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Syr yf you be on huntynge founde,

I shall you gyve a good greyhounde
That is dunne as a doo :
For as I am trewe gentylwoman,

There was never deer that he at ran,

That myght yscape him fro.

It is evident, however, that the ladies had hunting parties by themselves.

4. LADIES HUNTING-XIV. CENTURY

We find them, according to this representation, in the open fields winding the horn, rousing the game, and pursuing it, without any other assistance: this delineation, which is by no

means singular, is taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library, written and illuminated early in the fourteenth century.

We

may also observe, that, upon these occasions, the female Nimrods dispensed with the method of riding best suited to the modesty of the sex, and sat astride on the saddle like the men; but this indecorous custom, I trust, was never general, nor of long continuance, even with the heroines who were most delighted with these masculine exercises. An author of the seventeenth century speaks of another fashion, adopted by the fair huntresses of the town of Bury in Suffolk. "The Bury ladies," says he, "that used hawking and hunting, were once in a great vaine of wearing breeches," which it seems gave rise to many severe and ludicrous sarcasms. The only argument in favour of this habit, was decency in case of an accident. But it was observed that such accidents ought to be prevented, in a manner more consistent with the delicacy of the sex, that is, by refraining from those dangerous recreations.2

Queen Elizabeth was extremely fond of the chase, and the nobility who entertained her in her different progresses, made large hunting parties, which she usually joined when the weather was favourable. She very frequently indulged herself in following of 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."3 At this time her majesty had just entered the seventy-seventh year of her age, and she was then at her palace at Oatlands. Often, when she was not disposed to hunt herself, she was entertained with the sight of the pastime. At Cowdrey, in Sussex, the seat of lord Montecute, A. D. 1591, one day after dinner her grace saw from a turret, "sixteen bucks all having fayre lawe, pulled downe with greyhounds in a laund or lawn." 4

The hunting dresses, as they appeared at the commencement of the fifteenth century, are given from a manuscript of that time, in the Harleian Collection.5

2. B. vii. [In the original drawing, and on Mr. Strutt's plate, the figures pursuing and pursued are in a line together: but for the purpose of including all the figures within the preceding page, the lady on horseback is placed above, instead of behind the female archer.]

MS. Harl. 6395. Merry Passages and Jeasts, art. 345.

Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, dated September 12, A.D. 1600.
Nichols's Progresses, vol. ii.
5 No. 4431.

[graphic][merged small]

XII.-PRIVILEGES OF THE CITIZENS OF LONDON TO HUNT

AND HAWK.

The citizens of London were permitted to hunt and hawk in certain districts. And one of the clauses, in the royal charter granted to them by Henry I., runs to this purport: "The citizens of London may have chases, and hunt as well, and as fully, as their ancestors have had; that is to say, in the Chiltre, in Middlesex, and Surry."1 Hence we find, that these privileges were of ancient standing. They were also confirmed by the succeeding charters. Fitzstephen, who wrote towards the close of the reign of Henry II., says, that the Londoners delight themselves with hawks and hounds, for they have the liberty of hunting in Middlesex, Hertfordshire, all Chilton, and in Kent to the waters of Grey, which differs somewhat from the statement in the charter. These exercises were not much followed by the citizens of London at the close of the sixteenth century, not for want of taste

Maitland's Hist. London, book i, chap. 6.
Stephanides Descript. London.

for the amusement, says Stow but for leisure to pursue it.' Strype, however, so late as the reign of George I., reckons among the modern amusements of the Londoners, "Riding on horseback and hunting with my Lord Mayor's hounds, when the commonhunt goes out."

This common-hunt of the citizens is ridiculed in an old ballad called the "London Customs," published in D'Urfey's Collection,2 I shall select the three following stanzas only.

Next once a year into Essex a hunting they go;

To sec 'em pass along, O 'tis a most pretty shew:

Through Cheapside and Fenchurch-street, and so to Aldgate pump,

Each man with 's spurs in's horses sides, and his back-sword cross his rump.

My lord he takes a staff in hand to beat the bushes o'er ;

I must confess it was a work he ne'er had done before.

A creature bounceth from a bush, which made them all to laugh ;

My lord, he cried, a bare a hare, but it prov'd an Essex calf.

And when they had done their sport, they came to London where they dwell,
Their faces all so torn and scratch'd, their wives scarce knew them well;
For 'twas a very great mercy, so many 'scap'd alive,

For of twenty saddles carried out, they brought again but five.

Privileges to hunt in certain districts, were frequently granted to individuals either from favour, or as a reward for their services. Richard I. gave to Henry de Grey, of Codnor, the manor of Turroe, in Essex, with permission to hunt the hare and the fox, in any lands belonging to the crown, excepting only the king's own demesne parks; and this special mark of the royal favour was confirmed by his brother John, when he succeeded to the throne.s

Others obtained grants of land, on condition of their paying an annual tribute in horses, hawks, and hounds. And here I cannot help noticing a curious tenure, by which Bertram de Criol held the manor of Setene, or Seaton, in Kent, from Edward I.; he was to provide a man, called “veltarius," or huntsman, to lead three greyhounds when the king went into Gascony, so long as a pair of shoes, valued at fourpence, should last him."

Stow's Survey of London, vol. i. p. 157.

"Pills to Purge Melancholy," 1719, vol. iv. p. 42.

3 Blount's Ancient Tenures.

4 Or "vautrarius," which Blount derives from the French vaultre, a mongrel hound, and supposes the name to signify an inferior huntsman; and this opinion I have adopted.

5 E c. An. 34 Edward I. No. 37. Richard Rockesley held the same land by the same tenure, in the second year of Edward II. Blount ut supra.

XIII. TWO EARLY TREATISES ON HUNTING.

I have mentioned two treatises upon hunting, in a former part (the first section) of this chapter; the earliest of them was originally written in French, by William Twici, or Twety, grand huntsman to king Edward II.' I have never seen the French tract, but the manuscript I spoke of is in English, and from its appearance nearly coeval with the original, but the name of John Gyfford is joined to that of Twety, and both of them are said to be "maisters of the game" to king Edward,2 and to have composed this treatise upon "the crafte of huntynge." The other, as before observed, was written by the master of the game to Henry IV. for the use of prince Henry his son, and is little more than an enlargement of the former tract.3 The Book of St. Albans, so called because it was printed there, contains the first treatise upon the subject of hunting that ever appeared from the press. It is however evidently compiled from the two tracts above mentioned, notwithstanding the legendary authority of Sir Tristram, quoted in the beginning. The Book of St. Albans is said to have been written by Juliana Barnes, or Berners, the sister of lord Berners, and prioress of the nunnery of Sopewell, about the year 1481, and was printed soon afterwards. This book contains two other tracts, the one on hawking, and the other on heraldry. It has been reprinted several times, and under different titles, with some additions and amendments, but the general information is the same.

XIV. NAMES OF BEASTS OF SPORT.

Twici introduces the subject with a kind of poetical prologue, in which he gives us the names of the animals to be pursued; and these are divided into three classes.

The first class contains four, which, we are informed, may be properly called beasts for hunting; namely, the hare, the hart, the wolf, and the wild boar.4

The second class contains the names of the beasts of the chase,

1 Entitled "Art de Venerie le quel Maistre Guillame Twici venour le Roy dangleterre fist en son temps per aprandre Autres; or the Art of Hunting, which Mr. Wm. Twici, huntsman to the king of England, made for the instruction of others." See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 221.

Cotton MS. Vespasian, B. xii.

MS. Harl. This book is entitled "The Maister of the Game."

The Book of St. Albans, I fancy, by mistake, places the wild roe for the wild boar.

C

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