8 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



a small dog resembling our crooked-legged terriers, in 

 Germany called Dacks Hunden (corrupted into Taxles), 

 or badger-dogs, and although both in that part of the 

 Continent, and in France, many packs of hounds are 

 kept, they are employed in hunting the wild boar and 

 the stag, the " coup de grace " being in most instances 

 given by the gun or spear. As I before observed, 

 there is no fox-hunting on the Continent, with the ex- 

 ception of two small packs, which hunt the fox after the 

 English fashion in France, one near St. Malo's and the 

 other near St. Omer ; the latter was formerly the pro- 

 perty of a Mr. Whitnal, but now under the manage- 

 ment of Mr. Woodbridge. 



But to return to my subject ; it was at the end of 

 the seventeenth century that fox-hunting first became 

 an amusement in England ; before that time the sport 

 chiefly consisted in driving the animal to earth and 

 digging him out or trapping him. Hunting the hare 

 and stag are of much earlier date; we read in the 



practised ; but Mr. Bright, in his Travels through Austria, informs us, that so 

 lately as 1814, a similar exhibition took place in the neighbourhood of Vienna. 

 In mentioning the amusements with which the court were entertained in that year, 

 he describes one which was designated by the title of a " Royal Hunt," and says 

 that " the monarchs and royal personages who were to be the chief actors in this 

 tragedy, provided with fowling pieces, placed themselves in certain stations 

 within a large arena, which had been prepared for the purpose, several miles from 

 the city, and was surrounded by accommodations for a large assemblage of nobility. 

 Each of the sportsmen was attended by four pages, to assist in reloading, while 

 yeomen armed with spears stood behind to protect them from any danger which 

 might threaten. All being thus artfully arranged, a number of wild boars, deer, 

 hares, and other animals of chase, which had been before provided, were let loose 

 in succession, and the privileged sportsmen continued to fire, until the whole were 

 destroyed, or the destroyers were weary of their labour. It may excite some 

 surprise, but I was assured by one of the spectators, that, though all the monarchs 

 were tolerable marksmen, none shot so well as the Empress of Austria, who 

 always selected the hares as the smallest objects, and never failed to kill with a 

 single ball. The ladies, it was said, entered with spirit into this amusement, 

 and seemed delighted at the sufferings of a poor fox. which after being fired at 

 till a!l his legs were broken, still gasped for breath." 



