[1] The date is thus entered in the parish register, see Joseph
Adams, _Memoirs_, Appendix, p. 203. The Hunterian Oration, instituted
in 1813 by Dr Matthew Baillie and Sir Everard Home, is delivered at
the Royal College of Surgeons on the 14th of February, which Hunter
used to give as the anniversary of his birth.
[2] Ottley's date, 1738, is inaccurate, see S. F. Simmons, _Account
of ... W. Hunter_, p. 7. Hunter's mother died on the 3rd of November
1751, aged 66.
[3] So in Home's _Life_, p. xvi., and Ottley's, p. 15. Hunter himself
(_Treatise on the Blood_, p. 62) mentions the date 1755.
[4] Ottley incorrectly gives 1753 as the date. In the buttery book
for 1755 at St Mary's Hall his admission is thus noted: "Die Junii
5^to 1755 Admissus est Johannes Hunter superioris ordinis
Commensalis." Hunter apparently left Oxford after less than two
months' residence, as the last entry in the buttery book with charges
for battels against his name is on July 25, 1755. His name was,
however, retained on the books of the Hall till December 10, 1756.
The record of Hunter's matriculation runs: "Ter deg. Trin.
1755.--Junii 5^to Aul. S. Mar. Johannes Hunter 24 Johannis de
Kilbride in Com. Clidesdale Scotiae Arm. fil."
[5] Ottley, _Life of J. Hunter_, p. 22.
[6] _Treatise on the Blood_, p. 21.
[7] See Adams, _Memoirs_, pp. 32, 33. Cf. Hunter's _Treatise on the
Blood_, p. 8, and _Works_, ed. Palmer, i. 604.--On the employment of
Hunter's term "increased action" with respect to inflammation, see
Sir James Paget, _Lect. on Surg. Path._, 3rd ed., p. 321 sqq.
[8] According to Hunter, as quoted in Palmer's edition of his
lectures, p. 437, the accident was "after dancing, and after a
violent fit of the cramp"; W. Clift, however, who says he probably
never danced, believed that he met with the accident "in getting up
from the dissecting table after being cramped by long sitting" (see
W. Lawrence, _Hunt. Orat._, 1834, p. 64).
[9] The subjects and dates of his subsequent papers in the
_Transactions_, the titles of which give little notion of the
richness of their contents, are as follows: The torpedo (1773);
air-receptacles in birds, and the Gillaroo trout (1774); the
_Gymnotus electricus_, and the production of heat by animals and
vegetables (supplemented in 1777), (1775); the recovery of people
apparently drowned (1776); the free martin (1779); the communication
of smallpox to the foetus in utero, and the occurrence of male
plumage in old hen pheasants (1780); the organ of hearing in fishes
(1782); the anatomy of a "new marine animal" described by Home
(1785); the specific identity of the wolf, jackal and dog
(supplemented in 1789), the effect on fertility of extirpation of one
ovarium, and the structure and economy of whales (1787); observations
on bees (1793); and some remarkable caves in Bayreuth and fossil
bones found therein (1794). With these may be included a paper by
Home, from materials supplied by Hunter, on certain horny
excrescences of the human body.
[10] Mrs Hunter died on the 7th of January 1821, in Holles Street,
Cavendish Square, London, in her seventy-ninth year. She was a
handsome and accomplished woman, and well fulfilled the social duties
of her position. The words for Haydn's English canzonets were
supplied by her, and were mostly original poems; of these the lines
beginning "My mother bids me bind my hair" are, from the beauty of
the accompanying music, among the best known. (See R. Nares in _Gent.
Mag._ xci. pt. 1, p. 89, quoted in Nichols's _Lit. Anec._, 2nd ser.,
vii. 638.)
[11] _Hunt. Orat._, 1842, p. 15.
[12] The condition of this animal during hibernation was a subject of
special interest to Hunter, who thus introduces it, even in a letter
of condolence to Jenner in 1778 on a disappointment in love: "But let
her go, never mind her. I shall employ you with hedgehogs, for I do
not know how far I may trust mine."
[13] See his evidence at the trial of Captain Donellan, _Works_, i.
195.
[14] On the discovery of the dyeing of bones by madder, see Belchier,
Phil. Trans., vol. xxxix., 1736, pp. 287 and 299.
[15] _Essays and Observations_, i. 55, 56. "May we not claim for
him," says Sir Wm. Fergusson, with reference to these experiments,
"that he anticipated by a hundred years the scientific data on which
the present system of human grafting is conducted?" (_Hunt. Orat._,
1871, p. 17).
[16] _Essays and Observations_, i. 115; cf. _Works_, i. 391.
[17] The _Transactions_ of the Society contain papers by Hunter on
inflammation of veins (1784), intussusception (1789), a case of
paralysis of the muscles of deglutition (1790), and a case of
poisoning during pregnancy (1794), with others written by Home, from
materials supplied by him, on Hunter's operation for the cure of
popliteal aneurism, on loose cartilages in joints, on certain horny
excrescences of the human body, and on the growth of bones.
[18] Bell lived with Hunter fourteen years, i.e. from 1775 to 1789,
and was employed by him chiefly in making and drawing anatomical
preparations for the museum. He died in 1792 at Sumatra, where he was
assistant-surgeon to the East India Company.
[19] O'Brien, dreading dissection by Hunter, had shortly before his
death arranged with several of his countrymen that his corpse should
be conveyed by them to the sea, and sunk in deep water; but his
undertaker, who had entered into a pecuniary compact with the great
anatomist, managed that while the escort was drinking at a certain
stage on the march seawards, the coffin should be locked up in a
barn. There some men he had concealed speedily substituted an
equivalent weight of paving-stones for the body, which was at night
forwarded to Hunter, and by him taken in his carriage to Earl's
Court, and, to avoid risk of a discovery, immediately after suitable
division boiled to obtain the bones. See Tom Taylor, _Leicester
Square_, ch. xiv. (1874); cf. _Annual Register_, xxvi. 209 (1783).
[20] See C. R. Leslie and Tom Taylor, _Life and Times of Sir J.
Reynolds_, ii. 474 (1865).
[21] _Works_, i. 265-266.
[22] A transcript of a portion of Hunter's MSS., made by Clift in
1793 and 1800, was edited by Sir Richard Owen, in two volumes with
notes, in 1861, under the title of _Essays and Observations in
Natural History, Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology and Geology_. On the
destruction of Hunter's papers see Clift's "Appendix" in vol. ii. p.
497, also W. H. Flower, _Introd. Lect._, pp. 7-9 (1870).
[23] In his _Treatise on the Blood_, p. 288, Hunter observes: "We
find it a common principle in the animal machine, that every part
increases in some degree according to the action required. Thus we
find ... vessels become larger in proportion to the necessity of
supply, as for instance, in the gravid uterus; the external carotids
in the stag, also, when his horns are growing, are much larger than
at any other time."
[24] See Sir R. Owen, "John Hunter and Vivisection," _Brit. Med.
Journ._ (February 22, 1879, p. 284). In the fourth of his operations
for popliteal aneurism, Hunter for the first time did not include the
vein in the ligature. His patient lived for fifty years afterwards.
The results on the artery of this operation are to be seen in
specimen 347^(2A) (Path. Ser.) in the Hunterian Museum.
[25] Home, _Trans. of Soc. for Impr. of Med. and Chirurg. Knowl._ i.
147 (1793). Excess of heat in the injured limb was noticed also in
Hunter's second case on the day after the operation; and in his
fourth case it reached 4 deg.-5 deg. on the first day, and continued
during a fortnight.
[26] The record of Hunter's death in the _St James Chronicle_ for
October 15-17, 1793, p. 4, col. 4, makes no allusion to the immediate
cause of Hunter's death, but gives the following statement: "JOHN
HUNTER.--This eminent Surgeon and valuable man was suddenly taken
ill, yesterday, in the Council-room of St George's Hospital. After
receiving the assistance which could be afforded by two Physicians
and a Surgeon, he was removed in a close chair to his house, in
Leicester Fields, where he expired about two o'clock." Examination of
the heart revealed disease involving the pericardium, endocardium and
arteries, the coronary arteries in particular showing ossific change.
[27] _Hunt. Orat._, 1827, p. 5.
[28] See p. 266 of his malicious so-called _Life of John Hunter_
(1794).
[29] Cf. J. H. Green, _Hunt. Orat._, 1840, p. 27.
[30] Abernethy, _Physiological Lectures_, p. 11 (1817).
[31] Instituted in 1806.
[32] Increased to seventeen in 1856.
[33] How clearly he held this view is seen in his remark (_Treatise
on the Blood_, p. 28, cf. p. 46) that, as the coagulating lymph of
the blood is probably common to all animals, whereas the red
corpuscles are not, we must suppose the lymph to be the essential
part of that fluid. Hunter was the first to discover that the blood
of the embryos of red-blooded animals is at first colourless,
resembling that of invertebrates. (See Owen, Preface to vol. iv. of
_Works_, p. xiii.)
[34] _Treatise on the Blood_, p. 63.
[35] _Essays and Observations_, i. 113.
[36] _Treatise on the Blood_, p. 89.
[37] _Ib._ p. 90.
[38] P. P. Staple, with the loan of whose volume of MS. notes of
Hunter's "Chirurgical Lectures," dated, on the last page, Sept. 20th,
1787, the writer was favoured by Sir W. H. Broadbent.
HUNTER, ROBERT MERCER TALIAFERRO (1809-1887), American statesman, was
born in Essex county, Virginia, on the 21st of April 1809. He entered
the university of Virginia in his seventeenth year and was one of its
first graduates; he then studied law at the Winchester (Va.) Law School,
and in 1830 was admitted to the bar. From 1835 to 1837 he was a member
of the Virginia house of delegates; from 1837 to 1843 and from 1845 to
1847 was a member of the national house of representatives, being
Speaker from 1839 to 1841; and from 1847 to 1861 he was in the senate,
where he was chairman of the finance committee (1850-1861). He is
credited with having brought about a reduction of the quantity of silver
in the smaller coins; he was the author of the Tariff Act of 1857 and of
the bonded-warehouse system, and was one of the first to advocate civil
service reform. In 1853 he declined President Fillmore's offer to make
him secretary of state. At the National Democratic Convention at
Charleston, S.C., in 1860 he was the Virginia delegation's choice as
candidate for the presidency of the United States, but was defeated for
the nomination by Stephen A. Douglas. Hunter did not regard Lincoln's
election as being of itself a sufficient cause for secession, and on the
11th of January 1861 he proposed an elaborate but impracticable scheme
for the adjustment of differences between the North and the South, but
when this and several other efforts to the same end had failed he
quietly urged his own state to pass the ordinance of secession. From
1861 to 1862 he was secretary of state in the Southern Confederacy; and
from 1862 to 1865 was a member of the Confederate senate, in which he
was, at times, a caustic critic of the Davis administration. He was one
of the commissioners to treat at the Hampton Roads Conference in 1865
(see LINCOLN, ABRAHAM), and after the surrender of General Lee was
summoned by President Lincoln to Richmond to confer regarding the
restoration of Virginia in the Union. From 1874 to 1880 he was treasurer
of Virginia, and from 1885 until his death near Lloyds, Virginia, on the
18th of July 1887, was collector of the Port of Tappahannock, Virginia.
See Martha T. Hunter, _A Memoir of Robert M. T. Hunter_ (Washington,
1903) for his private life, and D. R. Anderson, _Robert Mercer
Taliaferro Hunter_, in the John P. Branch Historical Papers of
Randolph Macon College (vol. ii. No. 2, 1906), for his public career.
HUNTER, WILLIAM (1718-1783), British physiologist and physician, the first
great teacher of anatomy in England, was born on the 23rd of May 1718, at
East Kilbride, Lanark. He was the seventh child of his parents, and an
elder brother of the still more famous John Hunter (q.v.). When fourteen
years of age, he was sent to the university of Glasgow, where he studied
for five years. He had originally been intended for the church, but,
scruples concerning subscription arising in his mind, he followed the
advice of his friend William Cullen, and resolved to devote himself to
physic. During 1737-1740 he resided with Cullen at Hamilton, and then, to
increase his medical knowledge before settling in partnership with his
friend, he spent the winter of 1740-1741 at Edinburgh. Thence he went to
London, where Dr James Douglas (1675-1742), an anatomist and obstetrician
of some note, to whom he had been recommended, engaged his services as a
tutor to his son and as a dissector, and assisted him to enter as a
surgeon's pupil at St George's Hospital and to procure the instruction of
the anatomist Frank Nicholls (1699-1778). When Dr Douglas died Hunter
still continued to live with his family. In 1746 he undertook, in place of
Samuel Sharp, the delivery, for a society of naval practitioners, of a
series of lectures on operative surgery, so satisfactorily that he was
requested to include anatomy in his course. It was not long before he
attained considerable fame as a lecturer; for not only was his oratorical
ability great, but he differed from his contemporaries in the fullness and
thoroughness of his teaching, and in the care which he took to provide the
best possible practical illustrations of his discourses. We read that the
syllabus of Edward Nourse (1701-1761), published in 1748, _totam rem
anatomicam complectens_, comprised only twenty-three lectures, exclusive
of a short and defective "Syllabus Chirurgicus," and that at "one of the
most reputable courses of anatomy in Europe," which Hunter had himself
attended, the professor was obliged to demonstrate all the parts of the
body, except the nerves and vessels (shown in a foetus) and the bones, on
a single dead subject, and for the explanation of the operations of
surgery used a dog! In 1747 Hunter became a member of the Corporation of
Surgeons. In the course of a tour through Holland to Paris with his pupil,
J. Douglas, in 1728, he visited Albinus at Leiden, and inspected with
admiration his injected preparations. By degrees Hunter renounced surgical
for obstetric practice, in which he excelled. He was appointed a
surgeon-accoucheur at the Middlesex Hospital in 1748, and at the British
Lying-in Hospital in the year following. The degree of M.D. was conferred
upon him by the university of Glasgow on the 24th of October 1750. About
the same time he left his old abode at Mrs Douglas's, and settled as a
physician in Jermyn Street. He became a licentiate of the College of
Physicians on the 30th of September 1756. In 1762 he was consulted by
Queen Charlotte, and in 1764 was made physician-extraordinary to her
Majesty.
On the departure of his brother John for the army, Hunter engaged as an
assistant William Hewson (1739-1774), whom he subsequently admitted to
partnership in his lectures. Hewson was succeeded in 1770 by W. C.
Cruikshank (1745-1800). Hunter was elected F.R.S. in 1767; F.S.A. in
1768, and third professor of anatomy to the Royal Academy of Arts; and
in 1780 and 1782 respectively an associate of the Royal Medical Society
and of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris. During the closing ten
years of his life his health failed greatly. His last lecture, at the
conclusion of which he fainted, was given, contrary to the remonstrances
of friends, only a few days before his death, which took place in London
on the 30th of March 1783. He was buried in the rector's vault at St
James's, Piccadilly.
Hunter had in 1765 requested of the prime minister, George Grenville,
the grant of a plot of ground on which he might establish "a museum in
London for the improvement of anatomy, surgery, and physics" (see
"Papers" at end of his _Two Introductory Lectures_, 1784), and had
offered to expend on its erection L7000, and to endow in perpetuity a
professorship of anatomy in connexion with it. His application receiving
no recognition, he after many months abandoned his scheme, and built
himself a house, with lecture and dissecting-rooms, in Great Windmill
Street, whither he removed in 1770. In one fine apartment in this house
was accommodated his collection, comprising anatomical and pathological
preparations, ancient coins and medals, minerals, shells and corals. His
natural history specimens were in part a purchase, for L1200, of the
executors of his friend, Dr John Fothergill (1712-1780). Hunter's whole
collection, together with his fine library of Greek and Latin classics,
and an endowment of L8000, by his will became, after the lapse of twenty
years, the property of the university of Glasgow.
Hunter was never married, and was a man of frugal habits. Like his
brother John, he was an early riser, and a man of untiring industry. He
is described as being in his lectures, which were of two hours'
duration, "both simple and profound, minute in demonstration, and yet
the reverse of dry and tedious"; and his mode of introducing anecdotal
illustrations of his topic was most happy. Lecturing was to him a
pleasure, and, notwithstanding his many professional distractions, he
regularly continued it, because, as he said, he "conceived that a man
may do infinitely more good to the public by teaching his art than by
practising it" (see "Memorial" appended to _Introd. Lect._ p. 120).
Hunter was the author of several contributions to the _Medical
Observations and Enquiries_ and the _Philosophical Transactions_. In
his paper on the structure of cartilages and joints, published in the
latter in 1743, he anticipated what M. F. X. Bichat sixty years
afterwards wrote concerning the structure and arrangement of the
synovial membranes. His _Medical Commentaries_ (pt. i., 1762,
supplemented 1764) contains, among other like matter, details of his
disputes with the Monros as to who first had successfully performed
the injection of the _tubuli testis_ (in which, however, both he and
they had been forestalled by A. von Haller in 1745), and as to who had
discovered the true office of the lymphatics, and also a discussion on
the question whether he or Percivall Pott ought to be considered the
earliest to have elucidated the nature of _hernia congenita_, which,
as a matter of fact, had been previously explained by Haller. In the
_Commentaries_ is exhibited Hunter's one weakness--an inordinate love
of controversy. His impatience of contradiction he averred to be a
characteristic of anatomists, in whom he once jocularly condoned it,
on the plea that "the passive submission of dead bodies" rendered the
crossing of their will the less bearable. His great work, _The Anatomy
of the Gravid Uterus, exhibited in Figures_, fol., was published in
1774. His posthumous works are _Two Introductory Lectures_ (1784), and
_Anatomical Description of the Human Gravid Uterus_ (1794), which was
re-edited by Dr E. Rigby in 1843.
See _Gent. Mag._ liii. pt. 1, p. 364 (1783); S. F. Simmons, _An
Account of the Life of W. Hunter_ (1783); Adams's and Ottley's Lives
of J. Hunter; Sir B. C. Brodie, _Hunterian Oration_ (1837); W. Munk,
_The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London_, ii. 205
(1878). (F. H. B.)
HUNTER, WILLIAM ALEXANDER (1844-1898), Scottish jurist and politician,
was born in Aberdeen on the 8th of May 1844, and educated at Aberdeen
grammar school and university. He entered the Middle Temple, and was
called to the English bar in 1867, but then was occupied mainly with
teaching. In 1869 he was appointed professor of Roman law at University
College, London, and in 1878 professor of jurisprudence, resigning that
chair in 1882. His name became well known during this period as the
author of a standard work on Roman law, _Roman Law in the Order of a
Code_, together with a smaller introductory volume for students,
_Introduction to Roman Law_. After 1882 Hunter took up politics and was
elected to parliament for Aberdeen as a Liberal in 1885. In the House of
Commons he was a prominent supporter of Charles Bradlaugh, he was the
first to advocate old age pensions, and in 1890 carried a proposal to
free elementary education in Scotland. In 1895 his health broke down; he
retired from parliament in 1896 and died on the 21st of July 1898.
HUNTER, SIR WILLIAM WILSON (1840-1900), British publicist, son of Andrew
Galloway Hunter, a Glasgow manufacturer, was born at Glasgow on the 15th
of July 1840. He was educated at Glasgow University (B.A. 1860), Paris
and Bonn, acquiring a knowledge of Sanscrit, and passing first in the
final examination for the Indian Civil Service in 1862. Posted in the
remote district of Birbhum in the lower provinces of Bengal, he began
collecting local traditions and records, which formed the materials for
his novel and suggestive publication, entitled _The Annals of Rural
Bengal_, a book which did much to stimulate public interest in the
details of Indian administration. He also compiled _A Comparative
Dictionary of the Non-Aryan Languages of India_, a glossary of dialects
based mainly upon the collections of Brian Houghton Hodgson, which
testifies to the industry of the writer but contains much immature
philological speculation. In 1872 he brought out two attractive volumes
on the province of Orissa and its far-famed temple of Jagannath. In 1869
Lord Mayo asked Hunter to submit a scheme for a comprehensive
statistical survey of the Indian empire. The work involved the
compilation of a number of local gazetteers, in various stages of
progress, and their consolidation in a condensed form upon a single and
uniform plan. The conception was worthy of the gigantic projects formed
by Arthur Young and Sir John Sinclair at the close of the 18th century,
and the fact that it was successfully carried through between 1869 and
1881 was owing mainly to the energy and determination of Hunter. The
early period of his undertaking was devoted to a series of tours which
took him into every corner of India. He himself undertook the
supervision of the statistical accounts of Bengal (20 vols., 1875-1877)
and of Assam (2 vols., 1879). The various statistical accounts, when
completed, comprised no fewer than 128 volumes. The immense task of
condensing this mass of material proceeded concurrently with their
compilation, an administrative feat which enabled _The Imperial
Gazetteer of India_ to appear in 9 volumes in 1881 (2nd ed., 14 vols.,
1885-1887; 3rd ed., 26 vols., including atlas, 1908). Hunter adopted a
transliteration of vernacular place-names, by which means the correct
pronunciation is ordinarily indicated; but hardly sufficient allowance
was made for old spellings consecrated by history and long usage.
Hunter's own article on India was published in 1880 as _A Brief History
of the Indian Peoples_, and has been widely translated and utilized in
Indian schools. A revised form was issued in 1895, under the title of
_The Indian Empire: its People, History and Products_. In 1882 Hunter,
as a member of the governor-general's council, presided over the
commission on Indian Education; in 1886 he was elected vice-chancellor
of the university of Calcutta. In 1887 he retired from the service, was
created K.C.S.I., and settled at Oaken Holt, near Oxford. He arranged
with the Clarendon Press to publish a series of _Rulers of India_, to
which he himself contributed volumes on Dalhousie (1890) and Mayo
(1892). He had previously, in 1875, written an official _Life of Lord
Mayo_, in two volumes. He also wrote a weekly article on Indian affairs
for _The Times_. But the great task to which he applied himself on his
settlement in England was a history upon a large scale of the _British
Dominion in India_, two volumes of which only had appeared when he died,
carrying the reader barely down to 1700. He was much hindered by the
confused state of his materials, a portion of which he arranged and
published in 1894 as _Bengal Manuscript Records_, in three volumes. A
delightful story, _The Old Missionary_ (1895), and _The Thackerays in
India_ (1897), a gossipy volume which appeals to all readers of _The
Newcomes_, may be regarded as the relaxations of an Anglo-Indian amid
the stress of severer studies. In the winter of 1898-1899, in
consequence of the fatigue incurred in a journey to the Caspian and
back, on a visit to the sick-bed of one of his two sons, Hunter was
stricken down by a severe attack of influenza, which affected his heart.
He died at Oaken Holt on the 6th of February 1900.
HUNTING (the verbal substantive from "hunt"; O. Eng. _huntian_, _hunta_;
apparently connected with O. Eng. _hentan_, Gothic _hinpan_, to capture,
O.H.G. _hunda_, booty), the pursuit of game and wild animals, for profit
or sport; equivalent to "chase" (like "catch," from Lat. _captare_, Fr.
_chasse_, Ital. _caccia_). The circumstances which render necessary the
habitual pursuit of wild animals, either as a means of subsistence or
for self-defence, generally accompany a phase of human progress
distinctly inferior to the pastoral and agricultural stages; resorted to
as a recreation, however, the practice of the chase in most cases
indicates a considerable degree of civilization, and sometimes
ultimately becomes the almost distinctive employment of the classes
which are possessed of most leisure and wealth. It is in some of its
latter aspects, viz. as a "sport," pursued on fixed rules and
principles, that hunting is dealt with here.
Historic Field Sports.
Information as to the field sports of the ancients is in many directions
extremely fragmentary. With regard to the ancient Egyptians, however, we
learn that the huntsmen constituted an entire sub-division of the great
second caste; they either followed the chase on their own account, or
acted as the attendants of the chiefs in their hunting excursions,
taking charge of the dogs, and securing and bringing home the game. The
game was sought in the open deserts which border on both sides the
valley of the Nile; but (by the wealthy) sometimes in enclosed spaces
into which the animals had been driven or in preserves. Besides the
noose and the net, the arrow, the dart and the hunting pole or
_venabulum_ were frequently employed. The animals chiefly hunted were
the gazelle, ibex, oryx, stag, wild ox, wild sheep, hare and porcupine;
also the ostrich for its plumes, and the fox, jackal, wolf, hyaena and
leopard for their skins, or as enemies of the farm-yard. The lion was
occasionally trained as a hunting animal instead of the dog. The
sportsman appears, occasionally at least, in the later periods, to have
gone to cover in his chariot or on horseback; according to Wilkinson,
when the dogs threw off in a level plain of great extent, it was even
usual for him "to remain in his chariot, and, urging his horses to their
full speed, endeavour to turn or intercept them as they doubled,
discharging a well-directed arrow whenever they came within its
range."[1] The partiality for the chase which the ancient Egyptians
manifested was shared by the Assyrians and Babylonians, as is shown by
the frequency with which hunting scenes are depicted on the walls of
their temples and palaces; it is even said that their dresses and
furniture were ornamented with similar subjects.[2] The game pursued
included the lion, the wild ass, the gazelle and the hare, and the
implements chiefly employed seem to have been the javelin and the bow.
There are indications that hawking was also known. The Assyrian kings
also maintained magnificent parks, or "paradises," in which game of
every kind was enclosed; and perhaps it was from them that the Persian
sovereigns borrowed the practice mentioned both by Xenophon in the
_Cyropaedia_ and by Curtius. According to Herodotus, Cyrus devoted the
revenue of four great towns to meet the expenses of his hunting
establishments. The circumstances under which the death of the son of
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 Lydia. In Palestine game has always been plentiful, and the
Biblical indications that it was much sought and duly appreciated are
numerous. As means of capture, nets, traps, snares and pitfalls are most
frequently alluded to; but the arrow (Isa. vii. 24), the spear and the
dart (Job. xli. 26-29) are also mentioned. There is no evidence that the
use of the dog (Jos. _Ant._ iv. 8, 10, notwithstanding) or of the horse
in hunting was known among the Jews during the period covered by the Old
Testament history; Herod, however, was a keen and successful sportsman,
and is recorded by Josephus (_B.J._ i. 21, 13, compare _Ant._ xv. 7, 7;
xvi. 10, 3) to have killed no fewer than forty head of game (boar, wild
ass, deer) in one day.
The sporting tastes of the ancient Greeks, as may be gathered from many
references in Homer (_Il._ ix. 538-545; _Od._ ix. 120, xvii. 295, 316,
xix. 429 seq.), had developed at a very early period; they first found
adequate literary expression in the work of Xenophon entitled
_Cynegeticus_,[3] which expounds his principles and embodies his
experience in his favourite art of hunting. The treatise chiefly deals
with the capture of the hare; in the author's day the approved method
was to find the hare in her 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 trap ([Greek: podostrabe]), which attached itself to the
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 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 Gaul and the horses of Scythia and Libya. Four books of
_Cynegetica_, extending to about 2100 hexameters, by Oppian have also
been preserved; the last of these is incomplete, and it is probable that
a fifth at one time existed. The poem contains some good descriptive
passages, as well as some very curious indications of the state of
zoological knowledge in the author's time. Hunting scenes are frequently
represented in ancient works of art, especially the boar-hunt, and also
that of the hare. In Roman literature allusions to the pleasures of the
chase (wild ass, boar, hare, fallow deer being specially mentioned as
favourite game) are not wanting (Virg. _Georg._ iii. 409-413; _Ecl._
iii. 75; 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 left to inferiors and professionals. The immense _vivaria_ or
_theriotropheia_, in which various wild animals, such as boars, stags
and roe-deer, were kept in a state of semi-domestication, were
developments which arose at a comparatively late period; as also were
the _venationes_ in the circus, although these are mentioned as having
been known as early as 186 B.C. The bald and meagre poem of Grattius
Faliscus on hunting (_Cynegetica_) is modelled upon Xenophon's prose
work; a still extant fragment (315 lines) of a similar poem with the
same title, of much later date, by Nemesianus, seems to have at one
time formed the introduction to an extended work corresponding to that
of Oppian.
That the Romans had borrowed some things in the art of hunting from the
Gauls may be inferred from the name _canis gallicus_ (Spanish _galgo_)
for a greyhound, which is to be met with both in Ovid and Martial; also
in the words (_canis_) _vertragus_ and _segusius_, both of Celtic
origin.[4] According to Strabo (p. 200) the Britons also bred dogs well
adapted for hunting purposes. The addiction of the Franks in later
centuries to the chase is evidenced by the frequency with which not only
the laity but also the clergy were warned by provincial councils against
expending so much of their time and money on hounds, hawks and falcons;
and we have similar proof with regard to the habits of other Teutonic
nations subsequent to the introduction of Christianity.[5] Originally
among the northern nations sport was open to every one[6] except to
slaves, who were not permitted to bear arms; the growth of the idea of
game-preserving kept pace with the development of feudalism. For its
ultimate development in Britain see FOREST LAW, where also the
distinction between beasts of forest or venery, beasts of chase and
beasts and fowls of warren is explained. See also GAME LAWS.
_Modern Hunting._--The 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 scent, with horse and hound. It thus corresponds to
the Fr. _chasse au courre_, as distinguished from _chasse au tir_, _a
l'oiseau_, &c., and to the Ger. _hetzjagd_ as distinguished from
_birsch_. In the following article the English practice is mainly
considered.
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 illustration
of the manner in which these were used is given in the inscription
quoted by Orelli (n. 1603)--"Silvano Invicto Sacrum--ob aprum eximiae
formae captum, quem multi antecessores praedari non potuerunt." Asser,
the biographer of Alfred the Great, states that before the prince was
twelve years of age he "was a most expert and active hunter, and
excelled in all the branches of that noble art, to which he applied with
incessant labour and amazing success."[7] Of his grandson Athelstan it
is related by William of Malmesbury that after the victory of
Brunanburgh he imposed upon the vanquished king of Wales a yearly
tribute, which included a certain number of "hawks and sharp-scented
dogs fit for hunting wild beasts." According to the same authority, one
of the greatest delights of Edward the Confessor was "to follow a pack
of swift hounds in pursuit of game, and to cheer them with his voice."
It was under the Anglo-Saxon kings that the distinction between the
higher and lower chase first came to be made--the former being expressly
for the king or those on whom he had bestowed the pleasure of sharing in
it, while only the latter was allowed to the proprietors of the land. To
the reign of Cnut belong the "Constitutiones de Foresta," according to
which four thanes were appointed in every province for the
administration of justice in all matters connected with the forests;
under them were four inferior thanes to whom was committed immediate
care of the vert and venison.[8] The severity of the forest laws which
prevailed during the Norman period is sufficient evidence of the
sporting ardour of William and his successors. The Conqueror himself
"loved the high game as if he were their father"; and the penalty for
the unauthorized slaughter of a hart or hind was loss of both eyes.
Stag hunting.
At an early period stag hunting was a favourite recreation with English
royalty. It seems probable that in the reign of Henry VIII. the royal
pack of buckhounds was kennelled at Swinley, where, in the reign of
Charles II. (1684), a deer was found that went away to Lord Petre's seat
in Essex; only five got to the end of this 70 m. run, one being the
king's brother, the duke of York. George III. was a great stag hunter,
and met the royal pack as often as possible.
In _The Chase of the Wild Red Deer_, Mr Collyns says that the earliest
record of a pack of staghounds in the Exmoor district is in 1598, when
Hugh Polland, Queen Elizabeth's ranger, kept one at Simonsbath. The
succeeding rangers of Exmoor forest kept up the pack until some 200
years ago, the hounds subsequently passing into the possession of Mr
Walter of Stevenstone, an ancestor of the Rolle family. Successive
masters continued the sport until 1825, when the fine pack, descended
probably from the bloodhound crossed with the old southern hound, was
sold in London. It is difficult to imagine how the dispersion of such a
pack could have come about in such a sporting country, but in 1827 Sir
Arthur Chichester got a pack together again. Stag hunting begins on the
12th of August, and ends on the 8th of October; there is then a
cessation until the end of the month, when the hounds are unkennelled
for hind hunting, which continues up to Christmas; it begins again about
Ladyday, and lasts till the 10th of May. The mode of hunting with the
Devon and Somerset hounds is briefly this: the whereabouts of a
warrantable stag is communicated to the 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 body of the
pack are laid on. Very often two or three hours elapse before the stag
breaks, but a run over the wild country fully atones for the delay.
Fox hunting.
It is only within comparatively recent times that the fox has come to be
considered as an animal of the higher chase. William Twici, indeed, who
was huntsman-in-chief to Edward II., and who wrote in Norman French a
treatise on hunting,[9] mentions the fox as a beast of venery, but
obviously as an altogether inferior object of sport. Strutt also gives
an engraving, assigned by him to the 14th century, in which three
hunters, one of whom blows a horn, are represented as unearthing a fox,
which is pursued by a single hound. The precise date of the
establishment of the first English pack of hounds kept entirely for fox
hunting cannot be accurately fixed. In the work of "Nimrod" (C. J.
Apperley), entitled _The Chase_, there is (p. 4) an extract from a
letter from Lord Arundel, dated 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 Meynell, of Quorndon Hall, Leicestershire.
Lord Wilton again, in his _Sports and Pursuits of the English_, says
that "about the year 1750 hounds began to be entered solely to fox." The
_Field_ of November 6, 1875, p. 512, contains an engraving of a
hunting-horn then in the possession of the late master of the Cheshire
hounds, and upon the horn is the inscription:--"Thomas Boothby, Esq.,
Tooley Park, Leicester. With this horn he hunted the first pack of
foxhounds then in England fifty-five years. Born 1677. Died 1752. Now
the property of Thomas d'Avenant, Esq., county Salop, his grandson."
These extracts do not finally decide the point, because both Mr
Boothby's and Lord Arundel's hounds may have hunted other game besides
fox, just as in Edward IV.'s time there were "fox dogs" though not kept
exclusively for fox. On the whole, it is probable that Lord Wilton's
surmise is not far from correct. Since fox hunting first commenced,
however, the system of the sport has been much changed. In our
great-grandfathers' time the hounds met early, and found the fox by the
drag, that is, by the line he took to his kennel on his return from a
foraging expedition. Hunting the drag was doubtless a great test of
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 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 hour of the meeting being later, the fox is not likely to be
gorged with food, and so unable to take care of himself at the pace at
which the modern foxhound travels.
Cub hunting carried out on a proper principle is one of the secrets of a
successful season. To the man who cares for hunting, as distinct from
riding, September and October are not the least enjoyable months of the
whole hunting season. As soon as the 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 fat worked off by the
last week in August. So far as the hounds are concerned, the object of
cub hunting is to teach them their duty; it is a dress rehearsal of the
November business. In company 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 running about when
at walk. When cubbing 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 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 hand every cub he can find.
Hare.
Hare hunting, which must not be confounded with Coursing (q.v.), is an
excellent school both for men and for horses. It is attended with the
advantages of being cheaper than any other kind, and of not needing so
large an area of country. Hare hunting requires considerable skill;
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
place, a hare, when found, generally describes a circle in her course
which naturally brings her upon her 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 whip-cracking should be permitted;
nor should the field make any noise when a hare is found, for, being a
timid animal, she might be headed into the hounds' mouths. Capital
exercise and much useful knowledge are to be derived by running with a
pack of beagles. There are the same difficulties to be contended with as
in hunting with the ordinary harrier, and a very few days' running will
teach the youthful sportsman that he cannot run at the same pace over
sound ground and over a deep ploughed field, up hill and down, or along
and across furrows.
Otter.
Otter hunting, which is less practised now than formerly, begins just as
all other hunting is drawing to a close. When the waterside is reached
an attempt is made to hit upon the track by which the otter passed to
his "couch," which is generally a hole communicating with the river,
into which the otter often dives on first hearing the hounds. When the
otter "vents" or comes to the surface to breathe, his muzzle only
appears above water, and when he is viewed or traced by the mud he stirs
up, or by air bubbles, the hounds are laid on. Notwithstanding the
strong scent of the otter, he often escapes the hounds, and then a cast
has to be made. When he is viewed an attempt is made to spear him by any
of the field who may be within distance; if their spears miss, the
owners must wade to recover them. Should the otter be transfixed by a
spear, the person who threw it goes into the water and raises the game
over his head on the spear's point. If instead of being speared, he is
caught by the hounds, he is soon worried to death by them, though
frequently not before he has inflicted some severe wounds on one or more
of the pack.
Packs.
When railways were first started in England dismal prophecies were made
that the end of hunting would speedily be brought about. The result on
the whole has been the reverse. While in some counties the sport has
suffered, townsmen who formerly would have been too far from a meet can
now secure transport for themselves and their horses in all directions;
and as a consequence, meets of certain packs are not advertised because
of the number of strangers who would be induced to attend. The sport has
never been so vigorously pursued as it was at the beginning of the 20th
century, 19 packs of staghounds being kept in England and 4 in Ireland,
over 170 packs of foxhounds in England, 10 in Scotland and 23 in
Ireland, with packs of harriers and beagles too numerous to be counted.
The chase of the wild stag is carried on in the west country by the
Devon and Somerset hounds, which hunt three or four days a week from
kennels at Dunster; by the Quantock; and by a few other local packs. In
other parts of England staghound packs are devoted to the capture of the
carted deer, a business which is more or less of a parody on the genuine
sport, but is popular for the reason that whereas with foxhounds men may
have a blank day, they are practically sure of a gallop when a deer is
taken out in a cart to be enlarged before the hounds are laid on.
Complaints are often raised about the cruelty of what is called tame
stag hunting, and it became a special subject of criticism that a pack
should still be kept at the Royal kennels at Ascot (it was abolished in
1901) and hunted by the Master of the Buckhounds; but it is the constant
endeavour of all masters and hunt servants to prevent the infliction of
any injury on the deer. Their efforts in this direction are seldom
unsuccessful; and it appears to be a fact that stags which are hunted
season after season come to understand that they are in no grave danger.
Packs of foxhounds vary, from large establishments in the "Shires," the
meets of which are attended by hundreds of horsemen, some of whom keep
large stables of hunters in constant work--for though a man at Melton,
for instance, may see a great deal of sport with half-a-dozen
well-seasoned animals, the number is not sufficient if he is anxious to
be at all times well mounted--to small kennels in the north of England,
where the field follow on foot. The "Shires" is a recognized term, but
is nevertheless somewhat vague. The three counties included in the
expression are Leicestershire, Rutlandshire and Northamptonshire.
Several packs which hunt within these limits are not supposed, however,
to belong to the "Shires," whereas a district of the Belvoir country is
in Lincolnshire, and to hunt with the Belvoir is certainly understood to
be hunting in the "Shires." The Shire hounds include the Belvoir, the
Cottesmore, the Quorn and the Pytchleys; for besides the Pytchley
proper, there is a pack distinguished as the Woodland. It is generally
considered that the cream of the sport lies here, but with many of the
packs which are generally described as "provincial" equally good hunting
may be obtained. Round about London a man who is bent on the pursuit of
fox or stag may gratify his desire in many directions. The Essex and the
Essex Union, the Surrey and the Surrey Union, the Old Berkeley, the West
Kent, the Burstow, the Hertfordshire, the Crawley and Horsham, the
Puckeridge, as regards foxhounds; the Berkhampstead, the Enfield Chase,
Lord Rothschild's, the Surrey, the West Surrey and the Warnham, as
regards staghounds--as well as the Bucks and Berks, which was
substituted for the Royal Buckhounds--are within easy reach of the
capital.
Modern horses and hounds.
Questions are constantly raised as to whether horse and hounds have
improved or deteriorated in modern times. It is probable that the
introduction of scientific agriculture has brought about an increase of
pace. Hounds hunt as well as ever they did, are probably faster on the
whole, and in the principal hunts more thoroughbred horses are employed.
For pace and endurance no hunter approaches the English thoroughbred;
and for a bold man who "means going," a steeplechase horse is often the
best animal that could be obtained, for when he has become too slow to
win races "between the flags," he can always gallop much faster, and
usually lasts much longer, than animals who have not his advantage of
blood. The quondam "'chaser" is, however, usually apt to be somewhat
impetuous at his fences. But it must by no means be supposed that every
man who goes out hunting desires to gallop at a great pace and to jump
formidable obstacles, or indeed any obstacles at all. A large proportion
of men who follow hounds are quite content to do so passively through
gates and gaps, with a canter along the road whenever one is available.
A few of the principal packs hunt five days a week, and sometimes even
six, and for such an establishment not fewer than seventy-five couples
of hounds are requisite. A pack which hunts four days a week will be
well supplied with anything between fifty and sixty couples, and for two
days a week from twenty-five to thirty will suffice. The young hound
begins cub-hunting when he is some eighteen months old, and as a rule is
found to improve until his third or fourth season, though some last
longer than this. Often, however, when a hound is five or six years old
he begins to lack speed. Exceptional animals naturally do exceptional
things, and a famous hound called Potentate is recorded by the 8th duke
of Beaufort to have done notable service in the hunting field for eleven
seasons.
Hunt servants.
Servants necessary for a pack include the huntsman, the duties of whose
office a master sometimes fulfils himself; two whippers-in, an
earth-stopper and often a kennel huntsman is also employed, though the
18th Lord Willoughby de Broke (d. 1902), a great authority, laid it down
that "the man who hunts the hounds should always feed them." In all but
the largest establishments the kennel huntsman is generally called the
"feeder." It is his business to look after the pack which is not
hunting, to walk them out, to prepare the food for the hunting pack so
that it is ready when they return, and in the spring to attend to the
wants of the matrons and whelps. A kennel huntsman proper may be
described as the man who does duty when the master hunts his own hounds,
undertaking all the responsibilities of the huntsman except actually
hunting the pack. It may be said that the first duty of a huntsman is to
obtain the confidence of his hounds, to understand them and to make
himself understood; and the intelligence of hounds is remarkable. If,
for example, it is the habit of the huntsman to give a single note on
his horn when hounds are drawing a covert, and a double note when a fox
is found, the pack speedily understand the significance. The mysteries
of scent are certainly no better comprehended now than they were more
than a hundred years ago when Peter Beckford wrote his _Thoughts on
Hunting_. The subject of scent is full of mysteries. The great authority
already quoted, the 8th duke of Beaufort, noted as a very extraordinary
but well-known fact, for example, "that in nine cases out of ten if a
fox is coursed by a dog during a run all scent ceases afterwards, even
when you get your hounds to the line of the fox beyond where the dog has
been." This is one of many phenomena which have always remained
inexplicable. The duties of the whipper-in are to a great extent
explained by his title. Whilst the huntsman is drawing the cover the
whipper-in is stationed at the spot from which he can best see what is
going on, in order to view the fox away; and it is his business to keep
the hounds together when they have found and got away after the fox.
There are many ways in which a whipper-in who is not intelligent and
alert may spoil sport; indeed, the duke of Beaufort went so far as to
declare that "in his experience, with very few exceptions, nine days out
of ten that the whipper-in goes out hunting he does more harm than
good." In woodland countries, however, a good whipper-in is really of
almost as much importance as the huntsman himself; if he is not alert
the hounds are likely to divide, as when running a little wide they are
apt to put up a fresh fox. The earth-stopper "stops out" and "puts
to"--the first expression signifying blocking, during the night, earths
and drains to which foxes resort, the second performing the same duties
in the morning so as to prevent the fox from getting to ground when he
has been found. In the interests of humanity care should be taken that
the earth-stopper always has with him a small terrier, as it is often
necessary to "stop-out" permanently; and unless a dog is run through the
drain some unfortunate creature in it, a fox, cat or rabbit, may be
imprisoned and starved to death. This business is frequently performed
by a gamekeeper, a sum being paid him for any litter of cubs or fox
found on his beat.
Cost of hunting.
With regard to the expenses of hunting, it is calculated that a master
of hounds should be prepared to spend at the rate of L500 a year for
every day in the week that his hounds are supposed to hunt. Taking one
thing with another, this is probably rather under than over the mark,
and the cost of hunting three days a week, if the thing be really
properly done, will most likely be nearer L2000 than L1500. The expenses
to the individual naturally vary so much that no figures can be given.
As long ago as 1826 twenty-seven hunters and hacks were sold for 7500
guineas, an average of over L290; and when Lord Stamford ceased to hunt
the Quorn in 1853, seventy-three of his horses fetched at auction an
average of close on L200. Early in the 19th century, when on the whole
horses were much cheaper than they are at present, 700 and 800 guineas
are prices recorded as having been occasionally paid for hunters of
special repute. A man may see some sport on an animal that cost him L40;
others may consider it necessary to keep an expensive establishment at
Melton Mowbray or elsewhere in the Shires, with a dozen or more
500-guinea hunters, some covert-hacks, and a corresponding staff of
servants. Few people realize what enormous sums of money are annually
distributed in connexion with hunting. Horses must be fed; the wages of
grooms and helpers be paid; saddlery, clothing, shoeing, &c., are items;
farmers, innkeepers, railway companies, fly-men and innumerable others
benefit more or less directly. (A. E. T. W.)