Page:King Edward VII. as a sportsman by Watson, Alfred Edward Thomas.djvu/49



rare exceptions the Kings of England have been sportsmen. From the earliest days of which any record exists, the "divinity" which "doth hedge a king" has been largely supported by the personal valour and prowess of the monarch; but if not occupied in war, when the season permitted the Sovereign was almost invariably accustomed to hunt, an exercise which formerly brought into play horsemanship and marksmanship, for the quarry was usually the stag; sometimes he was shot with arrows from a crossbow, sometimes run down by hounds to receive his coup de grâce from the King's weapon—as now, when riding after the wild boar in the neighbourhood of Potsdam, the Kaiser, taking from the hand of the Ober Piqueur a spear, pierces the creature's heart.

As regards racing—the word without a prefix is always understood to mean the racing of horses—in