The Day of a King

Hunting
Hunting was a favorite sport of Louis and all the aristocrats who were one of the privileged to be living at the court. One sometimes wonders if the King’s insistence in organizing the hunt for such large parties was something to keep everyone busy.

Hunting was conducted on a magnificent scale under Louis XIV; between his own stag-hounds, Monseigneur's wolf-hounds and the packs of the Due du Maine and the Comte de Toulouse, the royal family kept something like five hundred pairs of hounds – and hunted nearly every day in the week. By modern standards, hounds were very riotous; the Comte de Toulouse's pack, for instance, was known as the "no-quarter" because his hounds would hunt anything, and if they could not find a wolf or stag, would settle down to kill rabbits, apparently to the complete satisfaction of the field.

Louis was not only a good man to hounds, but an excellent shot, and no pains were spared with the Versailles shooting, birds were turned down in such enormous numbers that they were put up in thousands at a time. When the King was out with any of the royal packs, an official, called a mine-runner, followed the hunt with a cold collation carried on a pack-horse, but Louis does not seem to have made much use of his services. The King retained his love of hunting to the end of his life, and when he grew too old to ride to hounds, followed the hunt in a light open carriage with four horses, which he drove himself.