it is said that before alfred the great was twelve years of age, “he was a most expert and active hunter, and excelled in all the branches of that most noble art, to which he applied with incessant labour and amazing success;” and harold is represented in the famous bayeux tapestry with his hounds by his side when brought before william, duke of normandy. early accounts tell us how the privileges of hunting in the royal forests were confined to the king and his favourites, and history records how the new forest in hampshire was made by william, and how the park at woodstock, seven miles in circumference, was walled round by henry, his son.

but, apart from having been one of the most popular of our royal sports, hunting has not only been associated with many an important crisis in our history, but has had a romantic past. thus it was when henry was in the hunting-field, and the glancing aside of wat tyrrel’s arrow made him king of england, that an old woman in weird language addressed him thus:—

“hasty news to thee i bring,

henry, thou art now a king;

mark the words and heed them well,

which to thee in sooth i tell,

and recall them in the hour,

of thy regal state and power.”

{136}

king john was much attached to the chase, and in cranbourne chase, in the parish of tollard royal, is an ancient farmhouse known as king john’s hunting-seat, with which a legendary story is told. one day, it is said, king john, being equipped for hunting, issued forth with the gay pageantry and state of his day. as he rode along he heard a gallant youth address a lady nearly in these words:—

“we will, fair queen, up to the mountain’s top,

and mark the musical confusion,

of hounds and echo in conjunction.”

the happy couple left tollard royal on horseback, and as they took leave of the king the moon was sinking below the horizon. they were missing for several days, until the king, while hunting with his courtiers, found their lifeless remains. it appeared that when the moon set they must have mistaken their road, and have fallen “into a hideous pit, where both were killed.”

marguerite, second wife of edward i., was so keen a huntress that she was eagerly following the chase, when symptoms occurred which forced her to seek in haste the first roof she could reach. it was in a house at brotherton, a village in yorkshire, traditionally pointed out for centuries, that her firstborn son, thomas, afterwards duke of norfolk and grand marshal of england, first saw the light.

edward iii., at the time he was engaged at war with france, and resident in that country, had with him in his army sixty couples of stag-hounds, and

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edward iii.

{137}

as many hare-hounds, rarely allowing a day to pass without gratifying his favourite taste for hunting.

tradition, too, long identified “the queen’s oak” at grafton as where elizabeth woodville waylaid edward iv. in the forest of whittlebury, with a fatherless boy in either hand. she threw herself at his feet, and pleaded for the restoration of bradgate, the inheritance of her children. her downcast looks and mournful beauty not only gained her suit, but reached the heart of edward, who on making certain proposals received the memorable answer, “i know i am not good enough to be your queen, but i am too good to become your mistress.”

but what shall be said of henry viii., who on that eventful morning—the 19th of may 1536—attired for the chase, with his huntsmen and hounds around him, stood under the spreading oak in richmond park, breathlessly awaiting the signal-gun from the tower which was to announce the execution of his once “entirely beloved anne boleyn.” at last, when the sullen sound of the death-gun was heard, he joyously cried, “ha, ha! the deed is done, uncouple the hounds and away!”

how different were henry’s feelings on this day to what they had been in 1532, when cardinal du bellai, ambassador from francis i., gave this pleasant picture of another hunting scene in which the ill-fated anne boleyn took part: “i am alone every day with the king when we are hunting; he chats familiarly with me, and sometimes madame anne joins our party. each of them is equipped with bow and arrows, which is, as you know, their mode{138} of following the chase. sometimes he places us in a station to see him shoot the deer; and whenever he arrives near any house belonging to his courtiers, he alights to tell them of the feats he has accomplished. madame anne has presented me a complete set of hunting-gear, consisting of a cap, a bow and arrows, and a greyhound. i do not tell you this as a boast of the lady’s favour, but to show how much king henry prizes me as the representative of our monarch, for whatever that lady does is directed by him.”

elizabeth was fond of hunting, and the nobility who entertained her in her different progresses made large hunting-parties, which she usually joined if the weather was favourable. “her majesty,” says a courtier, writing to sir robert sidney,[67] “is well and excellently disposed to hunting, for every second day she is on horseback, and continues the sport long.” at this time her majesty had just entered her seventy-seventh year, and she was then at her palace at oatlands. and oftentimes, when she was not disposed to hunt herself, she was entertained with the sight of the pastime. at cowdray in sussex—the seat of lord montacute—one day after dinner, we read in nichols’s “progresses,” how her grace saw from a turret “sixteen bucks, all having fayre lawe, pulled down with greyhounds in a laund or lawn.” and many other accounts have been left us of the interest elizabeth always took in the chase.

james i. found much enjoyment in hunting, and{139} it was a common expression of our ancestors on taking leave of their friends, “god’s peace be with you, as king james said to his hounds.”

scaliger observed of him, “the king of england is merciful except in hunting, where he appears cruel. when he finds himself unable to take the beast, he frets and cries, ‘god is angry with me, but i will have him for all that.’” “his favourite pastime once nearly cost him his life, for he was thrown headlong into a pond, and very narrowly escaped drowning. on another occasion his bad horsemanship nearly proved fatal to him, for mr. joseph meade writes to sir martin stuteville, 11th january 1622: ‘the same day his majesty rode by coach to theobald’s to dinner, ... and after dinner, riding on horseback abroad, his horse stumbled, and cast his majesty into the new river, where the ice brake; he fell in so that nothing but his boots were seen. sir richard young went into the water and lifted him out.’” indeed, sir richard baker informs us the king’s riding was so remarkable that it could not with so much propriety be said that he rode, as that his horse carried him. he often hunted in cranbourne chase, and in a copy of barker’s bible, printed in 1594, which formerly belonged to the family of the cokers of woodcotes, in the chase, are entries of the king’s visits: “the 24th day of august, our king james was in mr. butler’s walke, and found the bucke, and killed him in vernedich, in sir walter vahen’s walk.”

in the painting of queen anne of denmark{140} in her hunting costume, her dogs are introduced by van somers; they wear ornamental collars, round which are embossed in gold the letters, a. r.; they are dwarf greyhounds. the queen holds a crimson cord in her hand in which two of these dogs are linked, and it is long enough to allow them to run in the leash by her side when on horseback. a very small greyhound is begging, by putting its paws against her green cut-velvet farthingale, as if jealous of her attention.

catherine of braganza, queen-consort of charles ii., loved sport, and from all accounts her hunting establishment was carried on in an elaborate manner, for mention is made of “the master of her majesty’s bows,” with a salary of ￡61 attached to his office; “a yeoman of her majesty’s bows,” “a master of her majesty’s bucks,” &c. at oxnead a venerable oak was long pointed out, beneath which, according to local tradition, king charles and his queen stood when they shot at the butts. in the year 1676 a silver badge for the marshal of the fraternity of bowmen, of which she was the patroness, was made, weighing twenty-five ounces, with the figure of an archer drawing the long english bow to his ear, with the inscription, “regin? catharin? sagitarii,” having also the arms of england and portugal, with two bowmen for supporters.

james ii. oftentimes hunted two or three times a week, and a contemporary thus writes: “his majesty to-day, god bless him! underwent the fatigue of a long fox-chase. i saw him and his{141} followers return, as like drowned rats as ever appendixes to royalty did.” in the year 1686, when pursuing the dangerous designs which led to his expulsion, he still indulged in the chase, and sir john bramston in his autobiography tells us how on the 3rd of may james hunted the red deer near chelmsford with the duke of albemarle, prince george of denmark, and some of the lords of his court. after a long chase, the king was in at the death between romford and brentwood. the same night he supped at newhall with his fellow-hunters; and on the next day he hunted another stag which lay in newhall park, and a famous run they had, for “the gallant creature leaped the paling, swam the river, ran through brampfield, pleshie, and the roothings, and was at last killed at hatfield.” on this occasion, too, james was in at the death, although most of the lords, including the duke of albemarle, were thrown out, much to his delight. but as his horse was spent, and royalty in some need of a dinner, lord dartmouth advised to make for copthall, the seat of the earl of dorset, and accordingly he sent a groom to apprise his lordship that his majesty would take family fare with him that day. it happened that the earl was dining out at rockholts, and the countess about to pay some visits in the neighbourhood, when the messenger met them, stopped the coach, and announced the royal intent. as her cook and butler were gone to waltham fair, she would have excused herself on the plea that her lord and servants were out, but{142} a second messenger following close on the heels of the first, she drove home, and sent her carriage to meet his majesty.

she exerted her energies to excellent purpose, and on his majesty’s arrival a handsome collation was prepared for him. well pleased, the king set forth for london, and on the road met the earl of dorset returning from rockholts, who, alighting from his coach, offered his regrets that he had not been at home to entertain his majesty.

“make no excuse, my lord,” replied the king, “all was exceedingly well done, and very handsome.”

king william’s favourite diversion was hunting, or rather coursing. in a letter to lord portland, dated from windsor, 1701, his majesty displays the keen relish he took in this sport: “i am hunting the hare every day in the park with your dogs and mine. the rabbits are almost all killed, and their burrows will soon be stopped up. the day before yesterday i took a stag in the forest with the prince of denmark’s hounds, and had a pretty good run as far as this villainous country permits.” it may be remarked that king william’s uncomplimentary epithets touching england and the english have been made the subject of strong comment; but, as it has been observed, the abhorrence of the land he ruled “was not founded on moral detestation of its vilest diversions, in the worst of which he partook.” as shown elsewhere, he was a desperate gambler, and count tallard, the french ambassador, mentioning some of his doings, thus{143} writes: “on leaving the palace king william went to the cock-fight, whither i accompanied him. he made me sit beside him.”

queen anne’s principal amusement was hunting. on the 31st of july 1711 swift writes to stella from windsor: “the queen was abroad to-day in order to hunt, but finding it disposed to rain, she kept in her coach. she hunts in a chaise with one horse, which she drives herself, and drives furiously, like jehu, and is a mighty hunter, like nimrod.”

on the 7th of the following month swift writes to stella: “i dined to-day with the gentlemen ushers, among scurvy company; but the queen was hunting the stag till four this afternoon, and she drove in her chaise above forty miles, and it was five before we went to dinner.”

her majesty must have had some skill in driving, or she would probably have met with a series of disasters similar to one which befell her friend the duchess of somerset, who was overturned.

prior to ascending the throne she purchased a cottage lodge in the neighbourhood of windsor, and every summer she hunted the stag in windsor forest. a noble oak with a glass plate affixed to it, intimating that it was called “queen anne’s oak,” as beneath its branches she was accustomed to mount her horse for the chase, was long a place of interest.

george ii. was often to be found in the hunting-field, and was on such an occasion usually attended by the queen, one or more of the princesses, the maids of honour, and a number of the courtiers{144} of both sexes. the sport was not unfrequently attended by accident, and one day the princess amelia had a narrow escape with her life. this princess was devoted to the pleasures of the field, and in the pursuit of her favourite amusement adopted a costume which more nearly resembled that of the male than the female sex. in the gallery at hardwicke there is a curious portrait of her—in a round hunting cap and laced coat—which, says mr. jesse, “those who are unacquainted with her peculiarities would hardly persuade themselves could be intended for a woman.”

it is recorded of charlemagne that he was passionately devoted to the chase, and arranged his hunting appointments with every show of luxury, it having been his special delight to show the splendour of his hunting establishment to foreign princes. when hunting, it is said, the organisation was like that “of a military expedition, and resembled the immense battues which the sovereigns of germany delighted in during the last century. armies of men beat the woods, and many packs of dogs drove all the animals of a large district into enclosures of nets and snares, when the hunters of the highest rank attacked them on horseback with the lance and the javelin.”

many of the french monarchs made hunting their favourite pastime. the coronation of philip augustus was postponed by the illness of the young prince. he was benighted whilst hunting in the forest of compiègne, brought home by a peasant, but was so terrified that a very long illness was the{145} result. the chase was the only sport that louis xi. cared for, and it is commonly said that he was as selfish and cruel in protecting his preserves as william rufus himself. it is related that louis at a later period cut off a norman gentleman’s ear for shooting a hare on his own grounds. basin goes so far as to say that montauban—one of the favourites of louis xi.—being appointed chief of forests and rivers—showed himself so severe and rapacious in the granting of licences and the punishment of offences connected with the chase, that the entire gentry of the country were filled with rage![68]

the bois de boulogne was formed by francis i., that he might hunt close to his capital, and the chateau de madrid was built in it for his night’s rest. fontainebleau, with its forty acres of forest, often resounded with the fanfares of the huntsmen, as the king’s gay train galloped through the wooded glades. more than once his life was in danger whilst fighting hand to hand with the wild boars caught in the nets; and one day he was dragged from his saddle by a stag which threw him to the ground. chambord, once the versailles of the south, owes its castle to him, which he built, after his imprisonment in spain, for a hunting lodge.

louis xiii. was fond of the chase, and versailles owed its grandeur to his love for hunting. tired of sleeping in a windmill, or a cabaret, when wearied with his long rides through the forest of st. leger,{146} he built a small pavilion, which was replaced in 1627 by an elegant chateau, which under louis xiv. assumed its later proportions. the latter monarch made his début in boar-hunting at the age of four, and his daily journal betrays the large portion of time given up to it in the midst of events which precipitated the french monarchy to ruin.

the only passion, it is said, ever shown by louis xvi. was for hunting. on one occasion, writes soulavie,[69] “he was so much occupied by it that when i went up into his private closets at versailles, i saw upon the staircase six frames, in which were seen statements of all his hunts when dauphin and when king. in them was detailed the number, kind, and quality of the game he had killed at each hunting-party during every month, every season, and every year of his reign.”

the story goes that when gustavus reached paris on june 7, 1784, he went on the same evening to versailles. but louis had been hunting, and was at supper at rambouillet when a courier from vergennes brought him the news. the king at once retired to versailles, but not being expected, could find neither valets-de-chambre nor keys. accordingly, he was compelled to dress as best he could, and finally made his appearance before his royal guest in two odd shoes—one with a red, the other with a black heel—with odd buckles—one gold, one silver—and the rest of his dress in similar confusion.

the indifference paid by marie antoinette to{147} conventional rules observed by those in high station exposed her to censure; but even her opponents have been forced to admit that one of her charms was the genuine kindness she often displayed to persons in a humble sphere of life. thus, on one occasion, a strange accident happened. the stag, being closely pursued by the hounds during the royal hunt, leaped into an enclosure in which the owner was at work. the animal not seeing any means of escape became furious, ran at the peasant, and struck him two blows with its antlers, inflicting a dangerous wound. his wife, in a state of despair, rushed towards a group of sportsmen she saw at a distance—it was the king and his suite. she cried out for help, telling what had happened to her husband, and then fell down in a swoon. the king gave orders that she should be attended to, and after speaking kindly and compassionately rode away; but the dauphiness, who had come up, stepped out of her carriage, ran to the woman, made her smell essenced water, which gave her relief, and presented her with all the money she had on her person.

on july 25, 1830, charles x. of france signed the decrees which abolished the liberty of the press, and on the following day—although it was summertime—he went with the dauphin to hunt the stag in the forest of rambouillet. it proved to be an historic hunt, for “it seemed as if he had come to gaze at the scene whence his royalty was to be carried out to be buried.” by half-past nine the following night eight royal carriages and some hired coaches{148} deposited at the gates of rambouillet the fugitive king and a part of his terrified family; and thus came to pass the deposition of the last of the bourbon kings who had reigned in france.

frederick william i. of prussia was an enthusiastic huntsman, and attached to the royal household were twelve huntsmen, who, besides their services in the chase, likewise waited at table. during several of his illnesses they had to sit up with him, and to amuse him during his sleepless nights with hunters’ stories. on the other hand, frederick the great denounced hunting as cruel, and he used frequently to say, “the butcher does not kill animals for his pleasure, but merely because human society requires them for food; whereas the hunter kills them only for his pleasure, which is detestable. the hunter, therefore, should be placed in the scale of society below the butcher.” frederick william iii., too, never had any taste for hunting, which he called “a cruel miserable pleasure”; and he even gave it as his opinion that his ancestor, frederick william i., of whom he loved to speak, had been made so harsh and cruel by it.

ferdinand v., the catholic, who united the kingdoms of castile and aragon by his marriage with isabella, cared for no other amusement save that of hunting, especially falconry; and charles v. was fond of the chase. maximilian ii. found his chief pleasure in hunting, and he acquired the celebrated prater—the hyde park of vienna—which was originally a forest park with preserved game. in one of his letters to his brother-in-law, albert of bavaria,{149} dated september 28, 1568, he writes: “i have several times wished from all my heart that you were with us in the prater, where lots of fine stags have shown themselves, and particularly on tuesday last, when i had a boar-hunt there, at which i bagged thirty head of game.”

hunting the boar in the forests which surrounded the royal residence of cintra was the great delight of don sebastian. we are told that he always dismounted to give the coup de grace to the boar. sometimes the wounded beast turned upon his assailant, but none of the cavaliers presumed, however desperate the struggle, to interfere between the king and his savage foe.

a portuguese monarch who devoted much time to hunting was alfonso iv., a pursuit he indulged in to the detriment of the state. but his presence one day being essential at lisbon, he entered the council-chamber full of the adventures of the chase, with which he entertained the nobles present. after concluding his narrative, a nobleman of the first rank thus addressed him:—

“courts and camps are allowed for kings, not woods and deserts. even the affairs of private men suffer when recreation is preferred to business; but when the phantasies of pleasure engross the thoughts of a king, a whole nation is consigned to ruin. if your majesty will attend to the wants and remove the grievances of your people, you will find them obedient subjects; if not, they will look out for another and a better king.”

alfonso, in the transport of passion, retired, but{150} soon returned, and said: “i perceive the truth of your remarks. he who will not execute the duties of a king cannot long have good subjects. remember, from this day forward i am no longer alfonso the sportsman, but alfonso, king of portugal”—a resolve which he kept with the most rigid determination, becoming one of the greatest of the portuguese monarchs.

the only accomplishment, it is said, in which alfonso vi. was a proficient was horsemanship. he once rode full-tilt at a savage bull in a meadow, but the brute so galled his royal assailant with his horns, that “he was unhorsed and nearly lost his life.” amongst the wild acts of this wretched monarch, we are told how one night, returning from the chase, he charged two inoffensive citizens, sword in hand, and after riding over them would have despatched them, had not the grand huntsman interfered.

charles iii. of spain was more attached to the sports of the field than the splendour of the monarchy; and it is said that no weather, however bad, could keep him at home. in addition to a most numerous retinue of persons belonging to his hunting establishment, several times a year all the idle fellows in the neighbourhood of madrid were hired to scour the country, far and wide, and drive the wild boars, hares, and deer into a ring, where they passed before the royal family. charles also kept in a diary a regular account of the victims to his skill. a short time before his death he boasted to a foreign ambassador that he had killed with his own hand 539 wolves and 5323 foxes. “so that,{151} you see,” he said, with a smile, “my diversion has not been useless to my country.” and it is further said that so devoted was his majesty to hunting that there were only three days in the year when he did not attend the chase.

charles iv. was equally fond of hunting, and the first feeling he had of his uncrowned condition was on hearing that the new king had ordered all the wolves and foxes to be destroyed. it was not his son’s policy which disconcerted him, but the suppression of his hunting establishment, which had been his only pleasure for many years.

amongst the fatalities on the hunting-field may be mentioned the death of casimir iv., king of poland, who was thrown from his horse near cracow, november 3, 1370. during the years that stanislaus leczinski reigned, he paid every regard to his preserves, chases, and forests. he took great pride in his deer, which were often so numerous that the harvests were occasionally ruined by them—so destructive were they to the crops. but this monarch, says dr. doran, is praised “for having reduced his hunting establishment, and opened his preserves for cultivation.” he certainly did this, but it was not till he was too old to mount a horse, or hold a gun. before that, if a hungry man snared a hare he was sent to the gallows. but whatever his inconsistencies may have been, stanislaus continued to win popular affection, than which, says grimm, he could not have had a more touching funeral oration at the time of his death.