VENERIE AND THE V A LOIS 



253 



comments are valuable, backed by his eminent authority not 

 only as a man of letters, but as a judge of hunting. But a 

 book which interested me very much is not on this list — 

 namely, ' Meuttes et Venerie ' of M. Jean de Ligniville, w^hich 

 was pubhshed in 1635, although I do not think the book 

 enjoys the authority of Du Fouilloux or D'Yanville works. 



M. de Ligniville was born in 1580, and became Grand 

 Veneur to the Duke of Burgundy. Lorraine was in those 

 days a jealously preserved hunting country. Only the reign- 

 ing house, the great nobles, and the chief priests hunted and 

 sported. The clergy, as we understand the term, never 

 hunted in France. Arthur Young contrasts them favourably 

 with our parsons in this respect. ' Such advertisements,' he 

 writes, speaking of the pre-Kevolution clergy, ' were never 

 seen in France as I have heard of in England — " Wanted, a 

 living in a good sporting county where the duty is light and 

 the neighbourhood convivial." ' The great ecclesiastics, how- 

 ever, hunted on a very large scale. ' I am told, Monseigneur,' 

 said Louis XV. to the Abbe Dillon, Archbishop of Narbonne, 

 ' that you hunt. Is it not a bad example for your clergy ? ' 

 He replied : ' Sire, for them it would be undoubtedly a 

 grave fault to go hunting ; for me it is only a taste I have 

 inherited from my ancestors.' ' The law was express, 

 and recited its prohibitions with a clearness unknown to 

 modern parliamentary draftsmen. * Sauf aux prelats ct aux 

 gentilshommes defense de frequenter aux arquebuses et rouet 



La • Venerie de Jacques du Fouilloux, dudiee au loy Charles IX.' Poitiers, 

 15C0. Avec de tr^s belles figures. Beaucoup plus rapproche de nos proeed^s 

 que la date ne le ferait croire. Nous sommes ici dans le vif et presque dans 

 l'actualit6. 



Robert de Salnove: 'La Venerie Eoyale,' 1665. — Classique, mais a vieilli. 



Le Verrier de la Conterie : 'Venerie Normande,' 1778.— Tr^s complet. 



Le comte Desgraviers : ' Essai de Venerie,' 1804. — Bon resume : trt^s pratique. 

 Instruction pour chasser a Ermenonville et a Chantilly, pp. 310 a 327. 



D'Yanville, premier veneur : ' Traite de Venerie,' Paris, 1788, in 4". — Le livre 

 classique par excellence. 



' JcrningJiam Letters. 



