It would have been of little use passing acts of Parliament, like the one which has just become law, for the preservation of members of the feathered tribes, if their native woods had not been preserved to us by sportsmen. To have lost our woods would have been to have lost the spring and summer residences of migratory birds: to have lost the laugh of the woodpecker, the songs of the blackbird and the thrush, the woodlark’s thrilling melody, and the nightingale’s inimitable notes, to say nothing of those faint soothing shadowings which steal upon one from these leafy labyrinths of nature. As some one taking deeper views has said:—
“There lie around
Thy daily walk great store of beauteous things,
Each in its separate place most fair, and all
Of many parts disposed most skilfully,
Making in combination wonderful
An individual of a higher kind;
And that again in order ranging well
With its own fellows, till thou rise at length
Up to the majesty of this grand world;—
Hard task, and seldom reached by mortal souls,
For frequent intermission and neglect
Of close communion with the humblest things;
But in rare moments, whether memory
Hold compact with invention, or the door
Of heaven hath been a little pushed aside,
Methinks I can remember, after hours
Of unpremeditated thought in woods.”
CONTENTS.
PAGE | |
CHAPTER I. | |
The Hawk an Acquisition to Sportsmen—Hawkaeries—Hawks according to Degrees—Brook and otherkinds of Hawking—Hawking and Hunting—A ShropshireHistorian’s charge against the Conqueror—Bishops andtheir Clergy as much given to the Sport as Laymen—TheRector of Madeley—The Merrie Days, &c. | |
CHAPTER II. | |
Morfe Forest one of the Five Royal Forests ofShropshire—Its History and Associations—EarlyBritish, Roman, Danish, and Norman Mementoes—Legends andHistorical Incidents—Forest Wastes—OldNames—Hermitage Hill—Stanmore Grove—EssexFall—Foresters—Old Forest Lodge, &c. | |
CHAPTER III. | |
Royal Chase of Shirlot—Extent—Placesdisafforested—Hayes—Foresters—HuntingLodge—Priors of Wenlock—CuriousTenures—Encroachments upon Woods by Iron-makingOperations—Animals that have disappeared—Reaction dueto a love of Sport—What the Country would havelost—“The Merrie Greenwood”—Old ForestTrees, &c. | |
The Wrekin Forest and the Foresters—Hermit of MountSt. Gilbert—Poachers upon the King’sPreserves—Extent of the Forest—Haye ofWellington—Robert Forester—Perquisites—HuntingMatches—Singular Grant to John Forester—Sir WalterScott’s Anthony Forster a Member of the Shropshire ForesterFamily—Anthony Forster Lord of the Manor of Little Wenlock,and related to the Foresters of Sutton andBridgnorth—Anthony Foster altogether a different Characterto what Sir Walter Scott represents him | |
CHAPTER V. | |
Willey, Close Neighbour to the Royal Chase ofShirlot—Etymology of the Name—Domesday—TheWillileys—The Lacons—The Welds and theForesters—The Old Hall—Cumnor Hall as described bySir Walter Scott—Everything Old and Quaint—How Willeycame into possession of the Foresters | |
CHAPTER VI. | |
The Willey Squire—Instincts andTendencies—Atmosphere of the times favourable for theirdevelopment—Thackeray’s Opinion—Style ofHunting—Dawn of the Golden Age of the Sport, &c. | |
CHAPTER VII. | |
The Willey Kennels—Colonel Apperley on Hunting ahundred years ago—Character of the Hounds—Portraitsof Favourites—Original Letters | |
The Willey Long Runs—Dibdin’s fifty miles nofigure of speech—From the Wrekin to the Clee—TheSquire’s Breakfast—Phœbe Higgs—DoggrelDitties—Old Tinker—Moody’s Horse fallsdead—Run by Moonlight | |
CHAPTER IX. | |
Its Quaint Interior—An Old Friend’sMemory—Crabbe’s Peter at Ilford Hall—SingularTime-pieces—A Meet at Hangster’s Gate—JollyDoings—Dibdin at Dinner—Broseley Pipes—ParsonStephens in his Shirt—The Parson’s Song | |
CHAPTER X. | |
The Squire’s Friends and the Rector more fullydrawn—Turner—Wilkinson—Harris—The Rev.Michael Pye Stephens—His Relationship to theSquire—In the Commission of the Peace—The Parson andthe Poacher—A Fox-hunting Christening | |
CHAPTER XI. | |
The Willey Whipper-in—Tom’s Start inLife—His Pluck and Perseverance—Up hill and downdale—Adventures with the Buff-coloured Chaise—His ownWild Favourite—His DrinkingHorn—Who-who-hoop—Good Temper—NeverMarried—Hangster’s Gate—Old Coaches—Tomgone to Earth—Three View Halloos at the Grave—OldBoots | |
Dibdin’s Song—Dibdin and the Squire goodfellows well met—Moody a character after Dibdin’s ownheart—The Squire’s Gift—Incledon—TheShropshire Fox-hunters on the Stage at Drury Lane | |
CHAPTER XIII. | |
The Willey Squire recognises the duty of his position, andbecomes Member for Wenlock—Addison’s View of WhigJockeys and Tory Fox-hunters—State of Parties—Pitt inPower—“Fiddle-Faddle”—LocalImprovements—The Squire Mayor of Wenlock—The Mace nowcarried before the Chief Magistrate | |
CHAPTER XV. | |
The Squire and his Volunteers—Community ofFeeling—Threats of Invasion—“We’ll followthe Squire to Hell, if necessary”—The Squire’sSpeech—His Birthday—His Letter to the ShrewsburyChronicle—Second Corps—Boney andBeacons—The Squire in a Rage—The Duke of York andPrince of Orange come down | |
CHAPTER XV. | |
The Squire among his Neighbours—Sir Roger deCoverley—Anecdotes—Gentlemen nearest the fire in theLower Regions—Food Riots—The Squire quells theMob—His Virtues and his Failings—Influences of theTimes—His career draws to a close—His wish for OldFriends and Servants to follow him to the Grave—To beburied in the dusk of the evening—His Favourite Horse to beshot—His estates left to his cousin, Cecil Weld, the FirstLord Forester—New Hunting Song | |
Appendix | |
Index | |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| PAGE | |
| Lord Forester | Frontispiece |
| The Valley of the Severn | [1] |
| Trained Falcon | [8] |
| Hooded Falcon | [9] |
| Morfe Forest | [17] |
| Stag | [17] |
| Boar Hunt in Morfe Forest | [21] |
| Fallow Deer | [31] |
| Deer Leap | [36] |
| Chapter House of Wenlock Priory | [38] |
| Waterfall | [44] |
| Forest Scenery | [46] |
| Lady Oak at Cressage | [50] |
| The Badger | [53] |
| Group of Deer | [54] |
| Needle’s Eye | [56] |
| Deer and Young | [59] |
| Atcham Church | [62] |
| Richard Forester’s Old Mansion | [65] |
| Willey Old Hall | [70] |
| The Old Squire | [77] |
| Favourite Dogs | [83] |
| Portrait of a Fox-hound | [93] |
| Buildwas Abbey | [100] |
| Moody’s Horn, Trencher, Cap, Saddle, &c. | [122] |
| Gone to Earth | [122] |
| A Meet at Hangster’s Gate | [140] |
| The First Iron Bridge | [147] |
| View of Bridgnorth | [154] |
| Willey Church | [173] |
INTRODUCTION.
A simple reading of the history of the earth is sufficient to show that hunting is as old as the hills—not figuratively, but literally; and that the hunter and the hunted, one furnished with weapons of attack, and the other with means of defence, have existed from the earliest periods of creation to the present. That is, the strong have mastered the weak, and in some instances have fallen side by side, as we see by their remains. In the economy of Nature, the process of decay appears to have been the exception, rather than the rule; with beak or tooth, or deadly claw, the strong having struck down the less defended in a never-ending arena. What a hunting field, in one sense, the Old World must have been, when creatures of strange and undefined natures infested the uncertain limits of the elements, and what encounters must have taken place in the ooze and mud periods, when monsters, enormous in stature and stretch of wing, were the implacable hunters of the air, the water, and the slime! Nor can the inhabitants of the earth, the water, and the air, taking the term in its broad rather than in its technical sense, be said to be less hunters now, or less equipped with deadly weapons. Some have supernumerary teeth to supply the loss of such as might get broken in the fray. One strikes down its prey at a blow, another impales its victims on thorns, and a third slays by poison. Some hunt in company, from what would seem to be a very love of sport—as crows and smaller birds give chase to the owl, apparently rejoicing in his embarrassment, at break of day.
We need but refer to those remotely removed stages of human life illustrated by drift beds, bone caves, and shell heaps—to those primitive weapons which distinguished the lowest level of the Stone Age, weapons which every year are being brought to light by thousands—to give the genus homo a place among the hunters; indeed one of the strongest incentives which helped on Pre-historic Man from one level to the other through the long night of the darkest ages, appears to have been that which such a pursuit supplied. To obtain the skins of animals wilder than himself he entered upon a scramble with the wolf, the bear, and the hyena. Driven by instinct or necessity to supply wants the whole creation felt, his utmost ingenuity was put forth in the chase; and in process of time we find him having recourse to the inventive arts to enable him to carry out his designs. On the borders of lakes or on river banks, in caverns deep-seated amid primeval forest solitudes, he fashioned harpoons and arrow-heads of shell, horn, or bone, with which to repulse the attack of prowlers around his retreat and to arrest the flight of the swiftest beast he required for food; and when he emerged from the dark night which Science has as yet but partially penetrated, when he had succeeded in pressing the horse and the dog into his service, and when the cultivation of the soil even had removed him above the claims of hunger, he appears equally to have indulged the passion—probably for the gratification it gave and the advantages it brought in promoting that tide of full health from which is derived the pleasing consciousness of existence.