Americans, who have not been in England, and indeed many who have, can form no conception how numerous the hares are. Mr. Cobbett, in his "Rural Rides," October, 1822, gives. the following account of seeing "an acre of hares;" he writes: "We were coursing at Everly, in Wiltshire, and one of the party happened to say, that he had seen an acre of hares, at Mr. Hicks Beech's, at Netherhaven; we, who wanted to see the same, or to detect our informant, sent a messenger to beg a day's coursing, which, being granted, we went over the next day. Mr. Beech received us very politely; he took us into a wheat stubble, close by his paddock, his son took a gallop round, cracking his whip at the same time; the hares (which were very thickly in sight before) started all over the field, ran into a flock like sheep, and we all agreed that the flock did cover an acre of ground. Mr. Beech had an old gray hound, that I saw lying down in the shrubbery, close by the house, while several hares were sitting and skipping about, with just as much confidence as cats sit by a dog, in a kitchen or parlour. Was this instinct in either dog or hares? Then mind, this same grey hound went out among the rest and killed the hares with as little remorse. Philosophers may talk a long while before they will make men believe that this was instinct alone. I believe that this dog had much more reason than one half the Cossacks have; and I am sure he had a great deal more than many a negro that I have seen." There can be no doubt of a great deal of difference in the sagacity of animals, and in the reasoning powers of man. What saith the following couplet: "Shall only man be taken in the gross, Grant but as many sorts of minds as moss." POPE. It appears from a Welch proverb, "Wrth ei walche, ei farche, a 'i filgi, yr adwaeni bonheddig," that a gentleman was known by his hawk, his horse, and his grey hound, (Pennant.) The present rules of coursing were made in the time of Elizabeth, which have not been altered. As this exciting sport with the hare cannot be followed here, it will be useless to give them. But the grey hound might be used in the West, against deer, wolves, and other obnoxious animals. Such being the case, the following six lines contain a full description of this sort of dog: The head like a snake, The neck like a drake, The back like a beam, The side like a bream, But the nimble hare is often hunted by beagles, a beautiful little babbling hound. Colonel Hardy had a pack of this sort, ten or twelve couple, so small as to be carried to cover on a horse and a pair of panniers. Colonel Thornton's beagles were bred with so much endurance that they would tire down the strongest horses and hunters, and retire to their kennels comparatively fresh. But the harrier, a larger dog, are those most in repute for hare hunting; these will occasionally run down a fox, although not broke in expressly for that purpose. King James I., in his book ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΝ ΔΩΡΟΝ,* wrote a set of rules, addressed to his eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales, wherein he sets forth what pastimes he ought to pursue, both indoors and out; he says: "Certainly bodily exercises and games are very commendable, as well for banishing of idleness, the mother of all vice, as for making the body able and durable for travel, which is very necessarie for a king." After giving his opinion of which he ought to pursue, he states: "I cannot omit here the hunting; namely, with running houndes, which is the most honourable and noblest thereof; for it is a thievish forme of hunting to shoot with guns and bowes; and grey hound hunting is not so martial a game. He concludes his subject with the following advice to his son: "Beware in making your sporters your counsellors." This is, no doubt, very good; but the following is very doubtful: "Delighte not to keepe ordinarily in your companie comedians, or balladines." Some of the commedians, and balladines, of his day, were far his superior, and from their knowledge of the world, could have given as good advice to his son as those with whom he was usually surrounded. SPORTING TERMS. "Old customs, Oh! I love the sound, Whate'er with time hath sanction found, THERE is a language and terms very expressive, as in other sciences peculiar to sporting, as any one may learn by consulting a "Sportsman's Dictionary." The stags which ran wild in the king's forests were named as early (if not earlier) as Edward III., 1307, from their antlers,† * Basilicon Doron, or, a King's Christian Dutie towards God. + These antlers are real bones, and those of the elk are sometimes as heavy as fifty pounds weight; and in a fossil state in Ireland, have been dug thus the first year the male is called a calf, second year a brockett, third year a spayer, fourth year a stag, fifth year a great stag, sixth year a hart of the first head, &c. &c. In the notes to Sir Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake," is a curious account of the brytling, breaking up, or quartering of the stag. "The forester had his portion, the hounds theirs, and there is a little gristle, called the raven's bone, which was cut from the briskett, and frequently an old raven was perched upon a neighbouring tree waiting for it." The fallow deer, which are kept in the English parks, have also names, but not exactly the same as for stags. The males and the females the first year are called fawns, second year the females are called does, which name she always retains; but the male is called a prickett; third year, he is called a shard; fourth year, a sword; fifth year, a sword-ell, or sorrell; sixth year, a buck of first head; seventh year, a buck; eighth year, a full buck; he is then fit for killing, and not before: and in the summer is very fat, which he loses in winter. Buck venison is not fit to eat in winter, and ought not to be killed. "When beasts went together in companies, there was said to be a pride of lions, a lepe of leopards, an herd of harts, of bucks, and all sorts of deer; a bevy of roes, a sloth of bears, a singular of boars, a sowndes of swine, a dryfte of tame swine, a route of wolves, a harrass of horses, a rag of colts, a stud of mares, a pace of assess, a barren of mules, a team of oxen, a drove of kine, a flock of sheep, a tribe of goats, a sculk of foxes, a cete of badgers, a richess of martins, a fessynes of ferrets, a huske or a down of hares, a nest of rabbits, a clowder of cats, a kendel of young cats, a shrewdness of apes, and a labour of moles."--Strutt. When animals are retired to rest, a hart was said to be harbored; a buck lodged; a roe-buck bedded; a fox kennelled; a badger earthed; a hare formed; a rabbit seated. Dogs which run in packs are enumerated by couples: if a pack of fox-hounds consist of thirty six, which is an average number, it would be said to contain eighteen couples. Dogs used for the gun, or for coursing; two of them are called a brace, three a leash; but two spaniels, or harriers, are called a couple. They also say a mute of hounds, for a number; a kennel of raches, a cowardice of curs, and a litter of whelps. out of the bogs still heavier; a pair of the enormous measure of eight feet long, and fourteen from tip to tip; on beholding which, we may well indeed exclaim with Waller: "O fertile head! which every year "The seasons for alle sortes of venery," were regulated in the olden time, as follows: The "time of grace " begins at midsummer, and lasteth to holy-rood; the fox may be hunted from the nativity to the annunciation of our lady; the roe buck from Easter to Michaelmas; the roe from Michaelmas to Candlemas; the hare from Michaelmas to midsummer; the wolf, as the fox and the boar, from the Nativity to the Purification of our lady. So for birds is there a vocabulary; and first, for aquatic birds: an herd of swans, of cranes, and of curlews, a dropping of shel drakes, a spring of teals, a serges of herons and bitterns, a covert of cootes, gaggles of geese, sutes of mallards, baddylynges of ducks. Now for meadow and upland birds: a congregation of plovers, a walk of snipes, a fall of woodcocks, a muster of peacocks, a nye of pheasants, a dule of turtles, a brood of hens, a building of rooks, a numeration of starlings, a flight of swallows, a watch of nightingales, a charm of goldfinches, flights of doves and wood-pigeons, coveys of partridges, bevies of quails, and exaltations of larks. When a sportsman enquires of a friend what he has killed, the vocabulary is still varied, he does not use the word pairbut a brace of partridges, or pheasants, a couple of woodcocks, if he has three of any sort, he says a leash. If a London poulterer was to be asked for a pair of chickens, or a pair of ducks, by a female, he would suppose he was talking to some fine finicking lady's maid, who had so puckered up her mouth into small plaits before she started, that she could not open it wide enough to say couple. As the objects sportsmen pursue are so various, and as the English language is so copious, various terms have been brought into use so that the everlasting term pair, this pairing of everything (except in the breeding season,) sounds so rude, uninstructive, and unmusical, upon the 'ears of a sportsman, that he would as soon be doomed to sit for life by the side of a seatridden cribbage player as to hear it. It is the want of this knowledge, which makes the writings of Howitt and Willis, when they write upon this ever interesting national subject appear so tame; the sportsman peruses their pages with no more zest than he listens to the babble of a half bred hound; or "a ranging spaniel that barks at every bird he sees leaving his game.' ""* * Mr. Willis, in vol. iii, p. 203, "Pencillings by the way," gives the following information: speaking of the Duke's greyhounds (at Gordon Castle,) "Dinna tak' pains to caress them, sir," said the huntsman, "they'll only be hanged for it;" I asked for an explanation. "He then told me that a hound was hung the moment he betrayed attachment to any one, or in any way I regret it is out of my power to convey to my readers, an adequate idea of the quantity of game in those Islands-being feræ naturæ, they cannot be numbered. But they may be assured, the vast amount is entirely owing to the rigid attention paid to observing the time of killing them; if every whippersnapper was to be allowed to go and disturb, and destroy them during the breeding periods, they would soon become as thin as they are within twenty miles of this populous city. I will give two instances of the consumpton of only two individuals. They may give some idea, although a faint one. The average annual slaughter, at Halstone, in Shropshire, the seat of the late John Mytton, Esq. (who died 1834,) says Nimrod, his Biographer, was "1200 trace of pheasants, from 1500 to 2000 hares, partridges without number; he used to kill, with his own gun, always on the first of September, fifty brace of partridges, and the same number some days afterwards ; on his Welch estate, where there was plenty of grouse, he used to bag thirty brace the first day, (twelfth of August.) This gentleman was not an extensive landholder, but he was truly a great sportsman. He had wild fowl shooting, an heronry, and good fishing." And although dead, "The Earth Owns no such spirit as his." Manfred. The other instance, is at Belvoir Castle, the residence of the Duke of Rutland, who is not an extensive landholder, for a person of his rank. The general consumption " from December 1839 to April 1840, was of game, 2589 head; of wine, 200 dozen; of ale, 70 hogshead; wax lights, 2330; sperm oil, 630 gallons; dined at his grace's table, 1957 persons; in the Steward's room, 2421 persons; in the servants' hall, nusery and showed superior sagacity. In coursing the hare, if the dog abandoned the scent, to cut across or intercept the animal, he was considered as spoiling the sport if greyhounds leave the track of the hare, either by their own sagacity, or to follow the master in intercepting it, they spoil the pack, and are hung without mercy." Perhaps Mr. Willis will excuse me if I show how unsportsman like this is; in the first place, there are no packs of greyhounds; in the next place, those who attend on them are not called huntsmen; in the next place, they never run by scent: if they did, they ought to be destroyed. As to the caressing, no dog ought ever to be caressed without he had first performed some extraordinary feat, and then it should be done instantly. The everlasting petting or patting a dog, spoils it in its nature, its disposition, its temper, and its habits; it becomes worthless, except as a lap dog, and that is the most contemptible and worthless thing in all God's creation. Many years' close observation, has convinced me, that where the dog is once admitted into the house, and petted, the dogs, rule the children, and the children rule the rest; bringing in its train all the usual concomitants of turbulence, filth, and frowsiness; and turning the room into a dog kennel. "If men transact like brutes, 'tis equal then For brutes to claim the privilege of men." DRYDEN. |