File:The Pytchley Hunt - past and present, its history from its foundation to the present day; with personal anecdotes, and memoirs of the masters and principal members; including the woodlands; also (14804843743).jpg

Identifier: pytchleyhuntpast00neth (find matches)
Title: The Pytchley Hunt : past and present, its history from its foundation to the present day; with personal anecdotes, and memoirs of the masters and principal members; including the woodlands; also unpublished letters of Sir F.B. Head, bart.,
Year: 1888 (1880s)
Authors: Nethercote, H. O Carrington, Charles, 1897-1990 Head, Francis Bond, Sir, 1793-1875
Subjects: Pytchley Hunt Horses
Publisher: London : S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington
Contributing Library: Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Tufts University

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
n those days and hunting in the present differfrom each other in a far greater degree than huntingwith the Quorn or Pytchley, and hunting with trencher-fed packs on the Cumberland Hills, do now. At the period when wolves and other beasts of preyinhabited the forests which covered the greater surfaceof the island, the one object of the hunter was to kill anddestroy in the interest of the occupant of the land.The wolf of that day had not been educated up to lyingdown with the lamb, unless he was inside him; and theravages among flocks and herds by wild animals greatlyadded to the difficulties of the agriculturist. He whonow kills a fox, otherwise than by the aid of hounds(unless indeed by accident), earns for himself the oppro-brious name of ^^ Vulpicide,^ and is likely to become a*^ Pariah in society and a ^Boycottee.^ In the far-offdays of which we are speaking, the Lupicide and thefox-killer were looked upon as public benefactors, and^Torthy of all commendation. An ^^ unsportsmanlike
Text Appearing After Image:
- UJ _l Ioh->-a. CHAP. I.) First Pack of Hotmds. 5 action could not, at that period, be committed, as themeaning now attached to the word sport was thenunknown. ^^ Crossbow and net ^^ first, and gun afterwards, were the legitimate allies of hounds andterrier, nor was it easy, even with this assistance, to keepdown the number of the destroyers. In the days ofAlwin, the Pytchley huntsman, who has been referred toabove, the fox was not even included in the list ofanimals of the chase. The stag and hare are constantlymentioned as being hunted by the Anglo-Norman sports-men, but the first notice we have of the fox occurs inthe reign of Richard the Second, when the Abbot ofPeterborough becomes entitled by charter to pursue thatwily animal. It is not easy to say when the first regularly appointedpack of hounds was established, but this could not havebeen until the beginning of the last century at soonest.So long as the country remained disafforested, the hart,the wolf, the wild

Note About Images