Page:VCH Hertfordshire 1.djvu/403

 SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN land not to plough their land in narrow ridges, nor to suffer swine to go abroad unringed and root holes, to the endangering of his Majesty and the Prince in hawking and hunting; they are also to take down the high bounds between lands, which hinder his Majesty's ready passage.' How many masters of hounds would welcome those royal rights in these days and avail themselves of the power to order the removal of that curse of modern hunting wire. An interesting description of a hunt at Theobalds is translated from the French in England as Seen by Foreigners. In 1613 the Duke of Saxe Weimar visited James I. at Theobalds, and the following account was published in 1620 : 'The King and the Prince then went down and out through the pleasure grounds where horses and carriages were waiting. When they came to the hunting ground they all mounted horses. The hunt generally comes off in this way : the huntsmen remain on the ground where the game is to be found with twenty or thirty dogs ; if the King fancies any in particular among the herd, he causes his pleasure to be signified to the huntsmen, who proceed to mark the place where the animal stood ; they then lead the dogs thither, which are taught to follow this one animal only, accordingly away they run straight upon his track ; and even if there should be forty or fifty deer together they do nothing to them but only chase the one and never give up until they have overtaken it and brought it down. Meanwhile the King hurries incessantly after the dogs until they have caught the game. His Majesty now and then uses long bows and arrows and when he is disposed shoots a deer.' The duke does not appear to have been imbued with the spirit of the sport, for he adds, ' It was not a very interesting form of amusement,' which reminds one of the question of Lord Chesterfield and Don Juan, ' Does any one go out hunting a second time ? ' King James wrote for his son in a book called The King's Christian Dutie, 'I cannot omit here hunting, namely with run- ning hounds which is the most honorable and noblest thereof: for it is a thievish form of hunting to shoot with guns or bows, and greyhound hunting is not so martial a game.' The palace of Theobalds was a very fine house. It contained a gallery in which were 'divers large stags' heads which were an excellent ornament to the same.' King James I. had enclosed the park of 2,500 acres with a brick wall ten miles in extent, the deer in which were valued at 1,000, rabbits at 15, and timber at 5,239, irre- spective of 15,000 trees which were marked for the navy. Lord Falkland of Aldenham lost his life here by falling from a ' stand ' while hunting with the king. Besides staghounds and harriers we find other hounds in requisition when James I. was king. On November 10, 1604, a com- mission was issued by John Parry, master of the Herts otter hounds, to take dogs up the rivers for the king's diversion ; and millers were commanded to stop their watercourses during the hunting. In 1607 a grant was made by the king to Henry Mynours, master of the otter hounds at Theobalds to take hounds, beagles, spaniels and mongrels for his Majesty's disport. An old distich says So many men so many minds, So many hounds so many kinds. At that early period the colour of a hound was considered indicative of his qualities. A white hound was looked upon as being good for a stag and excellent at ' stratagems,' but not much to be depended upon when hunting other kinds of game. A black hound gener- ally had a good memory and was not afraid of water. A gray hound was coveted on account of his cunning, but a yellow hound was not much use should his quarry be inclined to turn and twist in the chase. The southern hound was recommended for woodland countries, and was used by those sportsmen who running on foot hunted the hare some- times for five or six hours on end. The northern or fleet hound on the contrary could compete with horses in pace, and could run a hare down in an hour. Between these two latter in quality and pace we read of the hound ' that was capable of running through thick and thin and not requiring the Hunts- man's aid to help him over the ditches ' (Daniel's Sports). The old mode of hunting was conducted on quite different lines to those of the present day. Lyemers (or hounds held in a lyem or slip) hunting by scent, were used to rouse the deer, the deer thus moved were either driven into pits or nets, or if they came into the open park greyhounds were let go and so the deer were run down. This style of hunting was changed in James I.'s time into hunting with a pack of hounds by scent, and the old English lyemers were merged into buck hounds, and as deer hunting declined and fox hunting became popular, crosses between the harrier-beagle and bloodhounds produced the present type of foxhound. The spaniels which were brought to Theo- balds for the king's disport were no doubt 347