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 brace 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. kitchen, including comers and goers, 11,312; loaves of bread consumed, 3333; of meat, 22,963 lbs.* As to the rabbits, these out number the hares, by hundreds to one. In many instances, they are stewed down in gentleman's houses to make gravy. Then there are innumerable quantities of wild ducks, and other aquatic birds, which breed there; besides, the woodcock, snipes, land rails, wheat ears, and other migrating birds. The Duke of Rutland, has another fine estate in the neighbouring county of Derby. Haddon Hall, which came to his family by marriage, and is thus finely described in the following Sonnett: ON HADDON HALL. "Rock-based, tree-girdled, silent, smokeless, still, Walked forth in beauty's conscious charms elate, When the rich arras, now worn through and through, Shone fresh; and the quaint fire dogs glitter'd bright and new." HOLLAND. HORSE RACING. "At Corinth the bit was first added to the rein."† DIGBY. FITZ STEPHEN, in his account of London in the twelfth century, gives a minute account of horse-racing. King John was a sportsman, (1190;) Edward II., (1307;) Edward III., (1327;) Henry VIII., 1509, imported horses from the east. On St. George's day, 1512, there was horse racing at the city of Chester, which has been continued down to the present * History of Belvoir Castle. †The trade of a lorimer, or bridle bit maker, was then of some consequence, and no doubt profitable. I have seen a treasury warrant, dated 1621, to John Shakspeare, bit maker to his majesty's stable, for £302 11s. 8d; some of them were guilte and graven with the arms of the King of Denmark, for presents; but watering bits were charged 12s. 6d. per piece; watering snaffles 2s. 4d. per piece; bits, with guilt bosses, as high as 30s. each. time. The last year of the reign of James I., a bell was run for of the value of eight or ten pounds. At that period race courses were called bell courses. The improvement in the breed of horses may be traced, like some other good things, down to the Crusades; those wonderous battles having been fought in the country of the Arabian. Richard Coeur-de-Lion had two horses, which he purchased at Cypress. An old metrical ballad thus describes them: "In this worlde they had no pere,1 Dromedary nor destrere,2 Stede, Rabyte,3 ne cammel Goethe none so swifte without fayle; No one should the one be solde."* But horse racing was not much practised till the reign of Elizabeth; during the reign of James I. it was regularly followed, and the training, physicking, and carrying weights, much as it is now. These sports were held at Croydon, in Surry; at Gatesley, in Yorkshire; at Theobald's, near Enfield Chase, in Essex; as well as at Newmarket, in Cambridgeshire. Oliver Cromwell, during his protectorate, much patronized horse racing and the breeding of horses. It was classed with hawking and hunting as a liberal pastime, and pursued for the purpose of exercise or pleasure; hence, the moral satirists of the age, the Puritans, wisely recommended it as a substitute for cards and dice; but gambling, unfortunately, soon crept in. "These sports greatly improved the breed of horses; consequently their mettle was not spared, and furious riding and driving were added to John Bull's other characteristics."† According to Echard, the English horse was much prized in foreign countries. But what a horrid thing it is to find, from Evelyn's Diary, that this noble animal was then, for mere sport, baited by dogs. He describes one of those events under the pretence of a horse having killed a man; the horse beat off every assailant, and, at last, was stabbed to death with swords. The same cruel thing was perpetrated in the fourteenth century. What will not cruel, greedy man, do for money? After Charles the II., the bell prizes were converted into cups or bowls, or other pieces of plate, usually valued at 10 guineas, with the pedigrees and performances of the successtur horses engraved upon them. "The Postboy," dated 1711, has the following advertisement: * 1 Pere, equal : 2 destrere, a war horse: 3 Rabyte, an Arabian. † Somers' Tracts. |