38 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



But there be other bestes five of the chase : 

 The buck the first, the second is the do ; 

 The fox the third, which hath ever hard grace. 

 The forthe the martyn, and the last the roe. 



Twice, or Twety, was grand huntsman to Edward the Second. 

 Lord AYilton, in his "Sports and Pursuits of the English," 



" Of the animals of chase, they were divided by some into 

 three classes, distinguished as beasts for hunting, beasts of the 

 chase, and beasts which afford 'greate dysporte.' By others 

 the division was into two classes, in which they are merely 

 marked as beasts of sweet flight, namely, the buck, the doe, 

 the bear, the reindeer, the elks, and the spytard, wliich is 

 described as a hart one hundred years old ; and beasts of 

 stinking flight, which are the fulemart, the fitchat or fitch, the 

 cat, the grey, the fox, the weasel, the marten, the squirrel, the 

 white rat, the otter, the stoat, and the polecat." ^ Rather a 

 curious assortment of game, and one that leads us to believe 

 our ancestors were at times content to chase very " small deer " 

 indeed. 



There was then a great distinction between a forest and a 

 chase, the beasts of forest being, as shown in the doggerel above, 

 the hart, hind, hare, boar, and wolf; those of the chase, the 

 buck, doe, fox, marten, and roe ; the rest of those enumerated 

 above, I take it, being free to all to hunt when and where they 

 could find them. 



In the present day the principal object of chase is the fox, 

 who received such scant grace formerly, and in his pursuit 

 more people engage and more money is expended than the 

 beasts of chase formerly cost altogether. There are now over 

 one hundred and sixty packs of fox-hounds in England, Scot- 

 land, Ireland, and Wales, and there is seldom a season that 

 we do not see some smaU increase in their numbers ; in fact, 



» Strutt's « Sports and Pastimes." 



