'd,
Are better proof than thy spear's point can enter;
His short thick neck cannot be easily harm'd;
Being ireful, on the lion he will venture.'"

[364] Chambers's "Book of Days," 1864, vol. ii. pp. 518, 519.

Such hunting expeditions were generally fatal to some of the dogs, and
occasionally to one or more of the hunters. An old tradition of Grimsby,
in Lincolnshire,[365] asserts that every burgess, at his admission to
the freedom of the borough, anciently presented to the mayor a boar's
head, or an equivalent in money, when the animal could not be procured.
The old seal of the mayor of Grimsby represents a boar hunt. The lord,
too, of the adjacent manor of Bradley, was obliged by his tenure to keep
a supply of these animals in his wood, for the entertainment of the
mayor and burgesses.[366] A curious triennial custom called the "Rhyne
Toll," is observed at Chetwode, a small village about five miles from
Buckingham.[367] According to tradition, it originated in the
destruction of an enormous wild boar--the terror of the surrounding
county--by one of the lords of Chetwode; who, after fighting with it for
four hours on a hot summer's day, eventually killed it:

"Then Sir Ryalas he drawed his broad sword with might,
Wind well thy horn, good hunter;
And he fairly cut the boar's head off quite,
For he was a jovial hunter."

[365] Hampson's "OEvi Medii Kalendarium," vol. i. p. 96.

[366] See _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. xcviii. pp. 401, 402.

[367] See "Book of Days," vol. ii. pp. 517-519.

As a reward, it is said, the king "granted to him and to his heirs
forever, among other immunities and privileges, the full right to levy
every year the Rhyne Toll." This is still kept up, and consists of a
yearly tax on all cattle found within the manor of Chetwode between the
30th of October and the 7th of November, inclusive. In "Antony and
Cleopatra" (iv. 13) Cleopatra alludes to the famous boar killed by
Meleager,

"the boar of Thessaly
Was never so emboss'd."[368]

[368] "Embossed" is a hunting term, properly applied to a deer
when foaming at the mouth from fatigue, see p. 179; also Dyce's
"Glossary to Shakespeare," p. 142; see Nares's "Glossary," vol.
i. p. 275.

_Bull._ Once upon a time there was scarcely a town or village of any
magnitude which had not its bull-ring.[369] Indeed, it was not until the
year 1835 that baiting was finally p