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See also:HUNTING (the verbal substantive from " See also:hunt "; O. Eng. huntian, hunta; apparently connected with O. Eng. hentan, See also:Gothic hinpan, to See also:capture, O.H.G. hunda,See also:booty)
, the pursuit of See also:game and See also:wild animals, for profit or See also:sport; See also:equivalent to " See also:chase " (like " catch," from See also:Lat. captare, Fr. See also:chasse, Ital. caccia)
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The circumstances which render necessary 'the habitual pursuit of wild animals, either as a means of subsistence or for self-See also:defence, generally accompany a phase of human progress distinctly inferior to the See also:pastoral and agricultural stages; resorted to as a recreation, however, the practice of the chase in most cases indicates a considerable degree of See also:civilization, and sometimes ultimately be-comes the almost distinctive employment of the classes which are possessed of most leisure and See also:wealth
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It is in some of its latter aspects, viz. as a " sport," pursued on fixed rules and principles, that See also:hunting is dealt with here
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See also:Information as to the See also: There are indications that hawking was also known . The See also:Assyrian See also:kings also maintained magnificent parks, or " paradises," in which game of every See also:kind was enclosed; and perhaps it was from them that the See also:Persian sovereigns borrowed the practice mentioned both by See also:Xenophon in the Gyropaedia and by See also:Curtius . According to See also:Herodotus, See also:Cyrus devoted the See also:revenue of four great towns to meet the expenses of his hunting establishments . The circumstances under which the See also:death of the son of See also:Croesus is by the same writer (i . 34-45) related to have occurred, incidentally show in what high estimation the recreation of hunting was held in See also:Lydia . In See also:Palestine game has always been plentiful, and the Biblical indications that it was much sought and duly appreciated are numerous . As means of See also:capture, nets, traps, snares and pitfalls are most frequently alluded to; but the arrow (Isa. vii . 24), the See also:spear and the dart (See also:Job. xli . 26-29) are also mentioned . There is no See also:evidence that the use of the dog (Jos . See also:Ant. iv . 8, ro, not-withstanding) or of the See also:horse in hunting was known among the See also:Jews during the See also:period covered by the Old Testament See also:history; See also:Herod, however, was a keen and successful sportsman, and is recorded by See also:Josephus (B.J. i . 21, 13, compare Ant. xv . 7, 7; xvi . 10, 3) to have killed no fewer than See also:forty See also:head of game (See also:boar, wild ass, See also:deer) in one See also:day . The sporting tastes of the ancient Greeks, as may be gathered from many references in See also:Homer (Il. ix . 538-545; Od. ix . 120, xvii . 295, 316, xix . 429 seq.), had See also:developed at a very See also:early period; they first found adequate See also:literary expression in the See also:work of Xenophon entitled Cynegeticus,3 which expounds his principles and embodies his experience in his favourite See also:art of hunting . The See also:treatise chiefly deals with the capture of the hare; in the author's day the approved method was to find the hare in her See also:form by the use of dogs; when found she was either driven into nets previously set in her runs or else run down in the open . Boar-hunting is also described; it was effected by nets into which the animal was pursued, and in which when fairly entangled he was speared . The stag, according to the same work, was taken by means of a kind of wooden See also:trap (2roSovrpaf3rl), which attached itself to the See also:foot . Lions, leopards, lynxes, panthers and bears are also specially mentioned among the large game; sometimes they were taken in pitfalls, sometimes speared by mounted horsemen . As a writer on field sports Xenophon was followed by See also:Arrian, who in his Cynegeticus, in avowed dependence on his predecessor, seeks to supplement such deficiencies in the earlier treatise as arose from its author's unacquaintance with the dogs of See also:Gaul and the horses of See also:Scythia and See also:Libya . Four books of Cynegetica, extending to about 2100 hexameters, by See also:Oppian have also been preserved; the last of these is incomplete, and it is probable that a fifth at one See also:time existed . The poem contains some See also:good descriptive passages, as well as some very curious indications of the See also:state of zoological knowledge in the author's time . Hunting scenes are frequently represented in ancient See also:works of art, especially the boar-See also:hunt, and also that of the hare . In See also:Roman literature allusions to the pleasures of the chase (wild ass, boar, hare, See also:fallow deer being specially mentioned as favourite game) are not wanting (Virg . Georg. iii . 409-413; See also:Eel. iii . 75; See also:Hor . Od. i . 1, 25-28); it seems to have been viewed; however, with less favour as an occupation for gentlemen, and to have been chiefly See also:left to inferiors and professionals . The immense vivaria or theriotropheia, in which various wild animals, such as boars, stags and See also:roe-deer, were kept in a state of semi-domestication, were developments which arose at a comparatively See also:late period; as also were the venationes in the See also:circus, although these are mentioned as having been known as early as r86 B.C . The bald and meagre poem of Grattius Faliscus on hunting (Cynegetica) is modelled upon Xenophon's See also:prose work; a still extant fragment (315 lines) of a similar poem with the same See also:title, of much later date, by Nem.esianus, seems to have at one 2 See See also:Layard (See also:Nineveh, ii . 431, 432), who cites Ammian . Marcell. See also:xxvi . 6, and Athen. xii . 9 . 3 Engl. transl. by See also:Blane . Historic Field Sports . time formed the introduction to an extended work corresponding to that of Oppian .. That the See also:Romans had borrowed some things in the art of hunting from the Gauls may be inferred from the name canis gallicus (See also:Spanish galgo) for a greyhound, which is to be met with both in See also:Ovid and See also:Martial; also in the words (canis) vertragus and segusius, both of See also:Celtic origin.' According to See also:Strabo (p . 200) the Britons also bred dogs well adapted for hunting purposes . The addiction of the See also:Franks in later centuries to the chase is evidenced by the frequency with which not only the laity but also the See also:clergy were warned by provincial See also:councils against expending so much of their time and See also:money on hounds, See also:hawks and falcons; and we have similar See also:proof with regard to the habits of other See also:Teutonic nations subsequent to the introduction of See also:Christianity.' Originally among the See also:northern nations sport was open to every one 3 except to slaves, who were not permitted to See also:bear arms; the growth of the See also:idea of game-preserving kept See also:pace nips the development of See also:feudalism . For its ultimate development in See also:Britain see See also:FOREST See also:LAW, where also the distinction between }casts of forest or venery, beasts of chase and beasts an.l fowls of See also:warren is explained . See also GAME See also:LAWS .
% aferra Hunting.—The See also:term " hunting " has come to be applied specially to the pursuit of such quarries as the stag or fox, or to following an artificially laid See also:scent, with horse and See also:hound
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It thus corresponds to the Fr. chasse au course, as distinguished from chasse au tir, a l'oiseau, &c., and to the Ger. hetzjagd as distinguished from See also:hirsch
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In the following See also:article the See also:English practice is mainly considered
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Doubtless the early inhabitants of Britain shared to a large extent in the habits of the other Celtic peoples; the fact that they kept good hunting dogs is vouched for by Strabo; and an interesting See also:illustration of the manner in which these were used is given in the inscription quoted by See also:Orelli (n
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1603)—" Silvano Invicto Sacrum—oh aprum eximiae formae captum, quem multi antecessores pracdari non potuerunt." See also:Asser, the biographer of See also:Alfred the Great, states that before the See also:prince was twelve years of See also:age he " was a most See also:expert and active See also:hunter, and excelled in all the branches of that See also:noble art, to which he applied with incessant labour and amazing success." 4 Of his See also:grandson See also:Athelstan it is related by See also:
B.G., vi
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21
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" Quoties bella non ineunt, multum venatibus, plus per otium transigunt," See also:Tacitus, Germ
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15
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' See See also:Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, who also gives an illustration, " taken from a manuscriptal See also:painting of the 9th See also:century in the See also:Cotton Library," representing " a Saxon chieftain, attended by his hunts-See also:man and a couple of hounds, pursuing the wild See also:swine in a forest."
5 See See also:Lappenberg, Hist. of See also:England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings (ii
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361, See also:Thorpe's trans.)
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At an early period stag hunting was a favourite recreation with English See also:royalty
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It seems probable that in the reign of See also: Successive masters continued the sport until 1825, when the See also:fine pack, descended probably from the bloodhound crossed with the old See also:southern hound, was sold in See also:London . It is difficult to imagine how the See also:dispersion of such a pack could have come about in such a sporting See also:country, but in 1827 See also:Sir See also:Arthur See also:Chichester got a pack together again . Stag hunting begins on the 12th of See also:August, and ends on the 8th of See also:October; there is then a cessation until the end of the See also:month, when the hounds are unkennelled for hind hunting, which continues up to See also:Christmas; it begins again about Ladyday, and lasts till the loth of May . The mode of hunting with the See also:Devon and See also:Somerset hounds is briefly this: the whereabouts of a See also:warrant-able stag is communicated to the See also:master by that important functionary the harbourer; two couple of steady hounds called tufters are then thrown into cover, and, having singled out a warrantable deer, follow him until he is forced to make for the open, when the. See also:body of the pack are laid on . Very often two or three See also:hours elapse before the stag breaks, but a run over the wild country fully atones for the delay . It is only within comparatively See also:recent times that the fox has come to be considered as an animal of the higher chase . William Twici, indeed, who was See also:huntsman-in-See also:chief to Edward IL, and who wrote in Norman See also:French a treatise on huFox nting . hunting,' mentions the fox as a beast of venery, but obviously as an altogether inferior See also:object of sport . Strutt also gives an See also:engraving, assigned by him to the 14th century, in which three hunters, one of whom blows a See also:horn, are represented as unearthing a fox, which is pursued by a single hound . The precise date of the See also:establishment of the first English pack of hounds kept entirely for fox hunting cannot be accurately fixed . In the work of " See also:Nimrod " (C . J .
See also:Apperley), entitled The Chase, there is (p
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4) an See also:extract from a See also:letter from Lord See also:Arundel, dated See also:February 1833, in which the writer says that his ancestor, Lord Arundel, kept a pack of foxhounds between 1690 and 1700, and that they remained in the family till 1782, when they were sold to the celebrated Hugh See also:Meynell, of Quorndon See also: Dryden (1909), including The See also:Craft of Venerie from a 15th-century MS. and a 13th-century poem Le Chasse d'on cep . drag was doubtless a great test of See also:nose, but many good runs must have been lost thereby, for the fox must often have heard the hounds upwind, and have moved off before they could get on good terms with him . At the See also:present day, the woodlands are neither so large nor so numerous as they formerly were, while there are many more gorse covers; therefore, instead of hunting the drag up to it, a much quicker way of getting to work is to find a fox in his kennel; and, the See also:hour of the See also:meeting being later, the fox is not likely to be gorged with See also:food, and so unable to take care of himself at the pace at which the See also:modern foxhound travels . Cub hunting carried out on a proper principle is one of the secrets of a successful See also:season . To the man who cares for hunting, as distinct from See also:riding, See also:September and October are not the least enjoyable months of the whole hunting season . As soon as the See also:young entry have recovered from the operation of " rounding," arrangements for cub hunting begin . The hounds must have first of all walking, then trotting and fast exercise, so that their feet may be hardened, and all superfluous See also:fat worked off by the last See also:week in August . So far as the hounds are concerned, the object of cub hunting is to See also:teach them their See also:duty; it is a See also:dress See also:rehearsal of the November business . In ccmpany with a certain proportion of old hounds, the youngsters learn to stick to the scent of a fox, in spite of the fondness they have acquired for that of a hare, from See also:running about when at walk . When tubbing begins, a start is made at 4 or 5 A.M., and then the system is adopted of tracking the cub by his drag . A certain amount of See also:blood is of course indispensable for hounds, but it should never be forgotten that a fox cub of seven or eight months old, though tolerably cunning, is not so very strong; the huntsman should not, therefore, be over-eager in bringing to See also:hand every cub he can find . Hare hunting, which must not be confounded with See also:Coursing (q.v.), is an excellent school both for men and for horses . It is Hareattended with the advantages of being cheaper than any other kind, and of not needing so large an See also:area of country . Hare hunting requires considerable skill; See also:Beckford even goes so far as to say: " There is more of true hunting with harriers than with any other description of hounds . . . . In the first See also:place, a hare, when found, generally describes a circle in her course which naturally brings her upon her See also:foil, which is the greatest trial for hounds . Secondly, the scent of the hare is weaker than that of any other animal we hunt, and, unlike some, it is always the worse the nearer she is to her end." Hare hunting is essentially a quiet amusement; no hallooing at hounds nor See also: |