who delighted in the
pleasures of the chase. William the Norman, and his two sons who
succeeded him, were passionately fond of the sport, and greatly
circumscribed the liberties of their subjects in reference to the
killing of game. The privilege of hunting in the royal forests was
confined to the king and his favourites; and in order that these
umbrageous retreats might be made more extensive, whole villages were
depopulated, places of worship levelled with the ground, and every means
adopted that might give a sufficient amplitude of space, in accordance
with the royal pleasure, for the beasts of the chase. King John was
likewise especially attached to the sports of the field; whilst Edward
III. was so enamoured of the exercise, that even during his absence at
the wars in France, he took with him sixty couples of stag-hounds and as
many hare-hounds, and every day amused himself either with hunting or
hawking. Great in wisdom as the Scotch Solomon, James I., conceited
himself to be, he was much addicted to the amusements of hunting,
hawking, and shooting. Yea, it is oven asserted that his precious time
was divided between hunting, the bottle, and his standish: to the first
he gave his fair weather, to the second his dull, and to the third his
cloudy. From his days down to the present, the sports of the field have
continued to hold their high reputation, not only for the promotion of
health, but for helping to form that manliness of character which enters
so largely into the composition of the sons of the British soil. That it
largely helps to do this there can be no doubt. The late duke of
Grafton, when hunting, was, on one occasion, thrown into a ditch. A
young curate, engaged in the same chase, cried out, "Lie still, my
lord!" leapt over him, and pursued his sport. Such an apparent want of
feeling might be expected to have been resented by the duke; but not so.
On his being helped up by his attendant, he said, "That man shall have
the first good living that falls to my disposal: had he stopped to have
given me his sympathy, I never would have given him anything." Such was
the manly sentiment of the duke, who delighted in the exemplification of
a spirit similarly ardent as his own in the sport, and above the
baseness of an assumed sorrow.

1013. THAT HUNTING HAS IN MANY INSTANCES BEEN CARRIED TO AN EXCESS is
well known, and the match given by the Prince Esterhazy, regent of
Hungary, on the signing of the treaty of pea