HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 



15 



A worthy match to her would have been that stout old French 

 lady of whom Mr. Vyner tells us in his ' Notitia Venatica ; ' 

 Dame Marie Cecile Charlotte de Lauretan, Baronne de Dracek. 

 When she lived is not made precisely clear, but Mr. Vyner saw 

 her picture in 1839 when he visited the old castle in which she 

 used to hold her state, about sixteen miles from Calais. She 

 was painted on her favourite grey horse, dressed in a green 

 coat, with a gold waist-belt. Her hair was powdered and 





' Magnificent in sky-blue uniforms. ' 



arranged in large curls, and her hat was high crowned with a 

 gold band. Her nether woman was clad in boots and leather 

 breeches, and she rode as men do. Eight hunters were in her 

 stable, and in her bedroom she kept her favourite guns and 

 saddles. She hunted three days a week, and had a dinner party 

 on every hunting day. More than 670 wolves are said to have 

 fallen by her hand ; and when sterner game was not to be had, 



