houses, cushions, carpets, stool-seats," &c. Not but some of these masculine females have occasionally made their appearance: and at the commencement of the last century, it should seem that they were more commonly seen than in Burton's time, which gave occasion for the following satirical paper in one or the Spectators, written by Addison: "I have," says he, “very frequently the opportunity of seeing a rural Andromache, who came up to town last winter, and is one of the greatest foxhunters in the country; she talks of hounds and horses, and makes nothing of leaping over a six-bar gate. If a man tells her a waggish story, she gives him a push with her hand in jest, and calls him an impudent dog; and, if her servant neglects his business, threatens to kick him out of the house. I have heard her in her wrath call a substantial tradesman a lousie cur; and I remember one day when she could not think of the name of a person, she described him, in a large company of mea and ladies, by the fellow with the broad shoulders."

XLIV. THE AUTHOR'S LABOURS-CHARACTER OF THE

ENGRAVINGS.

Having laid before my readers a general view of the sports and pastimes of our ancestors, I shall proceed to arrange them under their proper heads, and allot to each of them a separate elucidation. he task in truth is extremely difficult; and many omissions, as well as many errors, must of necessity occur in the prosecution of it; but none, I hope, of any great magnitude, nor more than candour will overlook, especially when it is recollected, that in a variety of instances, I have been constrained to proceed without any guide, and explore, as it were, the recesses of a trackless wilderness. I must also entreat the reader to excuse the frequent quotations which he will meet with, which in general I have given verbatim; and this I have done for his satisfaction, as well as my own, judging it much fairer to stand upon the authority of others than to arrogate to myself the least degree of penetration to which I have no claim.

It is necessary to add, that the engravings, which constitute an essential part of this work, are not the produce of modern invention, neither do they contain a single figure that has not its proper authority. Most of the originals are exceedingly ancient,

1 Part ii. sect 2. cap. 4

No. 57, A. D. 1711.

and all the copies are faithfully made without the least unnecessary deviation. As specimens of the art of design they have nothing to recommend them to the modern eye, but as portraitures of the manners and usages of our ancestors, in times remote, they are exceedingly valuable, because they not only elucidate many obsolete customs, but lead to the explanation of several obscurities in the history of former ages.

January, 1801.

SPORTS AND PASTIMES

OF THE

PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.

BOOK I.

RURAL EXERCISES PRACTISED BY PERSONS OF RANK.

CHAPTER I.

I. Hunting more ancient than Hawking.-II. State of Hunting among the Britons. -III. The Saxons expert in Hunting.-IV. The Danes also.-V. The Saxone subsequently;-The Normans.-VI. Their tyrannical Proceedings.-VII. Hunting and Hawking after the Conquest.-VIII. Laws relating to Hunting.-IX. Hunting and Hawking followed by the Clergy.-X. The Manner in which the dignified Clergy in the Middle Ages pursued these Pastimes.-XI. The English Ladies fond of these Sports.-XII. Privileges of the Citizens of London to Hunt ;-Private Privileges for Hunting.-XIII. Two Treatises on Hunting considered.-XIV. Names of Beasts to be hunted.-XV. Wolves not all destroyed in Edgar's Time.-XVI. Dogs for Hunting.-XVII. Various Methods of Hunting.-XVIII. Terms used in Hunting ;-Times when to hunt.

1.-HUNTING MORE ANCIENT THAN HAWKING.

We have several English treatises upon the subject of Hunting, but none of them very ancient; the earliest I have met with is a MS. in the Cotton Library at the British Muscum,' written at the commencement of the fourteenth century. These compositions bear great resemblance to each other, and consist of general rules for the pursuit of game; together with the names and nature of the animals proper for hunting, and such other

1 Vespasian, B. xii. There are also three copies of this MS. but more modera, in he Royal Library. [See sec. xiii. of the present chapter.]

B

matters as were necessary to be known by sportsmen. Hawking most commonly forms a part of these books; and, though this pastime can only be considered as a modern invention, when it is put in competition with that of hunting, yet it has obtained the precedency, notwithstanding the sanction of antiquity is so decidedly against it. I shall, however, in the following pages, revert the arrangement of those amusements, and begin with hunting, which naturally, in my opinion, claims the priority of place.

II.-HUNTING AMONG THE BRITONS.

Dio Nicæus, an ancient author, speaking of the inhabitants of the northern parts of this island, tells us, they were a fierce and barbarous people, who tilled no ground, but lived upon the depredations they committed in the southern districts, or upon the food they procured by hunting. Strabo also says, that the dogs bred in Britain were highly esteemed upon the continent, on account of their excellent qualities for hunting; and these qualities, he seems to hint, were natural to them, and not the effect of tutorage by their foreign masters.2 The information derived from the above-cited authors, does not amount to a proof that the practice of hunting was familiar with the Britons collectively; yet it certainly affords much fair argument in the support of such an opinion; for it is hardly reasonable to suppose that the pursuit of game should have been confined to the uncultivated northern freebooters, and totally neglected by the more civilised inhabitants of the southern parts of the island. We are well assured that venison constituted a great portion of their food, and as they had in their possession such dogs as were naturally prone to the chase, there can be little doubt that they would exercise them for the purpose of procuring their favourite diet; besides, they kept large herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep, both of which required protection from the wolves, and other ferocious animals, that infested the woods and coverts, and must frequently have rendered hunting an act of absolute necessity.

If it be granted that the Britons, generally speaking, were expert in hunting, it is still uncertain what animals were obnoxious to the chase; we know however, at least, that the hare was not anciently included; for Cæsar tells us, "the Britons did not eat the flesh of hares, notwithstanding the island abounded

1 Dio Nicæus ex Xiphilin.

* Lib. iv.

Cæsar Bel. Gal. lib. vi.