248 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



about a horse for you. He said he would give you a foal with 

 pleasure, but that he had not anything like a made horse to 

 spare ; even the barbs (Turcs) which Moranges brought over 

 here last were a disappointment. There was not one worth 

 having in the lot.' 



Francis II. and Charles IX. inherited the love of hunting 

 from both their parents. In spite of her fatness, Catherine 

 de Medicis was very fond of hunting. Modern and progres- 

 sive in many of her ideas, she had a soul above the numb 

 Norman or Flemish ' haquenee,' the Gustave Dore squire, 

 the brocaded leading rein, and the cushioned pad which 

 wobbled about on their lusty backs. So she invented a 

 side-saddle and started ladies riding to hounds. However, 

 like most inventors, Catherine de Medicis had to put up with 

 some early rebuffs. 



On one occasion she fractured her thigh, and on another fell 

 with such force on to her head that her skull had to be tre- 

 panned. Her daughter-in-law, Mary Queen of Scots, was also 

 unfortunate. Feeling bound, I suppose, to adventure herself 

 in the new saddle, she got a most disagreeable fall. Writing 

 to Queen Elizabeth from Blois, December 27, 1559, our 

 ambassador in Paris, Throckmorton, who was much esteemed 

 at the French Court as a ' veneur emerite,' relates in graphic 

 language and easy-going spelling how this lovely lady was 

 swept off by the branch of a tree when out stag-hunting. 



' The xix. of this present there happened a mervailous 

 chance and escape to the Frenche Queue ; who riding on 

 hunting, and following the hart of force, was in her course 

 cast of her gelding by a boughe of a tree, and with suddeines 

 of the fall was not hable to call for helpe. And albeit there 

 dyd followe her diverse gentlemen and ladyes of her chamber, 

 yet three or foure of them passed over her before she was 

 espied ; and some of there horses rode so nere her as her 

 hood was troden of. As sone as she was reised from the 



