CHAP. I.] First Pack of Hotmds. 5 



action could not, at that period, be committed, as the 

 meaning now attached to the word " sport " was then 

 unknown. ^^ Crossbow " and " net ^^ first, and " gun " 

 afterwards, were the legitimate allies of hounds and 

 terrier, nor was it easy, even with this assistance, to keep 

 down the number of the destroyers. In the days of 

 Alwin, the Pytchley huntsman, who has been referred to 

 above, the fox was not even included in the list of 

 animals of the chase. The stag and hare are constantly 

 mentioned as being hunted by the Anglo-Norman sports- 

 men, but the first notice we have of the fox occurs in 

 the reign of Richard the Second, when the Abbot of 

 Peterborough becomes entitled by charter to pursue that 

 wily animal. 



It is not easy to say when the first regularly appointed 

 pack of hounds was established, but this could not have 

 been until the beginning of the last century at soonest. 

 So long as the country remained disafforested, the hart, 

 the wolf, the wild boar, and the hare were the principal 

 objects of the chase : and the harrier long had the pre- 

 cedence of the foxhound. At first the neighbouring 

 farmers kept a hound or two each (as is still the .custom 

 in Cumberland and some of the neighbouring counties), 

 and joined together occasionally to kill a fox that had 

 waxed fat upon their lambs and poultry. Next a few 

 couples were kept by small Squires who could afford the 

 expense ; and they joined packs : and so by slow degrees, 

 as riding in "the open ^' became more feasible, the 

 present system was elaborated. It is known, however, 

 that Lord Arundel kept a pack of foxhounds between 

 the years 1670 and 1700, which hunted in Wiltshire and 

 Hampshire ; and it is from the descendants of those 



