NOTITIA VENATICA. 5 



of a conslilerablc part of the animal creation ; the using the moans of 

 defence, or flight, or precaution, forms also the business of another 

 part."* 



It is no less extraordinary than true, that although the votaries of the 

 chaste Diana arc much increased in numbers, as each hunting season 

 returns with the " cloudy sky" of November ; still the knowledge of 

 hunting is most truly considered to be on the decline. The " noble 

 science" is not cultivated as in the days of a Meynel, a Corbet, or a 

 Warde ; and although some wealthy and staunch supporters of the 

 " good old cause" are still left in the persons of some of our first 

 nobility, the rising representatives of our great aristocracy have, I fear, 

 far difierent allurements to the field than the cultivation of that noblest 

 of amusements. It has been often and justly remarked, that a man 

 cannot hunt from a bad motive, and that I must allow is good in the 

 main ; and whether it be the desire to enjoy the most exhilarating of 

 exercises, the innate fondness of " coftec-housing, " the harmless recre- 

 ation of exhibiting one's-self in a new scarlet coat and leather breeches, 

 or the real " amor vetiandi,'^ in the literal sense of the word, which 

 brings so large a congregation of neighbours together as may be Avit- 

 nessed grouped by the side of a fox-cover on a hunting morning, it mat- 

 ters but little, so long as it tends to the increase of good and cordial 

 feelings in a neighbourhood, and oft'ers so strong an inducement to gen- 

 tlemen of fortune to reside on their property in the country. One of 

 the greatest advantages held out in advertisements, for letting a house, 

 is its vicinity to any celebrated hunt, or its being situated in the centre 

 of various packs of hounds ; without which many houses, in retired parts 

 of the country, would never find tenants. The great Lord Bacon says, 

 in his essay on building, that a house is situated " upon an ill scat" if 

 there is in its neighbourhood " Avant of places at some near distance for 

 sports of hunting, hawking, and races." The style of shooting suited to 

 the taste of the present day has degenerated into the absurd display of 

 the annual battue ; and even some of the largest and best of the Eng- 

 lish preserves, and many of the most extensive of the shootings in Scot- 

 land, are in the sweeping and avaricious hands of the London poulterers. 

 Well, then, may we exclaim with Mr. D. Radcliffe — ^" that fox-hunting 

 is the very last link of amusement which has bound country gentlemen 

 to their homes." 



The average number of sportsmen who are seen at a " favourite fix- 

 ture" in one of our crack hunting countries is about a hundred and 

 fifty ; and occasionally as many as three hundred men in scarlet may be 

 counted, and which I have myself witnessed, in " Squire Osbaldeston's" 

 palmy days at Misterton. And Avhen the royal stag-hounds were taken 

 into the New Forest in 1836, the number of sportsmen who daily at- 

 tended them might be computed at about three thousand, of all ranks 

 and denominations. At a "woodland meet" in one of the " provincials," 

 the number is usually about thirty or forty ; and although, in the motley 

 crowd, numbers of men of rank and fortune may be found to give two 



* Paley's Nat. Theol. p. 253. 



