4 HUNTING. 



indeed a long and varied one. To exhaust it would involve a 

 demand upon space and time scarce less, if less at all, than 

 that which would have been required by Mr. Caxton's ' History 

 of Human Error,' had that immortal though unwritten work 

 been ever released from the brain of its illustrious projector. 

 Attractive, therefore, as it might be to turn the eyes of the imagi- 

 nation backward o'er the 'abyss of time' to Xenophon putting 

 his precepts into practice among the hares he loved so well to 

 follow in his quiet Elean home ; or side by side with Synesius, 

 the squire-bishop of Cyrene, to chase the ostrich or the antelope 

 through the heavy African sands ; we propose to resist the at- 

 traction, and to confine ourselves to the history of the chase as 

 followed and recorded within our own islands ; starting from 

 the time when it began to be regarded rather as a recreation 

 than as a means for supplying what Mr. Matthew Arnold has 

 eloquently styled the ' great first needs of our poor mortality — 

 lodging, food, and raiment.' It is possible that our readers 

 may be inclined not to regret our self-denial. 



Beckford, in the introductory chapter to his ' Thoughts on 

 Hunting,' observes that Somerville is the only man, so far as 

 he knows, ' who has written on this subject so as to be under- 

 stood ; ' an observation supported by the preface to the edition 

 of 1820, in which it is stated with amazing effrontery or ignor- 

 ance, that ' till Mr. Beckford's book appeared no work on the 

 subject of hunting had been published, except an anonymous 

 publication in 1733, entitled "An Essay on Hunting.'" This is 

 a cruel slur on some most worthy men and amusing writers. 

 Indeed, the early masters of the 'Noble Art of Venerie,' as 

 they mostly delight to style their favourite pastime, are in their 

 way as quaint and entertaining companions as a man not too 

 steadily serious, to use Johnson's phrase, need wish to pass an 

 idle hour with. Their style is, no doubt, not exactly Addi- 

 sonian ; their spelling is somewhat arbitrary ; the entertain- 

 ment they provide is apt on occasion to take a form of expres- 

 sion contrary to the modern code of good manners. Let it be 



