Six Centuries of Foxhunting


Book Description

Hunting literature had its beginnings as early as the fourteenth century, when nobles hunted stag, bear, fox, and other game on horseback. As foxhunting grew in popularity, literary works that covered the sport flourished, as well. In Six Centuries of Foxhunting: An Annotated Bibliography, M. L. Biscotti has compiled all books produced in Great Britain and the United States that pertain to, or mention, foxhunting with hounds. Arranged alphabetically by author, more than 2000 titles are included. Each entry features details such as place and year of publication, publisher, book size, page count, illustrations, and binding. Nearly every title is also annotated with a description of the book’s contents, and biographical sketches are provided for the most notable authors. Narratives, histories, illustrated works, verse, fiction, and even anti-hunting literature all have their place in this volume. Six Centuries of Foxhunting also features more than thirty images of book covers and foxhunting illustrations. With appendixes that contain author, title, and illustrator time lines, and separate author and title indexes, this comprehensive bibliography is a valuable resource for researchers, book dealers and collectors, and foxhunters.










John Henry Williams (1747-1829)


Book Description

First full-length study of the life and career of John Henry Williams, one of the most fascinating figures of the eighteenth-century church. John Henry Williams was the vicar of Wellesbourne in south Warwickshire from 1778 until his death some fifty years later. A dedicated pastor, displaying an `enlightened and liberal' outlook, his career illuminates the Church of England's condition in the period, and also a clergyman's place in local society. However, he was not merely a country parson. A `political clergyman', Williams engaged fervently in both provincial and national political debate, denouncing the war with revolutionary France between 1793 and 1802, and published a series of forceful sermons condemning the struggle on Christian principles. To opponents, he appeared insidious and blinkered, but to admirers he was 'a sound divine, and not a less sound politician'. This book, the first to examine Williams' career in full, is a detailed, vivid, and sometimes moving, study of a man who occupies an honorable and significant position in the Church of England's history and in the history of British peace campaigning. Dr COLIN HAYDON teaches in the Department of History at the University of Winchester.