Chap. X. OP/MA N £• H;E $ TER, 343 €t.cum*caipus fit capture clangore.ac volatfts genere invitare ad occafionem ?. But the diverfiou appears to have been intro- duced among them immediately afterwards * The Thracians aad thio Brittfis were once the only followers oiF the fport to . Atnoig *he former the recitation was purfued only by a particu- laridiftrfft -ef*the country *°. £mong the latter it feems to have •been univerfally profecuted by the- chiefs, and appears to have tbeen followed with fpirit ; as we find one of the mod northerly chiefs, * the. private head of a family, and an inhabitant of a ^country ill adapted for the exercife becauie of its numerous hills, 'Offering* no lefs than one hundred hawks to the enemy. And a> the Romaic -adopted probably from the Britons their own ufe of ,.th6 hawk, fo they muft have greatly improved the diverfion of the Britons by the introduction of fpaniels into the ifland. So ^provpd it appears among the. Raman-Britons of the fixjth cen<- .tury« dldas an a very curious paflage of his £piftle (peaks of Maglocunus on. hi& r^linquiihing the fphere of ambition and , taking refuge in a mouaftery, and poetically compares him to a. doye that ftviftly cleaves the air at the noify approach of the dog% antf with various turns and windings haftily takes her flight .fir6m die definitive talons of the hawk * x . And fo improved. .it remjaiued the favourite recreation; of our BritliK gentlemen beyond the middle o£ the laft century, even till the predominant . Spirit- of inclafare- and the fabrication of light fowling-pieces banithed* it, very recently from the kingdom ". Svcfc were thej manly military recreations, of our Britifti an- ceftors. f^uoh't^-RomaBSt found among them, and added three
- ethers I to them*. » f; ,
. The haa*e.niuft have* beeir. never hunted in Britain, before the cohqfceih of theRomafls- Previpufly to thofe conquefts, and for foftie times affiuiedly after 4shetn».;the hare wa$.at,beail of- au- gury^ among hq Britons • 3 «i Bitj 3$. the Brittfh. peculiarities of -efMilion werd)WDQO: atfay by th^k commerce with thenRpm^d^. -kUofritsiiinportifice in the faience of augury, and became &* triuch expofdd tQi dagger in Britain as its brethren were on the toori&xienfci; Thkcifluft noceffa# iy. have ; been the cafe with the - < bar*..
