388 HUNTING. 



of venery, excepting the martern and the roe ; nor 

 does Somerville in his poem treat him with the re- 

 spect that he pays to the stag or the hare. The 

 first public notice of him occurs in the reign of 

 Richard II., who gave permission, by charter, to 

 the Abbot of Peterborough, to hunt him. Hunt- 

 ing, however, in all its branches, appears to have 

 advanced steadily till the last century, when it 

 flourished greatly by the encouragement given to it 

 by George III. ; and as time improves every art, 

 it has at length, we believe, attained perfection. 



Whatever pastime mankind indulge in, their 

 first endeavour should be to make themselves ac- 

 quainted with the best means of pursuing it, which 

 will greatly increase the pleasure derived from it. 

 But as the philosopher was laughed at for his ofi'er 

 of teaching Alexander the Great the art of war, so 

 the theory of no pastime is worth any thing unless 

 it be based on practice. And perhaps, of all sports 

 invented by reason for the use and amusement of 

 mankind, there is none to which theory would avail 

 so little as the noble and popular one of hunting. 

 Indeed, the practical part of hunting, notwithstand- 

 ing its popularity, is but little known, at least but 

 little understood, from the perplexing difficulties 

 that accompany it ; and there is reason to believe 

 it was still less understood before the appearance of 

 a work, in which the whole system is minutely and 

 accurately detailed by an eminent sportsman and 

 master of fox-hounds, of the early part of the last 

 century. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that 

 the work alluded to is "Beckford's Thoughts upon 



