IN THE OLDEN TIME.
195
which he, coming the day after, performed accordingly. These two days his
Majesty killed two stags; he was indefatigable at that sport, loving to ride so
hard that he usually lost his company. The entertainment which the Duke gave
the King was very noble ; the Prince [Prince George of Denmark] was there and
a great part of the Court."
Mr. Cole has also unearthed from the "Ellis Correspondence"
(Lond. 1829, vol. i, p. 380) a note of a much later hunt of James,
contained in a letter to John Mey, Esq., dated June 25th, 1688,
almost exactly six months before the King's final flight from
Rochester:—
"The Queen is in good health, and hath been up some days, and played
yesterday at cards most of the afternoon. His Majesty hunted all day in Waltham
Forest, and dined at Sir Eliab Harvey's [?at "Rolls," Chigwell.]
As to the chase of the wild deer in Essex, I have, in a former
communication to this Society, dwelt at some length upon the sub-
ject, so that it will be unnecessary for me on the present occasion to
repeat what has already been stated.9 I may perhaps be allowed,
however, to rescue from oblivion two songs (they can hardly be
styled poems) which relate to episodes in connection with stag
hunting and badger baiting in Essex, and which are to be found in
"The Sportsman's Vocal Cabinet," by Charles Armiger, printed in
1830, now a scarce little book. The chief merit of these verses lies,
not in their diction, but in the mention of names of persons and
places in Essex, which shows that they were evidently founded on
fact. The first song is entitled :—
"A Stag-hunt in the Forest of Waltham.10
" Who knows not the Forest where Harold was tomb'd.
One morn in the middle of May,
We rode to Hale End where the hawthorn trees bloom'd,
And the Red-deer delighted to stray.
" Squire Laughton was there with his excellent pack,
Tilney Long, too, that baronet bold ;
The Marquis of Lome with his suite at his back,
In green livery bedizen'd with gold.
" And these were well furnish'd with horns of the best,
That the skilful ere took into hand ;
So kind was my lord that to pleasure each guest,
He provided this musical band.
9 Essex Naturalist, vol. i, pp. 46—62.
10 I recently saw at the "Lobster Smack" Inn, at the furthermost side of Canvey Island, two
old coloured prints of hunting in the Forest (possibly representing the "Easter Hunt" immor-
talized by Hood) which were quite new to me. They represented "Turning out the Stag at
Buckitt's Hill, Epping Forest.'' and "Easter Monday ; or a View of Fair Mead Bottom, Epping
Forest." Both drawn and engraved by Jas. Pollard, and "published March 25th, 1820, by R.
Pollard & Sons, Holloway, near London."—W. Cole.