HUNTING TOURS. 289 



hunting the Cottesmore country. It would 

 be very interesting to determine at what 

 period, and by whom, the first pack of hounds 

 was used exclusively for the purpose of hunt- 

 ing foxes, but that point, I fear, cannot now 

 be determined. It is recorded in history 

 that James I., on his journey from Scotland, 

 beguiled his time with hunting, and that 

 from Newark he passed on to Belvoir Castle. 

 Live hares were liberated ; and, if history be 

 correct, hounds in those early days were 

 encouraged to hunt drag scents ; but no 

 mention is then made of the legitimate chase 

 of the fox. The poetical effusions of Somer- 

 ville bear testimony that foxhunting had 

 become an established pastime ere he wrote 

 his beautiful poem, "The Chase," and as he 

 died in 1742, at fifty years of age, we have 

 conclusive evidence of the sport having been 

 previously adopted. Passing over the periods 

 when wild boars and wolves had been hunted 

 down and exterminated from our woods and 

 forests, the stag and the hare were for a time 

 the selected beasts of venery, when it is 

 apparent there was a transition, so to speak, 

 to the chase of the fox. When hounds were 

 cheered on to either fox, stag, or hare, 



o 



