1 8 HUNTING. 



long been common in the Royal Hunt, but was then an innova- 

 tion. This gallant beast was taken in ' Burleigh's Pond,' as we 

 see in an accompanying engraving, but reserved for a future 

 occasion. So far all may have been well enough, but the 

 chronicler, unfortunately for his cause, is a little too minute in 

 his details. Not only were booths for refreshment erected at 

 the place of meeting, but, after the proper sport of the day was 

 over, a ' genteel marquee ' was pitched, appropriately enough 

 near an inn known as 'The Bald-Faced Stag,' wherein a lady, 

 'elegantly dressed 'in a riding-habit, and with 'a bewitching 

 face and fascinating address,' presided over sundry E.O. tables. 

 To turn again to our bibliography, in the seventeenth 

 century we find a great improvement. Gervase Markham's 

 ' Country Contentments,' and Richard Blome's ' Gentleman's 

 Recreation,' are not only intelligible enough for any reader, but 

 also extremely useful and practical ; so that Beckford's saying is 

 itself intelligible only on the supposition that he was unaware 

 of their existence. Markham was the son of a Nottinghamshire 

 squire, and a man of many pursuits and accomplishments. He 

 was a soldier, a poet, and a playwright, as well as a sportsman 

 and farmer. It was in his latter capacities, however, that he won 

 most fame. His treatises on horsemanship and sport were so 

 highly esteemed in his time that, according to a document in 

 Stationers' Hall, he bound himself by an agreement with his 

 publishers to write no more, lest the copyrights they already 

 held should be injured by further publications. Of Blome, or 

 Bloome, we know less. There is a man of that name very roughly 

 handled in the ' Athense Oxonienses ' for pirating an edition 

 of Bareham's ' Display of Heraldry.' He is described by Wood 

 as ' a kind of arms painter (originally a ruler of paper, and now 

 a scribbler of books), who hath since practised for divers years 

 progging tricks in employing necessitous persons to write in 

 several arts, and to get contributions of noblemen to promote 

 the work.' Blome's book was certainly published by sub- 

 scription, one of the editions containing the coats-of-arms of 

 the various subscribers. It also includes a treatise on heraldry, 



