Volume 2

The sportsman's cabinet, or, A correct delineation of the various dogs used in the sports of the field : including the canine race in general. Consisting of a series of engravings of every distinct breed ... To which is added, a scientific disquisition upon the distemper, canine madness, and the hydrophobia / By a veteran sportsman.

  • William Taplin
Date:
1803-4
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sportsman's cabinet, or, A correct delineation of the various dogs used in the sports of the field : including the canine race in general. Consisting of a series of engravings of every distinct breed ... To which is added, a scientific disquisition upon the distemper, canine madness, and the hydrophobia / By a veteran sportsman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Whatever may have been the former mode of subduing and taking the stag, whether by small or large bodies of hounds, there are but very few (except those of the royal establishment) kept by any of the most opulent individuals in the kingdom solely for this amusement. Those of the greatest celebrity, are his Majesty's, kept at Ascot-Heath, in Windsor-Forest; the Earl of Derby's, at his lordship's seat of the Oaks, near Epsom, in Surry ; and the pack supported by subscription (principally appertaining to the metropolis), near Enfield Chase, in Essex, about ten miles from London. As there are not known to the writer any authentic records, or official documents from which may be extracted the original formation of the royal establishment of the stag-hounds, it must suffice to observe, that Queen Elizabeth was rapturously fond of the chase, and fre- quently followed the hounds, as remarked in a letter from Mr. Rowland White, in a letter to Sir Robert Sidney, where he says, “ her majesty is well, and ex- cellently disposed to hunting, for every second day she is on horseback, and enjoys the sport long.” The date of this letter was Sept. 12, A. D. 1600, at which period her majesty had entered her seventy-seventh year, and it may be considered no small proof of the salutary advantages derived from that exercise. That a comparative statement may be made between the expences of the royal retinue at that time and the present, the following particulars may not be inapplicably introduced. The annual expenditure for the support of the hunting establishment, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was as follows :— BUCK-HOUNDS. Master’s Fee—whereof to himself, per diem, twelve-pence, and the rest to sundry hunts- L. s. d. men, serving under his appointment 50 0 0 Serjeants, two, fee a-piece 20 0 0 Yeomen Prickers, two, fee a-piece 926 Hounds, and meat to the grooms of the buck-hounds, and allowances . . 13 6 8 of. 92 9 2 HART
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