The ancients also took game by means of pits covered over with brushwood, in snares,[XIX-28] with traps,[XIX-29] and with nets;[XIX-30] moreover, they often made use of bows and arrows, and understood the art of training falcons and hawks.[XIX-31] Eastern princes amused themselves by hunting in parks where a great number of wild beasts were kept.[XIX-32] The Romans had too much taste and money, and too great a desire to spend it, not to imitate this expensive and royal luxury. Fulvius Hirpinus possessed a park of forty acres near Viterbo, in Tuscany. Lucius Lucullus, and Quintus Hortensius hastened to create more beautiful ones, and they did not fail to have a host of imitators.[XIX-33] By the Roman law, hunting was unrestricted:[XIX-34] only, no person could pursue game on another’s land without the owner’s permission.[XIX-35] Besides the pleasure which this amusement afforded, the ancients, like ourselves, discovered profit in it; and the produce of their chase became one of the finest ornaments of their feasts. Isaac ordered his son Esau to go out with his weapons, his quiver and bow, and to prepare for him savoury meat, such as he loved (venison).[XIX-36] Solomon had stags, roebucks, and wild oxen served on his table every day.[XIX-37] Cyrus, King of Persia, ordered that venison should never be wanting at his repasts.[XIX-38] Is it necessary to add that it was the delight of two nations the most gastronomic in the world?--of the effeminate Greeks, and more especially those Romans for whom the animals of the earth, ocean, and air were only to be valued in proportion to the impossibility of obtaining them in Europe, Asia, and Africa; an immense inheritance, conquered by noble ancestors, and which their degenerated sons ransacked for their satisfaction and insatiable gluttony.[XIX-39] The English have always loved hunting--the favourite pastime of their kings. Alfred the Great was not twelve years old when he had acquired the reputation of being a skilful and indefatigable hunter.[XIX-40] The noble and the wealthy differed from the serfs by their singular taste for this royal diversion; and, in their pursuit of it, they spared neither pains nor expense in procuring those famous dogs of pure race which the ancient Greeks and Romans prized so highly. When Athelstan, Alfred’s grandson, had subdued Constantine King of Wales, he imposed an annual tribute. The vanquished monarch had to give him gold, silver, cattle, and, which is remarkable, a certain number of hawks, and dogs possessing a quick scent, and capable of unkenneling wild beasts.[XIX-41] Edgar, the successor of Athelstan, changed the tribute of money into an annual tribute of three hundred wolves’ skins.[XIX-42] Notwithstanding his great piety, and the extreme reserve of his habits, Edward the Confessor took great delight in following the hounds, and exciting their ardour by his cries.[XIX-43]