HUNTING DIRECTORY. 17 



Old Method of Fox-hunting. 



berless old songs, which still continue great favourites 

 with the vulgar. 



But such a state of things was found incompatible 

 with the progress of civilization, and consequently gave 

 way to a different system : as the cultivation of the soil 

 proceeded, the wolf and the wild boar continued to retire 

 from the face of man, till at length they could no longer 

 shelter themselves, and were thus ultimately extermi- 

 nated. The stag, however, long maintained his ground 

 against the cultivators of the soil ; or rather, he might 

 be said to be taken under especial protection, and con- 

 tinued to animate and adorn the various forests, which 

 are not, even at the present day, entirely disafforested, 

 though little remains to remind us of their former appear- 

 ances. 



The stag constituted the principal object of chase after 

 the extirpation of the wild boar and the wolf, and stag- 

 hunting has continued the favourite pastime of royalty 

 to the present period. As the country was progressively 

 cleared of its useless woods and morasses, missiles were 

 laid aside in the pursuit of this animal, it being dis- 

 covered that his powers of speed and contrivance enabled 

 him to afford far superior diversion, when the exertions 

 of the hounds were unassisted by the use of those wea- 

 pons which had hitherto been employed on the occasion. 

 But, though the stag was regarded as the noblest chase, 

 the pursuit of the fox occupied the attention of the 

 sportsman, and the manner of it is thus described by a 

 writer of the seventeenth century: — "The fox is taken 

 with hounds, greyhounds, terriers, nets, and gins. 



