^Nimrod ' 



he was'^ hunted, it was among rocks and crags, or woods 

 inaccessible to horsemen ; such a scene, in short, or very 

 nearly so, as we have, drawn to the life, in Dandie Dinmont's 

 primitive chasse in * Guy Mannering.' If the reader will turn 

 to the author of Hudibras's essay, entitled ' Of the Bumpkin, 

 or Country Squire/ he will find a great deal about the hare, 

 but not one word of the fox. What a revolution had occurred 

 before Squire Western sat for his picture ! About half- 

 way between these pieces appeared Somervile's poem of 

 ' The Chase,' in which fox-hunting is treated of with less 

 of detail, and much less of enthusiasm, than either stag- 

 hunting or hare-hunting ! 



It is difficult to determine when the first regularly ap- 

 pointed pack of foxhounds appeared among us. Dan 

 Chaucer gives us the thing in embryo : — 



' Aha, the fox ! and after him they ran ; 

 And eke with staves many another man. 

 Ran Coll our dogge, and Talbot, and Gerlond, 

 And Malkin with her distaff in her hond, 

 Ran cow and calf, and eke the veray hogges. 

 So fered were for berking of the dogges, 

 And shouting of the men and women eke. 

 They ronnen so, hem thought her hertes brake.' 



At the next stage, no doubt, neighbouring farmers kept 

 one or two hounds each, and, on stated days, met for the 

 purpose of destroying a fox that had been doing damage in 

 their poultry-yards. By-and-by a few couple of strong 

 hounds seem to have been kept by small country esquires, 



1 The words in italics are in italics in the original. 



