by the fellow with the broad shoulders." XLIV.--THE AUTHOR'S LABOURS--CHARACTER OF THE ENGRAVINGS. Having laid before my readers a general view of the sports and pastimes of our ancestors, I shall proceed to arrange them under their proper heads, and allot to each of them a separate elucidation. The task in truth is extremely difficult; and many omissions, as well as many errors, must of necessity occur in the prosecution of it; but none, I hope, of any great magnitude, nor more than candour will overlook, especially when it is recollected, that in a variety of instances, I have been constrained to proceed without any guide, and explore, as it were, the recesses of a trackless wilderness. I must also entreat the reader to excuse the frequent quotations which he will meet with, which in general I have given verbatim; and this I have done for his satisfaction, as well as my own, judging it much fairer to stand upon the authority of others than to arrogate to myself the least degree of penetration to which I have no claim. It is necessary to add, that the engravings, which constitute an essential part of this work, are not the produce of modern invention, neither do they contain a single figure that has not its proper authority. Most of the originals are exceedingly ancient, and all the copies are faithfully made without the least unnecessary deviation. As specimens of the art of design they have nothing to recommend them to the modern eye, but as portraitures of the manners and usages of our ancestors, in times remote, they are exceedingly valuable, because they not only elucidate many obsolete customs, but lead to the explanation of several obscurities in the history of former ages. _January, 1801._ SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. BOOK I. RURAL EXERCISES PRACTISED BY PERSONS OF RANK. CHAPTER I. I. Hunting more ancient than Hawking.--II. State of Hunting among the Britons.--III. The Saxons expert in Hunting.--IV. The Danes also.--V. The Saxons subsequently;--The Normans.--VI. Their tyrannical Proceedings.--VII. Hunting and Hawking after the Conquest.--VIII. Laws relating to Hunting.--IX. Hunting and Hawking followed by the Clergy.--X. The Manner in which the dignified Clergy in the Middle Ages pursued those Pastimes.--XI. The English Ladies fond of these Sports.--XII. Privileges of the Citizens of London to Hunt;--Private Privileges for Hunting.--XIII. Two Treatises on Hunting considered.--XIV. Names of Beasts to be hunted.--XV. Wolves not all destroyed in Edgar's Time.--XVI. Dogs for Hunting.--XVII. Various Methods of Hunting.--XVIII. Terms used in Hunting;--Times when to hunt. I.--HUNTING MORE ANCIENT THAN HAWKING.