whitlock, " chiefly by his own skill and direction, 

 that they exceeded all other hounds in England." 

 Parsons still hunt in England, but it must, one fancies, 

 be considerably more than a hundred years smce a 

 Bishop went out with hounds — even with a quiet pack 

 of harriers ! 



In the " Gentleman's Recreation," published by 

 Nicholas Cox in 1677, there is much curious and 

 odd information on hare-hunting, among other field 



