1

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." 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

1 Maitland's Hist. London, book i. chap. 6.

T Stephanides Descript. London.

16

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 see '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 hare 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.3

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.

.2" 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. 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." Sco 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

and they are five; that is to say, the buck, the doe, the fox, the martin, and the roe.1

In the third class we find three, that are said to afford "greate dysporte" in the pursuit, and they are denominated, the grey or badger, the wild-cat and the otter.

Most of the books upon hunting agree in the number and names of the first class; but respecting the second and third they are not so clear. The beasts of the chase in some are more multifarious, and divided into two classes: the first called beasts of sweet flight, are the buck, the doe, the bear, the rein deer, the elk, and the spytard, which, as the author himself informs us, is a hart one hundred years old. In the second class, are placed the fulimart, the fitchat, or fitch, the cat, the grey, the fox, the wesel, the martin, the squirrel, the white rat, the otter, the stoat, and the pole-cat; and these are said to be beasts of stinking flight.2

XV.-WOLVES.

The reader may possibly be surprised, when he casts his eye over the foregoing list of animals for hunting, at seeing the names of several that do not exist at this time in England, and especially of the wolf, because he will readily recollect the story so commonly told of their destruction during the reign of Edgar. It is generally admitted that Edgar gave up the fine of gold and silver imposed by his uncle Athelstan, upon Constantine the king of Wales, and claimed in its stead the annual production of three hundred wolves' skins; because, say the historians, the extensive woodlands and coverts, abounding at that time in Britain, afforded shelter for the wolves, which were exceedingly numerous, and especially in the districts bordering upon Wales. By this prudent expedient, add they, in less than four years the whole island was cleared from those ferocious animals, without putting his subjects to the least expense; but, if this record be taken in its full latitude, and the supposition established, that the wolves were totally exterminated in Britain during the reign of Edgar, more will certainly be admitted

1 The Book of St. Albans adds, that all other kinds of beasts subject to hunting are to be called "Raskall," derived, I suppose, from the Saxon word papcal, which signifies a lean beast, or one of no worth.

2 The word in the original MS. is written fute and fuite, which I conceive to be French, and then the interpretation I have given of flight will be proper. The meaning is, that the latter leave a scent behind them when they are chased.

than is consistent with the truth, as certain documents clearly prove.

The words of William of Malmsbury relative to wolves in Edgar's time are to this purport. "He, Edgar, imposed a tribute upon the king of Wales exacting yearly three hundred wolves. This tribute continued to be paid for three years, but ceased upon the fourth, because nullum se ulterius posse invenire professus; it was said that he could not find any more;"1 that is, in Wales, for it can hardly be supposed that he was permitted to hunt them out of his own dominions.

As respects the existence of wolves in England afterwards, and till a much later period; it appears, that in the tenth year of William I. Robert de Umfranville, knight, held the lordship, &c. of Riddlesdale, in the county of Northumberland, by service of defending that part of the country from enemies and "wolves."2 Also in the forty-third year of Edward III. Thomas Engaine held lands in Pitchley, in the county of Northampton, by service of finding at his own cost certain dogs for the destruction of wolves, foxes, &c. in the counties of Northampton, Rutland, Oxford, Essex, and Buckingham. As late as the eleventh year of Henry VI. Sir Robert Plumpton held one bovate of land, in the county of Nottingham, called Wolf hunt land, by service of winding a horn, and chasing or frighting the wolves in the forest of Shirewood.4

XVI.-DOGS OF THE CHASE.

In the manuscripts before mentioned we find the following names for the dogs employed in the sports of the field; that is to say, raches, or hounds; running hounds, or harriers, to chase hares; and greyhounds, which were favourite dogs with the sportsmen; alauntes, or bull-dogs, these were chiefly used for hunting the boar; the mastiff is also said to be "a good hounde" for hunting the wild boar; the spaniel was of use in hawking; hys crafte," says the author, "is for the perdrich or patridge, and the quaile; and, when taught to couch, he is very serviceable to the fowlers, who take those birds with nets." There must, I presume, have been a vast number of other kinds of dogs known in England at this period; these, however, are all that the early writers, upon the subject of hunting, have thought

66

Hist. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. cap. 8. 3 Memb. 13.

4 Ibid.

Testa Nevelli.

See more in Blount's Ancient Tenures.