INTRODUCTION. 
5 
Queen Elizabeth was extremely fond of this sport, and 
the nobility who entertained her in her different pro¬ 
gresses, made large hunting parties, which she usually 
joined when the weather was favourable. She frequently 
amused herself in following the hounds. “ Her Majesty,” 
says a courtier, writing to Sir Robert Sidney, “ is well 
and excellently disposed to hunting, for every second day 
she is on horseback, and continues the sport long.”* At 
this time Her Majesty had just entered the seventy- 
seventh year of her age, and was then at her palace at 
Oatlands. Often, when she was not disposed to hunt 
herself, she was entertained with a sight of the sport. 
At Cowdray Park, Sussex, then the seat of Lord Montagu 
(1591), Her Majesty one day after dinner saw “sixteen 
bucks, all having fay re lawe, pulled downe with grey¬ 
hounds in a laund or lawn.”~|- 
No wonder, then, that the ladies of England, with the 
royal example before their eyes, found such delight in 
the chase during the age of which we speak, and not 
content with being mere spectators, vied with each other 
in the skilful use of the bow. 
To this pastime Shakespeare has made frequent 
allusion. 
In Loves Labour's Lost , the first scene of the fourth 
act is laid in a park, where the Princess asks,— 
* Letter from Rowland White to Sir Robert Sidney, dated 12th Sept. 1600. 
f Nichols’ “ Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of Queen. 
Elizabeth,” vol. iii. p. 90. (1788—1805.) 
