Ch. I. 



SINCE THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 



15 



A large proportion of our ancient parks were for the especial use of 

 the bishops and .dignified clergy, who, while they were forbidden by the 

 canon ',de clerico venatore,' to hunt 'cum canibus aut accipitribus, volup- 

 tatis caus^,' were permitted to do so ' recreatonis aut valetudinis gracii,' 

 — a rather subtle distinction. The archbishop of Canterbury had more 

 than twenty parks or chases, attached to the see,' and most of the bishops, 

 abbots, and priors are found to have been in the enjoyment of one or more 

 of these privileged places for the aristocratic sports of the field. 



The ancient Treatise on Hunting by William Twici, the huntsman of 

 Edward 11.,^ and the curious and more elaborate work on the same subject 

 calledj ' Le Livre du Roy Modus, et de la Royne Racio,' without mentioning 

 other authorities,, give us some quaint details of the various ways of hunting 

 carried on by our ancestors. These treatises are in question and answer, and 

 are written in Old French. Perhaps a better idea will be formed of the prac- 

 tice on these occasions by the woodcuts which I have given in this work, 

 copied exactly from some illu.strations in an early MS. of ' Le Roy Modus' 

 in my possession, than from any passages from the text itself, which, it must 

 be confessed, are somewhat long and tedious. They describe the manner of 



' Spelman's 

 no. 



'English Works,' 1723, p. 



^ Privately printed by the present Sir H. 

 Dryden, Bart. Sm. 4to. Daventiy, 1843. 



