100 WILD ANIMALS. 



In England we can find no trace of the animal being so used, 

 although, in an English MS. bestiary of the thirteenth century, 

 in the library of the British Museum, there is a representation 

 of a quadruped resembling a cheetah in pursuit of some animals, 

 apparently hares. It is' reasonable to suppose that the leopards 

 sent to Henry III. by his brother-in-law Frederick II., referred to 

 in the chapter on menageries, were in reality cheetahs ; for, as we 

 have seen, they were a favourite animal with the Sicilian king, and 

 both he and Henry III. had the same passionate fondness for 

 sport, and everything appertaining thereto. The leopards used on 

 the royal shield have more the appearance of the animals now 

 known as cheetahs than the ones we call leopards. If they were ever 

 employed in the chase in England the fact does not appear to have 

 been recorded, although the idea of carrying the animal upon the 

 saddle behind the hunter seems to have struck King James V. of 

 Scotland as a good one ; for we read in a correspondence between 

 this monarch and the Duke of Richmond, published in Jesse's^ 

 most excellent and exhaustive work, that he wanted to possess 

 blood-hounds which could ride behind men on horseback ; or, as he 

 expresses it in a letter from Holyrood, January 8th, 1526, "one 

 brais of blud hunds of y® leist bynd, yat as gud as will ryd 

 behynd men on hors bak ;" but the commission to procure them 

 appears to have been beyond the power of the Duke to fulfil. 



Tippo Saib, Sultan of Mysore, who was killed at the storming 

 of Seringapatam, 1799, had several cheetahs, with which he used 

 to hunt, and five of these identical animals were kept by Sir 

 Arthur Wellesley. Subsequently three of them were sent to 

 England. Two only arrived, and they were presented by Lord 

 Harris to the Duke of Cumberland, brother to George IV., who 

 placed the animals in the menagerie at Windsor. 



These cheetahs were accompanied by two Indian keepers who 

 used to treat them like pet dogs, and allowed them their full 

 liberty. However, against the wish of these men, they were sub- 

 sequently ordered by the king to be kept confined in a cage, and 

 the native attendants were dismissed. This treatment soon made 

 the creatures ferocious, and the Indians were reinstated as their 



1 "Eesearches into the History of the British Dog," by Geo. E. Jesse, 1866. 



