HUNTING DIRECTORY. 15 



Ancient Hunters. 



delay ; let my woods re-echo with the music of their cry, 

 and the cheerful notes of the horn ; and let the walls of 

 my palace be decorated with the trophies of the chase !" 

 Some of these clerical sportsmen, however, contrived to 

 blend amusement and business, as it were ; and in their 

 visitations through their dioceses, they were attended 

 with such numbers of horses, hounds, huntsmen, and 

 falconers, that the religious houses were frequently very 

 much distressed to provide for so numerous a retinue. 

 About the year 1200, the prior and canons of Bridlington 

 in Yorkshire, presented a formal complaint to the pope 

 (Innocent III) against the archdeacon of Richmond, who, 

 when he made his visitations, brought such a prodigious 

 number of attendants, that the complainants declared, 

 that his suite consumed more provision in one hour than 

 would serve the whole community a long time. The 

 pope, in consequence, despatched a bull, forbidding such 

 scandalous and oppressive visits in future. 



The monasteries also produced their mighty hun- 

 ters ; and William de Clowne, who is celebrated as the 

 most amiable ecclesiastic of his time, and who filled the 

 abbacy of St. Mary, in Leicestershire, is no less distin- 

 guished for his p: ofound skill in the science of the chase, 

 which is numbered amongst his excellent qualities ; and 

 that his kennel might always be well supplied with 

 hounds, the king granted him the privilege of holding a 

 fair or market, for the sole purpose of dealing in dogs. 



It would appear from ancient records, that the Anglo- 

 Saxons pursued the wild boar and wolf on foot ; while 

 the Normans improved upon this method by introducing 

 the horse, and directed their attention, for the most part, 



