Of _trotting_, it is said euen as we see, that it shaketh the bodie to violently, that it causeth and encreaseth marueilous aches, that it offendes the head, the necke, the shoulders, the hippes, and disquieteth all the entrailes beyond all measure. And though it may somewhat helpe the digestion of meate, and raw humours, loose the belly, prouoke vrine, driue the stone or grauell from the kidneyes downward, yet it is better forborne for greater euilles, then borne with for some sorie small good.
_Ambling_ as it exerciseth least, so it anoyeth least, and yet looseth it the bellie.
As for _posting_, though it come last in reading, it will be first in riding, though for making such hast, it harme eche part of the bodie, and specially the bulke, the lungues, the bowells generally, the kidneyes: as what doth it not allway anoy, and oftimes either breake or put out of ioynte by falles or straynes? It warmes and paires the body to sore, and therfore abateth grossenes, though a grosse man be ill either to ride post himselfe, or for a iade to beare. It infecteth the head, it dulleth the senses, and especially the sight: euen til it make his eyes that posteth to run with water, not to remember the death of his friendes, but to thinke how sore his saddle shakes him, and the ayer bites him.
[40] Gal. 7. meth. Pli. epist. 9. lib. 6. Martial. lib. 11. Iuuenal.
_Hvnting_ is a copious argument, for a poeticall humour to discours of, whether in verse, with _Homer_, or in prose, with _Heliodorus_. _Dian_ would be alleged, as so auoyding _Cupide_. _Hippolytus_, would be vsed in commendation of continence, and what would not poetrie bring in to auaunce it, whose musicke being solitarie and woddishe, must needes be, nay is very well acquainted with the chace. If poets should faint, the _Persians_ would fight, both for riding and hunting: so that if patrocinie were in question, we neede not to enquire, they would offer them selues, from all countries, and of all languages. But we need not either for praise, or for prose, to vse forraine aduocats. For hunting hath alway caried a great credit, both for exercising the bodie, and deliting the mynde, as it semes to be verie naturall, because it seeketh to maister, and to take beastes, and byrdes, which are naturally appointed for mans vse, and therefore though they be taken and killed, there is no wrong done them. The courteous _Xenophon_[42] as delited himselfe therein, and all the auncient writers, as subscribing to a truth, commend it marueilously, and chiefly, for a proper elementarie to warlike vses, and _Mars_ his schoole, whether for valiauntnes or for pollicy, because the resemblaunces of the chiefe warlike executions do fall out in hunting, as the qualitie or courage of the game offereth cause, either to vse force and manhoode, or to flie to deuise and sutteltie.