THE QUEEN'S STAG-HOUNDS. BY LORD WILLIAM LENNOX. "The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey, As loyal subjects, we cannot more appropriately commence an article upon the royal hounds than by quoting the greeting of the above named noble Roman. "Many good morrows to your majesty!" and to your illustrious consort! add we-with that respect and admiration which is due to one who has endeared himself to all classes by the propriety of his conduct, the integrity of his character, and the undeviating rectitude of his whole life. Independent of which, his Royal Highness has already proved himself a lover of British sports, not only as a master of a pack of harriers, but as having "gone well" with the Belvoir hounds during his visit to the Duke of Rutland, in Leicestershire. Before entering upon the subject of Her Majesty's stag-hounds, we must make a "cast back" to hunting in the olden times. In every age of the world, mankind have been devoted to the chase; not only in their savage, but also in their civilised state. In the heathen mythology too, we find the sports of the field constantly alluded to, as in the cases of Diana (the goddess of hunters) Apollo, Cephalus, Acteon, Chiron, Meleager, Adonis, and last, not least, Saron. trust that your popular contributor who adopts this latter appellation will not meet with the fate that befel his namesake, that of being drowned in the sea, where he had swam for some miles in pursuit of a stag. Perseus was looked upon by the Greeks as the oldest hunter, although Castor and Pollux disputed his title; the first of these immortal twin brothers being a horse and the other a dog breaker. Return we to mortals. Alexander the Great was fond of hunting, as was Cyrus. In the piping time of peace, the latter monarch not only took all the officers of his court out hunting with him, but ordered the soldiers of his army to attend the chase; that, by so doing, they might become active on horseback, dexterous, agile, and vigorous. Before the reign of Artaxerxes, no one but the master had the right to kill or to maim the animal pursued. That prince permitted all who hunted with him to strike, and to kill if they could, the game they had in pursuit. Xenophon, the philosopher and general, after his famous retreat, retired to Solontum, where he amused himself, his sons and his friends, with the pleasures of the chase. It was here, also, that he wrote his works upon hunting. He looked upon this exercise as best calculated to form 66 a good soldier; that it habituated men to cold, heat, and fatigue; that it kindled courage, elevated the soul, invigorated the body, made the senses more acute, and retarded old age. The Romans made hunting an important concern: it was the school in which their warrior-chief's were formed. "All the amusements of the Roman youth," writes Pliny, was the chase. Courage made them hunters, and ambition heroes." Julius Cæsar praises the people of the North as being expert, both in hunting and war. Pompey, after having "larruped the African niggers," introduced among them the sports of the chase. the encomiums that have been bestowed upon the "noble science" by Plato, Xenophon, Cicero, Appian, Virgil, Horace, Seneca, Pliny the younger, Grotius, &c., clearly demonstrate how highly the chase was regarded in those days. In short, The Laplanders live almost entirely upon fish and game. The Tartars too, according to the authority of one of their historians, "draw the whole of their subsistence from the chase: when there is a scarcity of game, they eat their horses, and drink the milk of their mares. This, we presume, must be the regular Cream of Tartar. Reader, look out to your pockets, I have perpetrated a pun! In France, from the days of Charlemagne, the monarchs of that country have been mighty Nimrods. The fête of St. Hubert, the patron saint of hunting, is still kept up annually in that country. Jacques de Fouilleux, and Robert de Salnove, whose works upon the chase ought to be in every sportsman's library, give most interesting details of foreign hunting. The former describes Francis the First as the father of hunters. In the dedication of La Venerie de Jacques de Fouilleux, the author, addressing Charles IX. of France, says, "that among the various pursuits of men, whether in the arts, or in high and occult sciences, or in the study of philosophy, none can be compared, in his estimation, to the delights of the chase." St. Foix gives an anecdote of Francis the First, which proves the daring conduct of that prince: "When this monarch was at Ambroise, among other diversions for the ladies, he ordered an enormous wild boar, he had caught in the forest, to be let loose in the court before the castle. The animal, enraged by the small darts thrown at him from the windows, ran furiously up the grand staircase, and burst open the door of the ladies' apartment. Francis ordered his officers not to attack him, and waited deliberately to receive him with the point of his sword, which he dexterously plunged between his eyes, and, with a forcible grasp, turned the boar upon his back." This prince was then only in his one-and-twentieth year. Homer is perpetually alluding to, and deriving similes from, the different modes of hunting; and Virgil frequently mentions the subject. I shall quote one passage, to show how necessary it was considered in those days to "teach the young idea to shoot and hunt." -Natos ad flumina primum. Deferimus, sævoque gelu duramus et undis; The Greeks entertained their friends with hunting as one of their highest amusements. Cicero, speaking of intrepidity, mentions hunting particularly: "But those persons who wish to become illustrious in hunting and riding, regard no danger nor inconvenience." Pliny writes thus of the hound: "In hunting, his dexterity and sagacity are pre-eminent: he diligently seeks out the track, and pursues the chase, drawing on the accompanying huntsmen to his prey; which as soon as he perceives, how silent he is! how still! how significant is his discovery! His tail is first employed, then his nose." Horace, speaking of the chase, says"Romanis solenne viris opus, utile famæ, Vitæque et membris." Shakspeare writes as follows: HOR. EPIST. 18. "Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds; I would not lose the dog for twenty pound. And twice to-day picked out the dullest scent." Ben Jonson also eulogises the chase: "Hunting is the noblest exercise; Makes men laborious, active, wise; Brings health, and doth the soul delight; It helps the hearing and the sight. It teacheth arts that never slip The memory-good horsemanship, Search, sharpness, courage, and defence, And chaseth all ill habits thence." In the Spectator, it is prescribed as the best kind of physic for mending a bad constitution, and preserving a good one. Dryden writes as follows: "The first physicians by debauch were made ; Addison says, in another part of the Spectator" We find that those parts are most healthy, where they subsist by the chase, and that men lived longest when their lives are employed in hunting." Somerville, who writes with all the spirit and fire of an eager sportsman, gives the most animated description of the chase. 66 'Delightful scene! When all around is gay-men, horses, dogs; The partiality of many of our kings for hunting is well known, and the consort of our beloved queen often seeks the amusement of the field. What can be a more gratifying sight, than to behold kings, queens, and princes laying aside their distinctions of rank, and entering like private individuals into the pleasures of the chase? z 2 |