Sentence:  The spread of <WSD>battue</WSD> hunting was limited before the 1840s, and most sporting handbooks continued to instruct their readers in the arts of walking up rather than <WSD>battue</WSD> hunting. ... Yet the gradual spread of the <WSD>battue</WSD> was unmistakable, much to the consternation of more traditionally minded sportsmen. Traditionalists took exception to the extensive slaughter that the grand <WSD>battue</WSD> hunt might involve and railed against the introduction of this 'abominable Gallic System'. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A form of hunting in which game is forced into the open by the beating of sticks on bushes, etc. (from early 19th c.)