176 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



Francis I., who ascended the throne of France 

 in 1515, also had his hunting leopards which, 

 according to Gesner {Hist. Anim.), were of two 

 kinds. From his description the smaller kind must 

 have been a Lynx. They must have been very 

 docile, for, he says, the keeper scarcely mounted 

 his horse before the beast jumped up after him, and 

 seated itself on a cushion behind the saddle. 

 Henry II., the successor of Francis I., in 1547 

 continued this kind of sport, and it appears to have 

 been patronised at the French Court until the days 

 of Henry IV., when the last trained leopards seen 

 in France were those brought by Marie de Medicis 

 from Florence in 1601. After that date, says 

 Baron de Noirmont, they were no longer to be 

 seen either in France or Italy, although in Germany 

 the sport was revived by Leopold I., who died in 



1705- 



y^So far as I am aware, there is no record of the 

 use of the hunting leopard in England. Even 

 James I., great sportsman as he was, drew the line 

 there. But an experiment (it can hardly be called 

 anything more) was once made in this direction by 

 the Duke of Cumberland, brother of George IV., 

 with one of the two Cheetas of Tippoo Sahib, 

 which, as above mentioned, were brought to 

 Windsor in 1799. The Duke made a large in- 

 closure in the park with strong netting 15 feet high, 

 into which he turned a stag from Windsor Forest. 

 The Cheeta was then brought in by two Indian 

 attendants and unhooded. The stag showed fight, 

 lowering his horns ; and the Cheeta, disliking the 



