James I. was an enthusiastic sportsman. Although in his various kennels he had little short of two hundred couple of hounds, and the cost of their maintenance was a serious draught upon his privy purse, yet he never seemed satisfied that he had enough, so long as he heard of any good hound in the possession of a subject. Among the State Papers is an amusing letter relative to a piece of ill-luck that befell a favourite dog. "The king is at Tibbalds, and the queen gone or going to him. At this last meeting, being at Tibbalds, which was about a fortnight since, the queen, shooting at a deer with her crossbow, mistook her mark, and killed Jewell, the king's most special and principal hound, at which he stormed exceeding awhile, swearing many and great oaths. None would undertake to break unto him the news, so they were fain to send Archie the fool on the errand. But after he knew who did it, he was soon pacified, and with much kindness wished her not to be troubled with it, for he should love her never the worse, and the next day sent her a _jewell_ worth £2000, 'as a legacy from his dead dog.' Love and kindness increase daily between them, and it is thought they were never on better terms." Our early hunting songs all concern the stag. One of the very "ancientest ditties" we have is, _The Hunt is upp_-- "The hunt is up, the hunt is up, And it is well-nigh day; And Harry our king is gone hunting, To bring his deer to bay." A very pretty song it is of the reign of bluff Hal, but the earliest song relating to a fox that I know is that of _To-morrow the Fox will come to Town_, of the same period, and in that there is no mention of reynard as an object of sport. His thievish qualities are recorded, that is all. "To-morrow the fox will come to town, Keep, keep, keep, keep! To-morrow the fox will come to town, O keep you all well there. I must desire you neighbours all, To hallo the fox out of the hall, And cry as loud as you can call, Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop! And cry as loud as you can call, O keep you all well there." In the porch of Lewanick church, in Cornwall, the piece of freestone that supports the seat on which the gaffers sat before and after church is sculptured with a hare-hunt. The date is about the fifteenth century. In the popular mind the hare-hunt, for the reason already given, that it allows of better sport for the footers, is a favourite subject of song rather than the fox-hunt, the delights of which are sung by huntsmen more than by the peasants. It is curious how the reminiscence of famous runs lingers on among the people. There is a great song that used to be sung at all hunting dinners in Devon relative to the achievements of one Arscott of Tetcott, who is supposed still to hunt the country in spirit with a ghostly pack--