an old illumination which adorned an ancient MS., and represents
some Saxons engaged in unearthing a fox.

[Illustration: HUNTING IN SAXON TIMES (from an ancient MS.).]

When the Normans came to England great changes were made, and
hunting--the favourite sport of the Conqueror--was promoted with a
total disregard of the welfare of the people. Whole villages and
churches were pulled down in order to enlarge the royal forests, and
any one who was rash enough to kill the king's deer would lose his
life or his eyesight. It was not until the reign of Henry III. that
this law was altered. William the Conqueror, who forbade the killing
of deer and of boars, and who "loved the tall stags as though he
were their father," greatly enlarged the New Forest, in Hampshire.
Henry I. built a huge stone wall, seven miles in circumference,
round his favourite park of Woodstock, near Oxford; and if any one
wanted a favour from King John, a grant of privileges, or a new
charter, he would have to pay for it in horses, hawks, or hounds.
The Norman lords were as tyrannical in preserving their game as
their king, and the people suffered greatly through the selfishness
of their rulers. There is a curious MS. in the British Museum,
called _The Craft of Hunting_, written by two followers of Edward
II., which gives instructions with regard to the game to be hunted,
the rules for blowing the horn, the dogs to be used in the chase,
and so on. It is too long to quote, but I may mention that the
animals to be hunted included the hare, hart, wolf, wild boar,
buck, doe, fox ("which oft hath hard grace"), the martin-cat,
roebuck, badger, polecat, and otter. Many of these animals have long
since disappeared through the clearing of the old forests, or been
exterminated on account of the mischief which they did. Our modern