THE GENTLEMAN'S RECREATION
NICHOLAS COX
With a new Introduction by
J. Wentworth Day
EP PUBLISHING
1973
First published 1677.
Have you ever seen a squirrel sail across a river sitting on the bark of a tree "holding up her Tail like a Sail, letteth the wind drive her to the other side"?
Do you wish to hunt a wolf in Britain, to cast your falcon at a heron, to hunt wild cats with hounds, to go bat-fowling, to take birds in day nets or pigeons with bird-lime, to snare snipe in horse-hair nooses, or to plait horse-hair lines with which to catch fish or snare animals?
Would you wish "to take partridges several ways, either by Net, Engine, Driving or Setting", the latter with a dog, who can be "either a Land spaniel. Water spaniel, or Mungrel of them both; either the Shallow-flewed Hount, Tumbler, Lurcher or small bastard Mastiff. But there is none better than the Land-spaniel, being of a good and nimble size, rather small than gross, and of a courageous mettle"?
Do you know how to train falcons and hawks in the ways of falconry, or the difference in age between a soarage, an enterview, a white hawk and a hawk of the first coat, or for that matter if you go out hunting would you rather hunt the hart, buck, roe, wild goat, boar, wolf, hare, badger, wild cat or marten?
Nicholas Cox, an Oxfordshire country gentleman, who flourished under the Tudors, describes all these branches of field sports, with dissertations on fishing, veterinary treatment, the catching and training of songbirds, and fowling with a gun six feet long, in The Gentleman's Recreation published in 1677.
He stands high in the noble gallery of sporting writers. As a good editor he picked his team of experts well. He presents their assembled knowledge in a crisp, racy style.
He is never pompous, as are some of the older writers on sport, but has a dry wit. He presents a picture of everyday sporting England in the 17th century which comes alive.
Many of the sporting terms then in use are still used today. Others, now obsolete, are collector's pieces. His recipes for curing animal diseases, particularly those of dogs, are sometimes sheer nightmare. But they were the accepted wisdom of the day.
This rare book, from the library of Mr. James Wentworth Day, who apart from having edited The Field and The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News has also written more than forty books on shooting, fishing, riding, dogs, natural history and country life, is an unique addition to the library of any connoisseur of sporting literature. For nearly three hundred years Nicholas Cox has held an unique place in sporting history. His book, alas, was far too rare to be easily available. This new edition is, we believe, a "must" for every sportsman.
20 x 13 cm. 448 pp + 4 folding plates.
Very good + condition. Price clipped dust jacket slightly faded on the spine and with a tape mark to the front top corner. Book itself exceptionally clean and tidy.
