Mid. Eng., affaiten; O. Fr. affaitier, to trim, to fashion. A well-affaited or affeted head, a well-fashioned or good-shaped head. In speaking of stags' antlers, means regularly tinÈd and well grown.

Affeted also meant trained or tamed, reclaimed, made gentle, thoroughly manned. Affaiter is still in use in M. Fr., as a term of falconry.

We find this word employed in this sense in the Vision of Piers Plowman (1362): "And go affayte the Fawcons, wilde fowles to kill." And in O. Fr. sporting literature one constantly reads of "Chiens bien, affaities" (well-broken dogs); "oiseaux bien affaities" (well-trained hawks). Roy Modus, lxxix.; Bormans, p. 52; La Chace dou Cerf, Jub. 157; T. M. vol. ii. p. 933.

Allaunts, Canis Alanus; Fr. alans. Also spelt alande, alaunt, allaundes, Aloundys (MS. Brit. Mus., Egerton, 1995). See also Twici, p. 56.

A strong, ferocious dog, supposed to have been brought to Western Europe by a Caucasian tribe called Alains or Alani. This tribe invaded Gaul in the fourth century, settling there awhile, and then continued their wanderings and overran Spain. It is from this country that the best alans were obtained during the Middle Ages, and dogs that are used for bull-or bear-baiting there are still called Alanos. Gaston de Foix, living on the borders of this country, was in the best position to obtain such dogs, and to know all about them. His description, which we have here, tallies exactly with that written in a Spanish book, Libro de la MonterÍa, on hunting of the fourteenth century, written by Alphonso XI.

Alauntes were used as war dogs, and it was said that when once they seized their prey they would not loose their hold.

Cotgrave (Sherwood's App.) says that the mastiff resembles an Alan, and also Wynn in his book on the "British Mastiff" (p. 45) says that he is inclined to think that the Alan is the ancient name for mastiff, and thinks it possible that the Phoenicians brought this breed to the British Isles. He cannot have known the description given us of the Alan by the "Master of Game," nor can he have been acquainted with the work of Gaston Phoebus, for he says that the Alan is not mentioned among any of the earlier dogs of France and Germany. There is ample evidence that they existed in France from very early days. Probably they were relics left there by the Alani in their wanderings through Gaul. About the same period as our MS. we find Alans mentioned by Chaucer, who in the "Knight's Tale" describes Lycurgus seated on his throne, around which stand white Alaunts as big as bulls wearing muzzles and golden collars.

The ancient Gallo-Latin name of veltrahus, or veltris, which in the first instance denoted a large greyhound used for the chase of the bear and wild boar, passed later to a different kind of dog used for the same purpose. These veltres, viautres, or vautres were also known under the name of Alan, and resembled the Great Dane or the German Boarhound (De Noir., vol. ii. p. 295-7).

O. Fr. auntilor, antoiller, or andoiller, derived from a Teutonic root; Anglo-Saxon andwlit; Frank. antlutt or antluzze; Goth. andawleiz; O. Ger. antliz; face. Gaston Phoebus and Roy Modus and other old French authors almost invariably use teste, or head, when referring to a hart's antlers, but English writers did not observe time-hallowed terms of venery so rigorously, and our author frequently uses the jarring and, from every point of view, incorrect term "horns" when speaking of the hart's attire or head. The substance of deers' antlers is true bone, the proportion of their constituents differing but very slightly from ordinary bones. The latter, when in a healthy condition, consist of about one-third of animal matter or gelatine, and two-thirds of earthy matter, about six-sevenths of which is phosphate of lime and one-seventh carbonate of lime, with an appreciable trace of magnesia. The antlers of deer consist of about thirty-nine parts of animal matter and sixty-one parts of earthy matter of the same kind and proportion as is found in common bone. Later on, a more sportsmanlike regard for terms of venery is observable, and Turbervile in one of his few original passages impresses upon his fellow-sportsmen: "Note that when you speake of a harts hornes, you must terme them the Head and not the Hornes of a hart. And likewise of a bucke; but a Rowes hornes and a Gotes hornes are tollerable termes in Venery" (1611, p. 239).

Up to the end of the seventeenth century it was customary when speaking of a stag's head to refer only to the tines "on top," or the "croches" or "troches," leaving unconsidered the brow, bez and trez tines, which were called the stag's "rights," and which every warrantable hart was supposed as a matter of course to possess. When referring to the number of tines a head bore, it was invariably the rule to use only even numbers, and to double the number of tines borne by the antler which had most. Thus, a stag with three on each top was a head of "twelve of the less" (or "lasse"); "twelve of the greater" when he had three and four on top, or, counting the rights, six and seven tines, or, as a modern Scotch stalker would call it, a thirteen-pointer. The extreme number of tines a hart was supposed to bear was thirty-two.

barcelette, bercelette, is a corruption of the O. Fr. berseret, a hunting dog, dim. of bersier, a huntsman; in Latin, bersarius, French, berser, bercer, to hunt especially with the bow. Bercel, biercel, meant a butt or target. Italian, bersaglio, an archer's butt, whence bersagliere, archer or sharpshooter (Oxford, and Godefroy Dict.).

Given the above derivation, it may be fairly accepted that bercelet was a dog fitted to accompany a hunter who was going to shoot his game—a shooting dog. The "Master of Game's" allusion also points to this. He says some mastiffs (see Mastiff) become "berslettis, and also to bring well and fast a wanlace about." We might translate this sentence: "There are nevertheless some (mastiffs) that become shooting dogs, and retrieve well and put up the game quickly" (see Appendix: Wanlace).

Jesse conceives bracelettas and bercelettus to come from brache, but that can scarcely be so, as we see the two words used together, as the following quotations will show:

When the fair Ysolt is parting from her lover Tristan she asks him to leave her this same brachet, and says that no huntsman's shooting dog will be kept with more honour:

Jesse quotes Blount's "Antient Tenures": "In the 6th of John, Joan, late wife of John King, held a serjeantry in Stanhow, in the county of Norfolk, by the service of keeping 'Bracelettum deymerettum of our Lord the King,'" and Jesse thinks these might have been a bitch pack of deerhounds, overlooking the fact that it was only in later days that the words brache and rache were used for bitch hounds. As deymerettum meant fallow deer, the bracelettum or bercelettum deymerettum may be taken, I think, to mean those hounds that were used for buck-shooting (Jesse, ii. 21).

bernar; O. Fr. bernier, brenier, a man who has the charge of hounds, a huntsman, or, perhaps, would be more accurately described as a kennelman. The word seems to have been derived from the French brenier or bernier, one who paid his dues to his feudal lord in bran of which bread was made for the lord's hounds. Brenage, brennage, or bernage was the tenure on which land was held by the payment of bran, and the refuse of all grains, for the feeding of hounds. Berner in its first sense meant finder of bran, then feeder of hounds. This word seems to have remained in use in England long after it had disappeared from the language of French venery. Gaston no longer uses the word berner, but has valet de chiens.

furhunters. Our MS. (p. 74) declares that no one would hunt conies unless they were bisshunters, that is to say rabbits would not be hunted for the sake of sport, but only for the sake of their skins. Bisse, bys, byse was a fur much in vogue at the period of our MS., as its frequent mention in contemporaneous records testifies.

trick, deceit; O. N. blekkja (Strat.). Blanch, or blench, to head back the deer in its flight. Blancher or blencher, a person or thing placed to turn the deer in a particular direction.

from the French bosse, O. Fr. boce, boss, hump or swelling. Cotgrave says: "Boss, the first putting out of a Deere's head, formerly cast, which our woodmen call, if it bee a red Deere's, the burle, or seale, and, if a fallow Deeres, the button."

bowes (brisÉes). When the huntsman went to harbour the deer he broke little branches or twigs to mark the place where he noticed any signs of a stag. Also, at times during the chase he was instructed to do the same, placing the twigs pointing towards the direction the stag had gone, so that if the hounds lost the scent he could bring them back to his last markings, and put them on the line again. In harbouring the stag a twig was broken off and placed in front of the slot with the end pointing in the direction in which the stag was going; each time the harbourer turned in another direction a twig was to be broken and placed so as to show which way he took; sometimes the twig was merely bent and left hanging on the tree, sometimes broken off and put into the ground (in French this was called making brisÉes hautes or brisÉes basses). When making his ring-walks round the covert the harbourer was told to put a mark to every slot he came across; the slot of a stag was to be marked by scraping a line behind the heel, of a hind by making a line in front of the toe. If it was a fresh footing a branch or twig should be placed as well as the marking, for a hind one twig, for a stag two. If it be a stale trace no twig must be placed. Thus, if he returned later, the hunter would know if any beast had broken from or taken to covert since he harboured his stag in the morning. When the harbourer went to "move" the stag with his limer he was to make marks with boughs and branches so that the berners with their hounds should know which way to go should they be some distance from the limer (Roy Modus, x. v; xii. r; xiii. r; Du Fouilloux, 32 r). Blemish is the word used by Turbervile for brisÉes (Turbervile, 1611, p. 95, 104, 114).

The change, in the language of stag hunting, was the substitution of one deer for another in the chase. After the hounds have started chasing a stag, the hunted animal will often find another stag or a hind, and pushing it up with its horns or feet will oblige it to get up and take his place, lying down himself in the spot where he found the other, and keeping quiet, with his antlers close over his back, so that the hounds will, if care is not taken, go off in chase of the substitute. Sometimes a stag will go into a herd of deer and try to keep with them, trying to shake off his pursuers, and thus give them the change.

A hound that sticks to the first stag hunted, and refuses to be satisfied with the scent of another deer, is called a staunch hound, one who will not take the change, which was considered one of the most desirable qualities in a staghound. G. de F., in speaking of the different kinds of running hounds, says that there were some that, when they came to the change, they would leave off speaking to the scent, and would run silently until they found the scent of their stag again (G. de F., p. 109).

Kyrre, Quyrreye, or Quarry. The ceremony of giving the hounds their reward was thus called because it was originally given to the hounds on the hide or cuir of the stag.

Twici, the huntsman of Edward II., says that after the stag is taken the hounds should be rewarded with the neck and bowels and the liver. ("Et il se serra mange sur le quir. E pur ceo est il apelee quyrreye.") When the hounds receive their reward after a hare-hunt he calls it the hallow. In the "Boke of St. Albans" we find the quarry given on the skin, and it is only in the "Master of Game" that it is expressly stated that a nice piece of grass was to be found on which the hounds' mess was to be put, and the hide placed over it, hair-side upwards, the head being left on it and held up by the antlers, and thus drawn away as the hounds rush up to get their share. According to Turbervile, in his day the reward was placed on the hide; at least he does not in his original chapter on the breaking up of the deer notice any such difference between the French and English customs. In France, it is as well to expressly state, the curÉe was always given on the hide until the seventeenth century, but after that it seems the hide was placed over it just as described in our text (De Noirmont, vol. ii., p. 458). Preceding the quarry came the ceremonial breaking up of the deer. The stag was laid on its back with feet in the air, slit open, and skinned by one of the chief huntsmen, who took a pride in doing it according to laws of woodmanscraft. They took a pride in not turning up their sleeves and performing everything so daintily that their garments should show no bloodstains; nobles, and princes themselves, made it a point of honour to be well versed in this art. After the skinning was done, it was customary to give the huntsman who was "undoing" the deer a drink of wine; "and he must drinke a good harty draught: for if he should break up the dear before he drinke the Venison would stink and putrifie" (Turb., 1611, p. 128).

In the "Master of Game" the limers were rewarded after the other hounds, but they were never allowed to take their share with the pack.

The bowels or guts were often reserved, and put on a large wooden fork, and the hounds were allowed to have this as a sort of dessert after they had finished their portion. They were halloaed to by the huntsman whilst he held the fork high in the air with cries of Tally ho! or Tiel haut! or Lau, lau! This tit-bit was then thrown to them. This was called giving them the forhu, from the word forthuer, to whoop or holloa loudly. Probably our term of giving the hounds the holloa was derived from this. It was done to accustom the hounds to rally round the huntsman when excited by a similar halloaing when they were hunting, and had lost the line of the hunted beast.

In some instances the daintiest morsels were reserved for the King or chief personage, and for this purpose placed on a large wooden fork as they were taken from the deer. The vein of the heart and the small fillets attached to the loins (Turbervile says also the haunches, part of the nombles and sides) should also be kept for the lord, but these were generally recognised as the perquisites of the huntsmen, kennelmen, foresters, or parkers.

fumes, fewmets, obs. term for the droppings of deer. From the Fr. fumÉes. G. de F. says that the droppings of all deer, including fallow and roe deer, are to be called fumÉes. The "Master of Game," no doubt following the custom then prevalent in England, says the droppings of the hart only are to be called fumes, and of the buck and the roebuck croties. The following names are given to droppings by—

Other forms of this term are: fewmets, fewmishing, crotels, crotisings, freyn, fuants, billetings, and spraits.

The month so called began, according to Manwood, fifteen days before and ended fifteen days after midsummer. During this time great care was taken that no men or stray dogs should be allowed to wander in the forest, and no swine or cattle were allowed to feed within the precincts, so that the deer should be absolutely undisturbed during three or four weeks after the fawning season. He tells us that because in this month there must be watch and ward kept with men and weapons for the fence and defence of wild beasts, for that reason the same is called fence or defence month (Man., p. 76, ed. 1598).

fuite, fute (M. E.), O. Fr. fuite (voie de cerf qui fuit), track, trace, foot. Gawaine: feute. Will of Palerne (90): foute. Some beasts were called of the sweet fute, and some of the stinking fute. The lists of the beasts which should come under either heading vary somewhat; some that are placed by the "Boke of St. Albans" under "Swete fewte" coming under the other category in the MS. Harl., 2340.

In Roy Modus the beasts are also divided into bestes doulces and bestes puans. The reasons for doing so are also given (fol. lxii.): "Les bestes doulces sont: le cerf, la biche, le dain, le chevreul et le liÈvre. Et sont appelÉes doulces pour trois causes: La premiÈre si est que d'elles ne vient nulle mauvais senteur; la seconde, elles ont poil de couleur aimable, lequel est blond ou fauve; la tierce cause, ce ne sont mie bestes mordans comme les autres cincq, car elles n'ont nulz dens dessus; et pour ces raisons puent bien estre nommÉes bestes doulces." Under the bestes puans are classed the wild boar, the wild sow, the wolf, the fox, and the otter.

the man that lets loose the greyhounds (Blome, p. 27); from veltraria, a dog leader or courser; originally one who led the dogs called veltres, viautres (see Veltres). In Gallo-Latin, Veltrahus. It has been asserted that the word fewterer is a corruption of vautre or viautre, a boarhound, but although both evidently owe their origin to the same parent-word, fewterer can scarcely be derived from vautre, a boarhound. It was only in the Middle Ages in France that the word vautre, from originally meaning a powerful greyhound, was applied to a large boarhound. Fewterers in England appear invariably as attendants on greyhounds, not boarhounds. Another derivation has been also given from fewte, foot or track, a fewterer being, according to this, a huntsman who followed the track of the beast. But venator was the contemporary designation for a huntsman, and as far as we can ascertain the fewterer was always merely a dog-leader.

forloyng, forlogne, from the Fr. fort loin. G. de F. says, "flies far from the hounds," i.e. having well distanced them ("Fuit de fort longe aux chiens, c'est a dire que il les ait bien esloinhÉs"). Hounds are said to be hunting the forlonge when the deer is some way in front of them, or when some of the hounds have got away with the deer and have outpaced the rest. As our MS. (p. 173) says, the forlogne should be blown if the stag has run out of hearing of hound and horn, but it should not be blown in a park. In old French hunting literature it is an expression one constantly comes across.

Twici, writing almost a hundred years earlier than the Duke of York, says: "The hart is moved and I do not know where the hart is gone, nor the gentlefolk, and for this I blow in that manner. What chase do we call this? We call that chase The chase of the forloyng."

Forloyneth: "When a hound meeteth a chase and goeth away with it far before the rest then we say he forloyneth" (Turber., ed 1611, p. 245).

According to the laws of Canute the fox was neither reckoned as a beast of venery nor of the forest. In Manwood's Forest Laws he is classed as the third beast of chase (p. 161), as he is also in Twety and Gyfford, and the "Boke of St. Albans."

Although early records show that the English Kings kept their foxhounds, we hear nothing of their having participated in this sport, but they seem to have sent their hounds and huntsmen about the country to kill foxes, probably as much for the value of the pelt as for relieving the inhabitants of a thievish neighbour.

In Edward's I.'s Wardrobe Accounts, 1299-1300, appear some interesting items of payments made to the huntsman for his wages and the keep of the hounds and his one horse for carrying the nets. These allusions to nets throw an interesting light on the fox-hunting of those days. William de Blatherwyke, or, as he is also called, William de Foxhunte, and William Fox-dog-keeper, had besides their wages an allowance made to them for clothes and winter and summer shoes (see Appendix: Hunt Officials). As only one horse was provided, and that to carry the nets, the huntsman, we must presume, had to hunt on foot, not such an arduous undertaking when we remember that the country was so much more thickly wooded than at present, and that every possible precaution was taken to prevent Reynard's breaking covert.

We see by our text (p. 65) that it was usual to course foxes with greyhounds, and although the passages referring to this are translated from G. de F. we know from many old records that this fox-coursing was as usual in England at this time as in France.

In the earlier days hounds used for the chase of the fox one day, probably hunted hare, or even buck or stag, on another—such as the harriers, which, if we can believe Dr. Caius, were entered to any animal from stag to stoat (see Appendix: Harriers). The first real pack of foxhounds is said to be the one established by Thomas Fownes, Esq., of Stepleton, in Dorsetshire (1730). They were purchased at an immense price by Mr. Bowes, of Yorkshire. A very amusing description is given in "Cranbourne Chase" of the first day's hunting with them in their new country. There must have been several packs entered to fox only about the end of the eighteenth century, for an erstwhile Master of the Cheshire Foxhounds had in his possession a horn with the following inscription: "Thomas Boothby Esqre. Tooley Park Leicester. With this horn he hunted the first pack of foxhounds then in England 5 years: born in 1677 died 1752." This pack, which was purchased by "the great Mr. Meynell" in 1782, had been hunted both in Hampshire and in Wiltshire previously by the ancestors of Lord Arundel (Bad. Lib., "Hunting," p. 29).

the tree a stag has rubbed his antlers or frayed against.

By the fraying-post the huntsman used to be able to judge if the stag he wished to harbour was a warrantable stag or not. The greater the fraying-post the larger the deer (Stuart, vol. ii. p. 551).

"not find his fues," not to find his line of flight, his scent; Gaston says: "Ne puissent deffaire ses esteurses": literally, "cannot unravel his turnings."

Fues, flight, fuite, track. Gaston calls these sometimes voyes. Voyes was written later Foyes (Fouilloux).

Fue. "Se mettre a la fue" (var. fuie), (to take flight) (Borman, p. 89).

glade. The original sense is a smooth, bare place, or perhaps a bright, clear place in a wood.

One of the important technical terms of venery, related to the fat of game; for in the Middle Ages, when game was hunted to replenish the larder as much as for sport, it entered largely into the economy of even the highest households. The fat of the red deer and fallow deer was called suet, occasionally tallow. That of the roebuck was bevy-grease. Between that of the hare, boar, wolf, fox, marten, otter, badger, and coney no difference was made—it was called grease; and in one sense this general term was also used for deer: "a deer of high grease," or "a hart in the pride of grease," were phrases used for the season of the year when the stag and the buck were fattest (see Appendix: Seasons of Hunting).

not Grace Time or Grass Time, as Strutt and others have it. It did not include the whole season when the hart or buck could be killed, but meant to indicate the time when they were fat and fittest for killing. As pointed out already by Dryden (p. 25), the Excerpta Historica (Lond. 1831) contains an interesting example of the use of this word. This is a letter written (p. 356) about 1480 by Thomas Stonor, Steward of the Manor of Thame. He was in Fleet Prison at the time he writes to his brother in the country concerning some property of his own in his brother's neighbourhood. "No more to you^e at thys tyme but ... more ov^r I entende to kepe my gresse tyme in yat countre, where fore I woll^e yat no man^e huntte tyll^e I have bene ther."

In the privy-purse expenses of Henry VIII. (1532) is an entry of a payment for attendance on the king during the last grece-time. Cavendish in his Life of Wolsey says: "My lord continued at Southwell until the latter end of grease time." Both these passages refer to the month of June. In the laws of Howel the Good, King of Wales, a fine of 12 kine was imposed on whoever kills a hart in grease time (kylleic) of the kings.

Confusion arose occasionally owing to the similarity of the words as formerly spelt, grass being sometimes spelt "grysse" (Dryden, p. 25). Manwood, also, misinterprets Grease time. In the agreement between the Earl of Winchester and the Baron of Dudley of 1247, in which their respective rights of hunting in Charnwood Forest and Bradgate Park, Leicestershire, were defined, and which agreement Shirley has given (in a translation) in his "English Deer Parks," the time of the fallow buck season (tempus pinguedinis) or grease time or the fat season, is fixed between the Feast of St. Peter ad Vincula (August 1) and the Exaltation of Holy Cross (September 6, 14), while the time of the doe season (tempus firmationis) was fixed between the Feast of St. Martin (November 11) and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin (February 2).

Fr. levrier, Lat. leporarius. Under this name a whole group of dogs were included, that were used for the chase of big and small game. They were swift hounds, hunting chiefly and in most cases by sight only. For in the Middle Ages the name greyhound, or levrier, denoted such seemingly different dogs as the immense Irish wolfhound, the Scotch deerhound, and the smaller, smooth-coated, elegant Italian greyhound. The powerful greyhound used for the chase of stag, wolf, and wild boar were known in France as levrier d'attache, and the smaller, nervous harehound as petit levrier pour lievre. In our illustrations we can see what are intended to be portraits of both the larger and the smaller kinds, some being smooth -and some rough-coated. The bigger hounds were considered capable of defending their masters against their armed enemies, as is shown by numerous legends of the Middle Ages, which, although they may not be strictly historical facts, showed the reputation these dogs enjoyed in those days (Jesse, p. 19).

Greyhounds were the constant companions of their masters during journeys and wars, and at home. In the houses they were allowed the greatest liberty, and seem to have ranged at will in both living- and bed-rooms; one sees them at the board when their owners are at meals, at the fireside, and they even accompanied their masters as good Christians to mass.

No hound seems to belong so peculiarly to the epoch of chivalry as the greyhound, and indeed one can scarcely picture a knight without one. A Welsh proverb declared that a gentleman might be known "by his hawk, his horse, and his greyhound." By a law of Canute, a greyhound was not to be kept by any person inferior to a gentleman ("Greyhounds," by a Sportsman, p. 28; and Dalziel, vol. i. p. 25).

Canis Gallicus was the name used by the Gauls for their coursing dogs, which were most probably greyhounds, and Arian says they were called Vertragia, from a Celtic word denoting swiftness. In Gallo-Latin the name for a large greyhound was Veltrahus or veltris (De Noir., ii. 295). They were also called Veltres leporarii (Blane, p. 46). There is some difference of opinion as to the derivation of our word greyhound. In the early Anglo-Norman days they retained their French name of levrier, or Latin leporarius. When our MS. was penned the English word grei, gre, or grewhound was in general use; it is thought by some to be derived from Grew hound or Greek hound, as they were supposed to have been originally brought from Greece. Others, again, consider that the name was simply taken from the prevalent colour of the common greyhound. Jesse gives the most likely origin of the name. "Originally it was most likely grehund, and meant the noble, great, choice, or prize hound" (Jesse, ii. 71; and Dalziel, i. 23). Probably the Celtic denomination for a dog, grech or greg, stands in close connection with our word greyhound (Cupples, p. 230). White seems to have been the favourite colour, and to say one had i levrier plus blanc que flors de lis (Heruis de Mes, 107a, 44; Bangert, p. 172) would be the greatest tribute to the beauty of one's hound. Co si sunt deus leveres nurit en ma meisun, cume cisne sunt blauns (Horn, 613 f.).

When Froissart went home from Scotland he is depicted as riding a grey horse and leading un blanc levrier, perhaps one of the four he took from these isles and presented to the Comte de Foix at OrthÉz, whose names have been preserved to us as Tristan, Hector, Brun, and Rolland (La Curne de la Palaye).

Greyhounds were used, as has already been mentioned, for all kind of hunting and every kind of game, in conjunction with limers who started the game for them. They were let slip as relays to a pack of running or scenting hounds, and they were used by themselves for coursing game in an open country, or were placed at the passes where game was likely to run and were slipped to turn the game back to the archer or to chase and pull down the wounded deer (see Appendix: Stables). In our illustrations we see them in the pictures of stag-, hare-, roe- and boar-hunting, to say nothing of badger-hunting, for which one would have thought any other dog more suitable.

They seem always to have been held in couples except when following their master and he not bent upon the chase. The collars to which these couplings were attached were often wonderful gems of the goldsmith's and silversmith's art. Such an item appears in the Q. R. Wardrobe Acc. for 1400 (Wylie, iv. p. 196): "2 collars for greyhounds (leverer) le tissue white and green with letters and silver turrets." Another one of "soy chekerey vert et noir avec le tret (? turret) letters and bells of silver gilt."

The ancient doggerel in the Book of St. Albans, "Heded like a snake, and necked like a drake. Foted like a cat. Tayled like a Rat, Syded lyke a Teme. Chyned like a Beme" ("Boke of St. Albans," f. iv.), was preceded by a very similar one written some time previously by Gace de la Buigne. Of these verses G. de F. gives, twenty-eight years later, a prose version, which our Master of Game has rendered into English.

hardeyl, to tie couples of hounds together. From the French word harder, which has the same meaning: Harder les chiens, and harde, the rope with which they are tied. It is derived from hart, hard, art, a binder of willow or other pliable wood used for fastening fagots together (Lit. and God.). The primitive way of tying hounds together was by passing such a small flexible branch through the couplings which bent back on itself, both ends being held. "Les chiens ... seront enhardez par les couples À genoivres ou À autre josne bois tors" (Roy Modus, f. xlvii. recto). In France there used to be two hardes to each relay and not more than eight hounds in every harde (D'Yauville). In England there used to be about the same number. The term was still used in Blome's time (1686), for he writes in his "Gentleman's Recreation": "The huntsman on foot that hath the charge of the coupled hounds, and before that must have hardled them, that is, with a slip, for the purpose ready secured three or four couple together, that they may not break in from him, to run into the cry of the Finders" (p. 88).

Harling was a word used in Devonshire, and as it meant tying the hound together by means of a rope passed through the rings of the couples, it is undoubtedly a corruption of the word hardeling. "Until comparatively recent times the hounds in Devonshire were taken to the meet and held in this manner until the time came to lay the pack on" (Collyns).

Hardel, the technical O. E. term for binding together the four legs of the roebuck, the head having been placed between the two forelegs, in order to carry him whole into the kitchen.

Pliny records the fable that hares "are of many and various sexes." Topsell remarks that "the Hebrews call the hare 'arnebet,' in the feminine gender," which word gave occasion to an opinion that all hares were females (pp. 264, 266).

"In the Gwentian code of Welch laws supposed to be of the eleventh century, the hare is said not to be capable of any legal valuation, being in one month male and in another female" (Twici, p. 22).

Certainly in many of the older writings on hares the pronouns "her" and "him" are used indiscriminately in the same sentence. Sir Thomas Browne in his treatise on vulgar errors asserts from his own observation that the sex of the hare is changeable, and that the buck hare will sometimes give birth to young. Up to the end of the eighteenth century there was a widespread and firm belief in this fable (Brehm, ii. p. 626). Buffon describes it as one of the animal's peculiar properties, and from the structure of their parts of generation he argues that the notion has arisen of hermaphrodite hares, that the males sometimes bring forth young, and that some are alternately males and females and perform the functions of either sex.

"Master of Game" (copying G. de F.) states that the hare carries her young for a period of two months, but in reality the period of gestation is only thirty days. Harting says that the adult hare will breed twice or thrice in the year, but Brehm declares they breed as many as four times, and but seldom five times (Encyclop. of Sport, vol. ii. p. 504; Brehm, vol. ii. p. 626; G. de F. p. 47).

G. de F. (p. 43) says of a hare, "Elle oÏt bien, mais elle voit mal." "Master of Game" translates this simply as She hath evil sight; but does not say she hears well. The sense of hearing is most highly developed in the hare, and every lightly breaking twig or falling leaf will disturb her. It is said that of old when warreners wished to prepare hares for the market they filled their ears with wax, so that, not being continually disturbed by noises, they did not move about much, and grew sleek and fat (Blome, p. 95). G. de F.'s assertion that the hare "has evil sight" is also confirmed by Brehm, who, however, says that they are endowed with a keen sense of smell, whereas G. de F. says elle sent pou.

Attention has already been called to the Duke of York's statement that "the hare hath great fear to run." This arose probably from the similarity of the words peur and pouvoir in the MSS., for it should read "hath great power to run," the principal MSS. which we have examined showing pouvoir. Verard in his first edition of G. de F. also has the same rendering as the Duke of

means in our text "paraphernalia wherewith animals can be caught or taken." It is frequently used in this sense by Gaston—Hayes et autres Harnoys (p. 126). In Julien's note to this same sentence occurring in Le bon Varlet, he says, autres harnois, autres engins, instruments, procÉdÉs.

spelt in early documents with many variations—eirere, heyreres, heyrer, hayrers. A hound which is described in modern dictionaries as "resembling a foxhound but smaller, used for hare-hunting" (Murray). This explanation would not have been a correct one for our harriers of the fourteenth century, for as far as we can gather they were used to hunt all kinds of game and by no means only the hare. They were evidently a smaller kind of running hound, for as our MS. says, there are some small and some large running hounds, "and the small are called Kenettis (or small dogs—see Kenet), and these hounds run well to all manner of game and they that serve for all game men call them heirers" (p. III). And in chapter 36 we see that heyrers were used to hunt up the deer in the forest, the herthounds and greyhounds meanwhile being held in leash till a warrantable deer was on foot, or till "the heyrer have well run and well made the rascal void" (made the smaller deer clear out of that part of the forest) (p. 191). Then the herthounds were to be uncoupled where the most likely "ligging is for an hert, and seek." The herthounds then put up the wary old stag and hunted him till he came to the tryst where the King would be with his long bow or cross-bow, or till the hert was pulled down by them or the greyhounds which had been slipped at him.

In the chapter on hare-hunting in our MS. the word harrier does not occur; only hounds, greyhounds, and raches are mentioned. So when Henry IV. paid for "La garde de nos chiens appelez hayrers" (Privy Seal, 20 Aug. 9th Henry, 1408, No. 5874), or Henry V. for the "Custodiam Canum nostrum vocatorum hayreres" (Rot. Pat. I Henry V. 1413), it was not because they were especially addicted to hare-hunting, but because they kept these useful hounds to "harry" game.

In 1407 we find one Hugh Malgrave "servienti venatori' vocat' hayters p' c'vo (cervo), which we may accept as another proof that their office was to hunt the stag. The Duke of York also repeatedly says that "heirers" run at all game (see pp. III, 196, 197). In 1423 Hugh Malgrave still held the "office of the hayrers" by grant from Henry IV. In the curious legal Latin of the thirteenth century, we find the word canes heirettes, and heyrettor (Wardrobe Accounts, 34 Ed. I.).

There are a great number of early records which show us that these hounds were used then for hunting red and fallow deer, sometimes in conjunction with greyhounds and sometimes without their aid.

Harriers were sometimes taken with buckhounds on hunting expeditions as well as with greyhounds. In some of the documents harriers are simply alluded to as canes currentes. As they were not a distinct breed, but were included under the designation "raches," or running hounds, a separate chapter is not given to them in our text, and neither Twici nor the Dame of St. Albans mentions these hounds. Gradually we find the spelling, although presenting still countless variations, bringing the a more constantly than the e; the "heirers" become hayrers, hareres, hariers, and after the sixteenth century harriers. It is also probable that the word was originally derived from the Anglo-Saxon Hergian, herian, to harry, to disturb, to worry; O. Fr. harrier, herrier, herier, to harry; F. hare and harer, to set a dog on to attack. The harrier, in fact, was a dog to "hare" the game. Although now obsolete, we find this word used late in the seventeenth century.

"Let the hounds kill the fox themselves and worry and hare him as much as they please" (Cox, "Gent. Rec.," p. 110). It is also in the sixteenth century that one comes across the first allusions to their use in hunting the hare.

It is not necessary to dwell here at length upon the great esteem in which the hart was held by all devotees to sport in Europe during the Middle Ages. It was royal game, and belonged to the Prince or ruler of the country, and the chase was their prerogative. Few unconnected with the court were ever able to enjoy the chase of the stag unless in attendance on or by special licence granted by the sovereign. Those who had extensive property of their own and had permission to erect a fence could, of course, keep deer on it, but this did not enable them to enjoy the sport of real wild deer hunting, or La chasse Royale as the French called it.

The stag was one of the five beasts of venery, and was, according to the ancient French regulations, a beast of the sweet foot, although in the list of beasts of sweet and stinking foot given in the "Boke of St. Albans" the hart is included in neither category (see Appendix: Fewte).

One of the first essentials for a huntsman in the Middle Ages was to learn to know the different signs of a stag (according to German venery there were seventy-two signs), so as to be able to "judge well." These signs were those of the slot, the gait, the fraying-post, the rack or entry (i.e. the place where the stag entered covert), and the fumes. By recognising differences in these signs made by a young stag, a hind, and a warrantable stag, he was enabled to find out where the latter was harbouring, and by the slot and gait he could recognise when the chased stag was approaching his end.

There were many things that the huntsman of old had to learn regarding the stag before he could be considered as more than an apprentice—for instance, how to speak of a hart in terms of venery. The terms used were considered of the greatest importance, even to the manner in which the colour of the stag was spoken of, brown, yellow, or dun being the only permissible terms to distinguish the shade of colour. Special terms are given for every kind of head, or antlers, a stag might bear.

The huntsman spoke of the stag's blenches and ruses when alluding to the tricks of a deer when trying to rid himself of the hounds, of his doubling and rusing to and fro upon himself when he retraced his steps, of his beating up the river when he swam up-stream, and of foiling down, when he went down-stream, or of going to soil when he stood in water. When the deer lay down he was quat, when he stood still in covert he was stalling. When he was tired he "cast his chaule" i.e. drooped his head, a well-known sign when the deer is done, as was his closed mouth when dead beat.

The hart was meved or moved, when he was started from his resting-place; he was quested or hunted for, and sued or chased; his resting-place was called his ligging or lair, his scent of line of flight, his fues. He was spoken of as soule or soile (F. seule) if unaccompanied by other deer, and in "herd with rascal and folly" if keeping company with lesser deer.

Besides many other quaint terms of venery the following were the designations given to the hart according to his age by:—

Until he was a hart of ten our text tells us he was not considered a chaseable or warrantable deer. By the above one will see that the "Master of Game" is exceptional in calling a deer of the second year a bullock, brocket being the usual term.

In old French literature we occasionally find the word broches used for the tines of a deer's antlers; brochet would be the diminutive, i.e. a small tine, and hence perhaps brocket, a young stag bearing small tines. Any stag of ten or over if hunted by the king became a Hart Royal, and if hunted and not taken, but driven out of the forest, a proclamation was made to warn every one that no person should chase or kill the said hart, and he was then a "Hart Royal proclaimed" (Man., p. 180).

All stags not chaseable, such as young or lean stags and hinds, were classed as folly or rascal. A young stag accompanying an old one was called his squire (F. escuyer).

Hinds also were called by different names from the first to the third year, but the "Master of Game" does not give these, nor do any of the earliest works. Manwood, Blome, and Cox give the following terms: first year, a calf; second year, a Hearse or brocket's sister; third year and ever after, a hind. A somewhat similar term was employed in France to denote a young stag between six months and a year old. Haire, also spelt her (G. de Champgrand Baudrillard), and Harpaille, was the term for a herd of young stags and hinds.

Hart's Age.—The fable that a stag can live a hundred years which the "Master of Game" repeats (p. 34) after G. de F. was not of the latter's invention, but one that had been current for many centuries before their day.

—When the "Master of Game" was written hunting horns were the curved primitive shape of those made from the horns of animals, and most of them probably were still made of the horns of cattle, while those used by the richer gentry and nobles were fashioned from some rarer animals' trophy, such as the ibex, or carved of ivory, and some were made of precious metal. But whether of simple horn, ivory, or of wood, they were decorated with gold or silver ferrules, rings, and mouthpieces, and some being provided with a stopper, could be converted into drinking horns. Unfortunately the "Master of Game" does not tell us the material of which horns should be made. He simply says how they should "be dryve." They were to be two spans long (1 ft. 6 in.), slightly curved so that both ends were raised from three to four fingers' breadth above the centre; the larger end or the bell was to be as wide as possible, and the mouthpiece not too small. It was waxed thickly or thinly, whichever the huntsman thought produced the best sound. What effect the wax had can scarcely be judged, but it was evidently considered an improvement, as it is stated that for foresters "mene hornes and unwexid" are good enough for them. Besides the hunter's horn five different kinds of horns are mentioned in our MS.—the bugle, great abbots, ruets, small foresters, and mean horns. The bugle was not the trumpet we now understand by that name, but a simple curved horn, most probably deriving its name from the bugle, as the wild ox was called; although Dryden says from the German word bugel, a curve or bend. Ruets may have been the name for a much curved or almost circular horn, from French rouette, small wheel. The mean horns were probably the medium-sized, shrill-sounding horns made out of wood or bark, known as mÉnuels, menuiaux, moienel, menuier, &c. (Perc. 27,166 and 27,140).

A good length for a horn is mentioned as being "une paume et demie" (Perceval, 31,750). It is uncertain whether this length and that given by the "Master of Game" were measured round the inside of the bend or in a straight line between the two extremities. The famous Borstall horn, also known as Nigel's horn, is 2 feet 4 inches long on the convex and 23 inches on the concave bend; the inside measure of the bell end being 3 inches in diameter. The size of another noted horn, i.e. the Pusey horn, is 2 feet ½ inch long, the circumference at the widest end being 12 inches. The general length of these horns seems to have been somewhere between 18 inches and 2 feet. The above-mentioned specimens were horns of tenure, the first being a hunting-, the second a drinking-horn. The Borstall horn is said to have been given by Edward the Confessor to one Nigel, in reward for his killing an immense wild boar, and by this horn he and his successors for generations held lands of the crown.

The curved horn remained in fashion in England till about the latter half of the seventeenth century, then a straight one came into use about 1 ft. 6 in. to 2 ft. long, such as we see depicted in Blome. Of this shape, but a few inches shorter, is the hunting-horn still in use in England. The French hunting-horn was used in England in the eighteenth century, but did not remain long in fashion.

We can see that the hunting cries and the language used in speaking to the hounds when hunting in the days of the "Master of Game" were still those brought into Britain by the Normans, and in most instances the words can actually still be recognised as French. There are only a few examples given by him as to the manner a huntsman should speak to his hounds in the stag-hunting chapters, such as:—

Ho moy, ho moy, hole, hole, hole: To encourage the limer when drawing for a stag (p. 166).

Cy va, cy va, cy va: To call the hounds when any signs of the stag were seen (p. 167).

Le douce mon amy, le douce: "Softly, my friend, softly." To the hounds when they were uncoupled near to where the stag was supposed to be lying.

Sto arere, so howe, so howe: "Hark back," if the hounds were on a wrong scent.

Hoo sto, ho sto, mon amy, ho sto: To harriers drawing for a stag.

Oyez, À Beaumont, oyez, assemble À Beaumont: "Hark to Beaumont, hark, get to him." To the hound of that name who picks up the right line, and to bring the other hounds to him.

It is in the hare-hunting chapter that we have more of the "fayre wordis of venery," and here, if the "Master of Game" does not slavishly copy Twici, yet he employs the same cries, with a slight difference only in orthography. The "Boke of St. Albans" has also most of the following:—

Hoo arere: "Back there." When the hounds come too hastily out of the kennel.

So moun amy atreyt: Until they come into the field; these two are not given by Twici, but the following are identical in both books:—

Hors de couple, avaunt sy avaunt, and thrice so howe: When the hounds are uncoupled.

Sa sa cy avaunt, cy sa avaunt, sa cy avaunt (avaunt, sire, avaunt, in Twici): Forward, sir, forward.

Here how, amy, how amy, and Swef, mon amy, swef: "Gently, my friend, gently" (swef, from Latin swavis), when the hounds draw too fast from the huntsman.

Oyez, À Beaumont (in Twici: Oyez, a Beaumont le vaillaunt que il quide trover le coward od la courte cowe): "Hark to Beaumont the valiant, who thinks to find the coward with the short tail."

La douce, la il ad este sohowe: "Softly, there—here he has been," if the place where the hare has pastured is seen.

Illoeques, illoeques: "Here, here," if the hounds hunt well on the line (see Appendix: Illoeques).

Ha sy toutz, cy est il venuz arere, so howe. Sa cy a este so howe. Sa cy avaunt: "Here, he has gone back. Here he has been. Forward there." When the hare has doubled.

La douce amy, il est venuz illoeques, sohowe: "Softly, friend, he is here." When the hounds hunt well in fields or arable land.

La douce, amy, la est il venuz (pur lue segere sohow): "Softly, friend, here he has come to seat himself" (Mid. Eng., sege—a seat. Latin, sedere).

La douce, amy, la il est venuz (pur meyndir): "Here he has been to feed" (meyndir, from Latin manducare, mandere).

The bracketed part of the last two cries are given in the MS. of Twety and Gyff., and the following are only in the "Master of Game":—

Le valliant oyez, oyez who bo bowe, and then, Avaunt, assemble, assemble, war war, a ha war, for running riot. How assamy assamy so arere so howe bloues acoupler. On seeing the pricking or footing of the hare: Le voye, le voye ("The view, the view").

In France, Tallyho, or a very similar sounding word, was employed in the early days when the huntsman was sure that the right stag had gone away, whether he only knew it by his slot, &c., or whether he had viewed him.

It was also a call to bring up the hounds when the stag had gone away, and at the end of the curÉe, when the huntsman held part of the entrails of the deer on a large wooden fork, and the hounds bayed it (which was called the forhu), the huntsman called out Tallyho.

We only find Tallyho in comparatively recent English hunting literature and songs—never, so far as I am aware, before the late seventeenth century, and it does not occur at all constantly until the eighteenth century. Neither Turbervile nor Blome nor Cox, in their books on the various chases, mention such a word, though we find instruction to the huntsman to say "Hark to him," "Hark forward," "Hark back," and "To him, to him"; besides the inevitable "So how sohow." Neither in Twici, "Master of Game," "Boke of St. Albans," Chaucer, or Shakespeare can we find an invigorating Tallyho. It would almost appear as if it were a seventeenth century importation from across the Channel, which is quite possible, for Henry IV. of France sent in that century three of his best huntsmen, Desprez, de Beaumont, and de Saint-Ravy, to the Court of King James I. to teach the royal huntsmen how to hunt the stag in the French way, English Court hunting having degenerated into coursing of stags within the park palings.

TaÏaut in France was used solely in the chase of red, fallow, or roe deer.

In the "Master of Game," as in all the earliest hunting literature, much importance is placed on the huntsman's sounding his horn in the proper manner in order, as Twici says, that "Each man who is around you, who understands Hunting, can know in which point you are in your sport by your blowing." The author of "Master of Game" (p. 170) says he will give us "a chapter which is all of blowing," but he omitted to fulfil this promise, so that we have only such information as we can gather in his chapters on stag and hare-hunting. The differences in the signals were occasioned by the length of the sound or note, and the intervals between each. Twici expresses these notes in syllables, such as trout, trout, trourourout. The first of these would be single notes, with an interval between them, blown probably with a separate breath or wind for each; the latter would be three notes blown without interval and with a single breath or wind. The principal sounds on the hunting horn were named as follows:—

A Moot or Mote, a single note, which might be sounded long or short.

A Recheat. To recheat, Twici says, "blow in this manner, trourourourout, trourourourout, trourourourout," therefore a four-syllabled sound succeeded by an interval, blown three times. In the "Master of Game" we find the recheat preceded or followed by a moot, the most constantly recurring melody. When the limer has moved the stag, and the huntsman sees him go away, he was to blow a moot and recheat. If the stag is moved but not viewed, and the huntsman knows only by the slot that it is his stag that has gone away, he is to recheat without the moot, for that was only to be blown when the stag was seen. When the hounds are at fault and any one finds the slot of the deer, he should recheat "in the rightes and blow a long moot for the lymerer," or if he thinks he sees the hunted stag, he should blow a moot and recheat, and after that blow two moots for the hounds.

The Forlonge. A signal that the stag had got away far ahead of the hounds or that these had distanced some or all of the huntsmen (see Appendix: Forlonge).

The Perfect or Parfit. Twici says it began by "a moot and then trourourout, trout, trout, trourourout, trourourout, trourourout, trout, trout, trourourourout," "and then to commence by another moot again, and so you ought to blow three times. And to commence by a moot and to finish by a moot." This was only blown when the hounds were hunting the right line (see Appendix: Parfet).

The Prise. Twici says, blow four moots for the taking of the deer. According to the "Master of Game," "the prise or coupling up" was to be blown by the chief personage of the hunt only, after the quarry. It was only blown when the deer had been slain by strength, or hunted, and not when shot or coursed. He was to blow four moots, wait a short interval (half an Ave Maria), and blow another four notes a little longer than the first four.

The MenÉe. Twici says the MenÉe should only be blown for the hart, the boar, the wolf, and the male wolf, but he does not give us any analysis of this melody. In the "Master of Game" we are told that the MenÉe was blown at the hall-door on the return of the huntsmen. The Master first blew four moots alone, then at the end of the four moots the others joined him in blowing, and they all continued keeping time together (see Appendix: MenÉe).

The Mort or Death was another sound of the horn, but we have no description of the notes. Perhaps it is synonymous with the Prise.

The Stroke must have been another grouping of short and long notes, but of this we have no record.

Hardouin de Fontaines Guerin wrote a poem on the chase chiefly concerning the different manners of blowing such as obtained in his native country the provinces of Anjou and Maine. The poem was illustrated with fourteen miniatures showing the notes to be blown on as many different occasions during stag-hunting.

The notes are written in little squares: ? denoting a long note; a short note; ?? a note of two long syllables; a note of two short syllables; ?? a note of one short and two long syllables; and ?? a note of one short, two long, and two short syllables. Of these six notes combinations were made for all the signals to be blown.

"here in this place," from the L. illo loco. Sometimes it is spelt illecques, iluec, illosques, &c. It is constantly met with in Anglo-Norman, and the Provence dialects (Botman, pp. 90, 242; T. M., pp. 31, 93, 142; Roy Modus, lxix.; and in the will of the Duke of York, Nichols). It has been suggested that it is the origin of the familiar yoicks. In the "Boke of St. Albans" in the verses on hare-hunting it also occurs.

synonymous with jupper, which, according to Cotgrave, is an old word signifying "to whoot, showt, crie out alowd." The French word juper, jupper, also spelt joppeir, had the same meaning, and we find it employed in the "Chace dou cerf" for a halloa in hunting in a similar way to jopeye in our text:

In the sense it is used in our "Master of Game" (p. 185) it means to halloa to the hounds, to encourage them with the voice.

small hounds. Kenet is a diminutive form of the Norman-French kenet, and the O. F. chen, cienetes, chenet, a dog: i veneour a ii cienetes, Ne mie grans mais petitetes, Et plus blans que n'est flors d'espine (Percival, 22,895). Derived from the Latin canis (see Appendix: Harriers).

a bed, a resting-place, a lair. From O. Eng. licgan, licgean, Goth. ligan, lie, lie down. The ligging of the hart was what we now call his lair, spelt also layer. In our MS. it is used for the dwelling of a wild cat (p. 71).

This old expression is not entirely obsolete, but can be heard still among the country people of the northern counties of England.

lymer; the name given to a scenting-hound which was held in a liam or leash whilst tracking the game. Limers never were any distinct breed of hounds, but, of course, some breeds produced better limers than others (De Noirmont, vol. ii. p. 350).

A dog used as a limer had to be keen on the scent, staunch on the line, not too fast, and was taught to run mute, for if the exact whereabouts of any game had to be discovered, it would have been impossible, if the hound gave tongue or challenged while on the scent. A likely hound was chosen from the kennel at an early age, G. de F. says at a year old (p. 157), and from that time accompanied his master, sleeping in his room, and being taught to obey him. He was continually taken out by his master with collar and liam and encouraged to follow the scent of hinds and of stags and other beasts, and punished should he venture to acknowledge the scent of any animal he was not being entered to, or should he open on finding or following the line.

In England as well as on the Continent the huntsman went out in the early morning to track the game to be hunted to its lair, or den, before the pack and huntsmen came into the field. Deer, wild boar, bear and wolves were thus harboured by means of a limer. Twici makes the apprentice huntsman ask: "Now I wish to know how many of the beasts are moved by the lymer, and how many of the beasts are found by braches?—Sir, all those which are chased are moved by a lymer, and all those which are hunted up (enquillez) are found by the braches" (Twici, p. 12; see Appendix: Acquillez).

Limers were not only employed when a warrantable stag was to be hunted by hounds, but a huntsman going out with his bow or cross-bow would have his brachet on a liam and let him hunt up the quarry he wished to shoot (see Appendix: Bercelet). Also, the day before one of the large battues for big game, the limers would be taken out to ascertain what game there was in the district to be driven.

A liam, lyome, or lyame, was a rope made of silk or leather by which hounds were led, from O. F. liamen, a strap or line, Latin ligamen. This strap was fastened to the collar by a swivel, and both collar and liams were often very gorgeous. We read of "A lyame of white silk with collar of white vellat embrawdered with perles, the swivell of silver." "Dog collors of crymson vellat with VI lyhams of white leather." "A lieme of grene and white silke." "Three lyames and colors with tirrett of silver and quilt" (Madden, "Expenses of Princess Mary").

A hound was said to carry his liam well when he just kept it at proper tension, not straining it, for that would show that he was of too eager temperament, and likely to overshoot the line; if he trailed his liam on the ground, it showed that he was slack or unwilling (D'Yauville).

As soon as the stag was "moved" the limer's work was over, but only for the time being; his master led him away, the other hounds were uncoupled, and the harbourer, mounting his horse and keeping his limer with him, rode as close to the chase as he could, skirting below the wind and being careful not to cross the line, but managing to be at hand in case the stag should run in company or give the hounds the change. In this case the huntsman had to check the hounds, and wait for the harbourer and limer to come up and unravel the change, and put the pack on the right scent once more.

The method of starting the stag with a limer was not done away with in France until the eighteenth century, although in Normandy a change had been made previously, and probably in England also. For our author says that some sportsmen even in his time, when impatient, would uncouple a few of the hounds in the covert, before the stag had been properly started by the limer, which practice he, however, was not in favour of except under the conditions he mentions.

This uncoupling of a few older hounds in covert to start the deer, coupling them again as soon as the deer was on foot, was later called tufting, and is still customary in Devon and Somerset.

The limer was not rewarded with the other hounds; he received his reward from the hands of his master before or after the other hounds, and after he had bayed the head of the stag.

When not quoting or translating the old text the more modern spelling of limer has been used.

Old Eng. and Mid. Eng. Woodness, wodnesse, and wodnyss; mad, wode. The seven different sorts of madnesses spoken of by the "Master of Game" are also mentioned in nearly all subsequent works on old hunting dealing with "sicknesses of hounds." They are the hot burning madness, running madness, dumb madness, lank madness, rheumatic madness or slavering madness, falling madness, sleeping madness.

These are mentioned in Roy Modus, and the cure for rabies, of taking the afflicted dog to the sea and letting nine waves wash over him, as well as the cock cure mentioned in our English MS., were both taken by Gaston from Roy Modus, or both derived them from some common source (Roy Modus, fol. xlv. r).

The water cure is mentioned also by Albertus Magnus (Alb. Mag., 215, a 27).

It seems likely to have been to try the efficacy of this cure that King Edward I. sent some of his hounds to Dover to bathe in the sea, the following account for which is entered in his Wardrobe Accounts:

"To John le Berner, going to Dover to bathe six braches by the King's order and for staying there for 21 days for his expense 3. 6d" (6 Edward I. Quoted from MS. Philipps, 8676).

The means of recognising rabies by a cock is also mentioned in the recipe of the eleventh century given by Avicenna (957-1037), and it appears again in Vincentius Bellovacensis and is also to be found in Alexander Neckham. Although the manner of using the cock for this purpose varies, we see by the fact of its being mentioned in different works preceding our MS. that the cock enjoyed some legendary renown for at least a couple of centuries before Gaston (Werth, p. 55).

Nowadays only two varieties of rabies are recognised: furious and dumb rabies. The numerous divisions of the old authors were based on different stages of the disease and slight variations in the symptoms.

When a dog is attacked with rabies its owner often supposes that the dog has a bone in its throat, so that a report of this condition is regarded by veterinary surgeons with suspicion. This corresponds with the description in our text of dogs, with their mouths "somewhat gaping, as if they were enosed in their throat."

from F. metif, O. F. mestif, M. E. mastyf, mestiv, mixed breed, a mongrel dog (Cent. Dict., Murray). Some etymologists have suggested that the word mastiff was derived from masethieves, as these dogs protected their master's houses and cattle from thieves (Manwood, p. 113). Others again give mastinus, i.e. maison tenant, house-dog, as the origin, but the first derivation given of mestif, mongrel, is the one now generally recognised.

Although it will be quite evident to any one comparing the mastiff depicted in our Plate, p. 122, with any picture of the British mastiff that the two are very different types, we must not therefore conclude that the artist was at fault, but that the French matin, which is what our MS. describes and depicts, was by no means identical with our present English breed of mastiffs, nor even with the old British mastiff or bandog. The French matins were generally big, hardy dogs, somewhat light in the body, with long heads, pointed muzzles, flattened forehead, and semi-pendant ears; some were rough and others smooth coated.

Matins were often used for tackling the wild boar when run by other hounds, so as to save the more valuable ones when the boar turned to bay.

In this chase, as well as when they were used to protect their master's flocks against wolves, huge iron spiked collars were fastened round the dog's neck. These spiked collars were very formidable affairs; one of very ancient make which I have measures inside nearly eight inches in diameter, and the forty-eight spikes are an inch long, the whole weighing without the padlock that fastened it together about two pounds.

In England the name Mastiff was not in general use till a much later date, even as late as the end of the eighteenth century, Osbaldiston in his Dictionary ignoring the term mastiff, and using, like a true Saxon, the old term bandog (Wynn, p. 72). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the terms were generally synonymous, and it seems quite possible that the mastiff of the ancient forest laws was not our bandog, but denoted, as in France, any large house-dog capable of defending his master and his master's goods, watching his cattle, and, as frequently necessary, powerful enough to attack the depredatory wolf or the wild boar. These would in all likelihood be a very mixed breed, and thoroughly justify the name mestif or mongrel.

Cotgrave in his French-English Dictionary gives the following:—

"Mastin, a mastiue or bandog; a great country curre; also a rude, filthie, currish or cruell fellow."

We find the word matin in France used as a term of opprobrium, or a name of contempt for any ugly or distorted body or a coarse person: "C'es un matin, un vilain matin." Many interesting facts about the mastiff have been collected by Jesse in his "History of the British Dog," but he also makes the mistake of considering that the "Master of Game" and Turbervile give us the description of the dogs then existing in England, whereas these descriptions really relate only to French breeds, although the characteristics may in many cases have tallied sufficiently; but in others a dire confusion has resulted from blindly copying from one another.

from Latin minare, something which is led, a following. This word frequently occurs in the mediÆval romances, and usually denoted pursuit, either in battle or in the hunting field (Borman, p. 37).

There are various meanings attached to menÉe:—

1. The line of flight the stag or other game has taken, and Chacier la menÉe seems to have meant hunting with horn and hound by scent on the line of flight, in contradiction to the chase with the bow or cross-bow, which was called berser (Le Roman des Loherains, 106, c. 30). In G. de F. (p. 157) it is used in the same sense. The meaning in which Gaston de Foix uses the word menÉe is explained by him: Et puis se metre aprÈs, et chevauchier menÉe: c'est À dire par oÙ les chiens et le cerf vont (G. de F., pp. 43, 44, 171, 179). See also Chace dou Cerf and Hard. de Font. Guer. Edit. Pichon).

2. The challenge of the hound when on the line. Page 171, we read that a hunter should know whether the hounds have retrieved their stag by the doubling of their menÉe, i.e. the hounds would make more noise as soon as they found the scent or line of flight of the stag they were chasing. MenÉe evidently meant the sound made by the hound when actually following the scent, not when baying the game. Later the sense seems to have been widened, and a musical hound was said to have la menÉe belle (Salnove, p. 246).

3. A note sounded on a horn (see Appendix: Hunting Music). It was the signal that the deer was in full flight. It appears to be used in Twici to signify the horn-signal blown when the hounds are on the scent of hart, boar or wolf, to press the hounds onwards (Twici, p. 23). This author says one cannot blow the menÉe for the hare, because it is at one time female and another male, and to this Dryden in his notes remarks that Twici is perfectly right in saying a man ought not to blow the menÉe for a hare; for as every one knows, it is but a rare occurrence for a hare to go straight on end like a fox, for they commonly double and run rings, in which case if the hounds were pressed, they would over-run the scent and probably lose the hare. But he does not explain why Twici says if it were always male the menÉe could be blown at it as at other beasts, such as the hart, the boar, and the wolf. Is it that a male hare will occasionally run a long, straight course of several miles, but that the female runs smaller rings and more constantly retraces her steps, and therefore the menÉe could never be blown at her?

4. MenÉe was also used in the sense of a signal on a horn.

   The "Master of Game" says the menÉes should be sounded on the return of the huntsman at the hall or cellar door (p. 179). There was a curious old custom which occasioned the blowing of the horn in Westminster Abbey. Two menÉes were blown at the high altar of the Abbey on the delivery there of eight fallow deer which Henry III. had by charter granted as a yearly gift to the Abbot of Westminster and his successors.

here evidently means meating or feeding. As the "Master of Game" says: "or pasturing" as if the two words were synonymous, as metinge also was Mid. Eng. for measure, it might have been a deer of "high measure and pasturing." But anyhow the two were practically identical, for as Twici says: "Harts which are of good pasture. For the head grows according to the pasture; good or otherwise." See below: Meute.

had several meanings in Old French venery.

1. The "Master of Game" translated G. de F.'s "grant cerf" as a hart of high feeding or pasture. But he omitted to render the following passage: "Et s'il est de bonne meute, allons le laisser courre." The "bonne meute" is not translated by "high meating." It was an expression in use to indicate whether the stag was in good company or not. If a warrantable stag was accompanied by one or two large stags he was termed "Un cerf de bonne mute" (or meute), but if hinds and young stags (rascal) were with him he was designated as a "cerf de mauvaise mute." In Roy Modus we read: "La premiÈre est de savoir s'il est de bonne mute."

   Perhaps meute when used in this sense was derived from the old Norman word moeta, maeta, from mot, meet, come together. There was also an Old Eng. word metta or gemetta, companion.

2. Meute was also used in another sense which is translated by the "Master of Game" as haunts, probably the place the deer usually moves in. G. says: "Il prendra congÉ de sa meute," and the "Master of Game" has: "he leaves his haunts." If a deer was harboured in a good country for hunting he was also called "En belle meute" (D'Yauville, voc. Meute).

   It was in this sense that the "SÉnÉschal de Normandye" answers the question of his royal mistress about the stag he himself had harboured that morning; he tells her the stag was En belle meute et pays fort.

3. Meute, mute, a number of hounds, now called a pack or kennel of hounds or a cry of hounds.

Mue, to shed, cast, or change. "The hart mews his horns," the deer casts his head, or sheds his antlers. From the French muer, and the Latin mutare, to change, of hawks to moult.

Meu, Meue, mewe, meeve, old forms of move. To start a hart signified to unharbour him, to start him from his lair.

G. de F. says: Allons le laisser courre; but the word meu or meve was also used in Old French in the same way as in English.

Twici says: Ore vodroi ioe savoir quantez des betes sunt meuz de lymer, e quanz des bestes sunt trouez des brachez.... Sire, touz ceaus qe sunt enchaces; sunt meuz de lymer. E tous ceaus enquillez sunt trovez de brachez. (Now I would wish to know how many beasts are moved by a lymer and how many beasts are found by the braches.—Sir, all those which are chased are moved by a lymer. And all those which are hunted up are found by braches.) (Line 18; Tristan., i. 4337; Partonopeus de Blois, 607.)

Meuse. An opening in a fence through which a hare or other animal is accustomed to pass. An old proverb says: "'Tis as hard to find a hare without a muse, as a woman without scuse." "A hare will pass by the same muses until her death or escape" (Blome, p. 92).

M. E. nombles, noumbles; O. F. nombles. The parts of a deer between the thighs, that is to say, the liver and kidneys and entrails. Part, and sometimes the whole of the numbles were considered the right of the huntsman; sometimes the huntsman only got the kidneys, and the rest was put aside with the tit-bits reserved for the King or chief personage (Turb., pp. 128-129). Numbles by loss of the initial letter became umbles (Harrison, vol. i. p. 309), and was sometimes written humbles, whence came "humble pie," now only associated with the word humble. Humble pie was a pie made of the umbles or numbles of the deer, and formerly at hunting feasts was set before the huntsman and his followers.

The Duke of York does not tell us anything of the chase of the Otter, but merely refers one at the end of the chapter on "The Nature of the Otter" to Milbourne, the King's Otter-hunter, for more information and says, "as of all other vermin I speak not" (p. 73). The Otter was evidently beneath his notice, as being neither regarded as a beast of venery nor of the chase (Twety and Gyfford, Brit. Mus. MS. Vesp. B. XII.). But the very fact that the King had an Otter-hunter shows that it was a beast not altogether despised, although probably hunted more for the value of its skin and for the protection of the fish than for the sport.

The Milbourne referred to by the Duke of York can scarcely be any other than the William Melbourne we find mentioned in Henry IV.'s reign as "Valet of our Otter-hounds" (Privy Seal, 674/6456, Feb. 18, 1410).

the perfect. Twici says: Une autre chasce il y ad qe homme appele le parfet. Dunkes covient il qe vous corneez en autre maneree.... E isse chescun homme qest en tour vous, que siet de vÉnerie puet conustre en quel point vous estes en vostre dedut par vostre corneer (line 111).

From comparing the various places where the word parfait is employed in connection with hunting, it may be concluded that to hunt the "Parfet" was when the hounds were on the line of the right stag, to sound the "Parfet" was to blow the notes that indicated the hounds were hunting the right line. Dryden in his notes to Twici suggests that the chase of the parfet was "in opposition to the chase of the Forloyng," that is, when the pack run well together "jostling in close array" (Twici, p. 43). But Perfect in the O. F. works seems to us to invariably be used, as already said, to indicate that the hounds have not taken the change, but are staunch to the right scent. Jacques de BrÉzÉ says the stag he is hunting joins two great stags, but although some of the hounds ran silent for awhile, they still continued staunch to their line, and here he uses the word "parfait" (Sen. de Nor., p. 13).

Modus also uses it in this sense: Les chiens qui viennent chaÇant aprÈs le parfait (fol. xix. v). And what is most conclusive is the sense given to it in our text: "Should blow to him again the parfyt so that he were in his rightes and ellys nought," i.e. the parfyt should only be blown if the hound was on the right line (p. 174).

the name given in the "Master of Game" to the last relay of hounds uncoupled during the chase of the stag. First came the "vaunt chase," and then the "midel," and then the "parfytieres." They may have been so called from being the last hounds to be uncoupled, being those that completed or perfected the pack—i.e. perfecters, or this relay may have derived its name from being composed of some of the staunchest hounds from the kennel, those not likely to follow any but the right line or the parfyt. It was customary in the old days to keep some of the slower and staunchest hounds in the last relay, and to cast them only when a stag nearing its end rused and foiled, and sought by every means to shake off his persecutors (see Appendix: Relays). G. de F. gives the names of the three relays simply as La premiÈre bataille, la seconde, and la tierce (p. 175).

spotted, from O. F. pomelÉ, spotted like an apple. The young of the roedeer are born with a reddish brown coat with white spots, which the "Master of Game" calls pomeled. This term was also frequently used in Ang.-N., O. F., and in the dog-Latin of our ancient records to describe a flea-bitten or dappled horse. "His hakenei that was all pomeli gris" (Strat.). "Pommeli liardus, gris pommele, Uno equo liardo pomele" (Obs. Ward. Acc. 28, Ed. I.). G. de F. does not use this word in describing the young of the roe-deer, but says they are born "eschaquettes" (p. 40).

the word the most approaching this to be found in any dictionary is under the head of receiver, M. E. receyvour, one who, or that which receives. The reseeyuours were most likely those greyhounds who received the game, i.e. pulled it down after it had been chased. We see in our text that teasers and reseeyuours are mentioned together (p. 198). The former were light, swift greyhounds; these were probably slipped first; and the latter (Shirley MS. spells resteynours) were the heavy greyhounds slipped last, and capable of pulling down a big stag. De Noirmont tells us: Ces derniers Étaient surnommÉs receveours ou receveurs (ii. p. 426, and G. de F., p. 177).

In the early days of venery the whole pack was not allowed to hunt at the commencement of the chase. After the stag had been started from his lair by a limer, some hounds were uncoupled and laid on, the rest being divided off into relays, which were posted in charge of one or more berners along the probable line of the stag, and were uncoupled when the hunted stag and the hounds already chasing him had passed. There were usually three relays, and two to four couples the usual number in each relay, though the number of couples depended, of course, on the size of the hunting establishment and the number of hounds in the kennel. G. de F. calls these relays simply, premiÈre, seconde, and tierce. The "Master of Game" calls the first lot of hounds uncoupled the "finders" (p. 165), though this seems rather a misnomer, as the harbourer with his limer (see Limer) found and started the deer. The vauntchase for the first relay, and the midel speak for themselves, but we have little clue to the origin of parfitieres for the third relay. Were they so called because they perfected or completed the chase, or because they were some of the staunchest hounds who could be depended upon to follow the parfit, i.e. the right line of the stag or animal hunted? (see Appendix: Parfet). Old authorities seem to have differed in opinion as to whether the staunchest and slowest hounds should have been put in the first cry or in the last (Roy Modus, fol. xvi.; G. de F., p. 178; Lav., Chasse À Courre, pp. 297-8).

In the "Boke of St. Albans" we read of the vauntlay, relay, and allay. The first was the name given to hounds if they were uncoupled and thrown off between the pack and the beast pursued, the relay were the hounds uncoupled after the hounds already hunting had passed by; the allay is held:

Instructions concerning when relays should be given always warn the berner not to let slip the couples till some of the surest hounds have passed on the scent, and till he be sure that the stag they are hunting is the right one and not a substitute, i.e. one frightened and put up by the hunted stag. The "Master of Game" is careful also to say: "Take care that thou vauntlay not" (p. 169).

The discontinuing of relays seemed to have been begun first in Normandy and probably about the same time in England.

In France the three relays of greyhounds which were used were called Levriers d'estric—i.e. those which were first let slip; levriers de flanc, those that attacked from the side; and levriers de tÊte, those that bar the passage in front of the game or head it, terms that correspond with our vauntlay, allay, and relay. In the "Master of Game's" chapter on the wolf these relays of greyhounds are indicated (p. 59).

The "Master of Game's" statement on p. 74 that no other wild beast in England is called ryott save the coney only has called forth many suggestions as to the origin of this name being applied to the rabbit, and the connection between riot, a noise or brawl, and the rabbit. The word riot is represented in M. E. and O. F. by riote, in Prov. riota, Ital. riotta, and in all these languages it had the same signification, i.e. a brawl, a dispute, an uproar, a quarrel (Skeat).

Diez conjectures the F. riote to stand for rivote, and refers to O. H. G. riben, G. reiben, to grate, to rub (orig. perhaps to rive, to rend). From German, sich an einem reiben, to mock, to attack, to provoke one; lit. to rub oneself against one.

Rabbit, which is in O. Dutch robbe, has probably the same origin from reiben.

The etymology and connection, if any, between the two words rabbit and riot is difficult to determine. It is very probable that the rabbit was called riot from producing a brawling when the hounds came across one. The term "running riot" may well be derived from a hunting phrase.

The error regarding the October rut into which G. de F. and the Duke of York fell was one to which the naturalists of much later times subscribed, for it was left to Dr. Ziegler and to Dr. Bischoff, the Professor of Physiology at Heidelberg, to demonstrate in 1843 the true history of the gestation of the roe, which for more than a century had been a hotly disputed problem. On that occasion it was shown with scientific positiveness that the true rut of the roe takes place about the end of July or first week in August, and that the ovum does not reach the uterus for several months, so that the first development of the embryo does not commence before the middle of December.

Under this heading we include all such dogs as hunted by scent in packs, whatever the game they pursued might be. They appear in the early records of our kings as Canes de Mota, Canes currentes, and as Sousos (scenting hounds) (Close Rolls 7 John; Mag. Rot. 4, John Rot. 10; 4 Henry III.), and are mentioned specifically as cervericiis, deimericiis, as Heyrectorum (harriers) or canes heirettes, and foxhounds as gupillerettis or wulpericiis (Close Rolls, 15 John).

The Anglo-Saxon word Hundas, hound, was a general name for any dog; the dog for the chase in Anglo-Saxon times being distinguished by the prefix Ren, making ren hund.

Gradually the word dog superseded the word hound, and the latter was only retained to designate a "scenting" dog. Dr. Caius, writing to Dr. Gesner, remarks in his book: "Thus much also understand, that as in your language Hunde is the common word, so in our naturall tounge dogge is the universall, but Hunde is perticular and a speciall, for it signifieth such a dogge onely as serveth to hunt" (Caius, p. 40). (See Appendix: Raches.) Running hounds was a very literal translation of the French chiens courants, and as the descriptive chapter given in our text is as literal a rendering from G. de F. there is no information that helps us to piece together the ancestry of the modern English hound. We do not know what breed were in the royal kennels in the reign of Henry IV., but probably some descendants of those brought to this country by the Normans, about the origin of which breed nothing seems known.

Keep of Hounds. The usual cost of the keep of a hound at the time of our MS. was a halfpenny a day, of a greyhound three farthings, and of a limer or bloodhound one penny a day.

However for the royal harthounds an allowance of three farthings a day was made for each hound (Q. R. Acc. 1407), and we also find occasionally that only a halfpenny a day was made for the keep of a greyhound. In Edward I.'s reign a halfpenny a day was the allowance made for fox- and otter-hounds (14, 15, 31, 32, 34, Edward I. Ward. Acc.), and sometimes three farthings and sometimes a halfpenny a day for a greyhound. The Master of Buckhounds was allowed a halfpenny a day each for his hounds and greyhounds.

In the reign of Richard III. the Master of Harthounds was allowed 3s. 3d. a day "for the mete of forty dogs and twelve greyhounds and threepence a day for three limers" (Rolls of Parl., vol. v. p. 16).

The "Boke of Curtasye" (fourteenth century, Percy Society, iv. p. 26), gives us information which quite agrees with the payments entered in the Wardrobe and other accounts of the King's hunting establishment. And under the head of De Pistore we find the baker is told to make loaves for the hounds:

Chet, a word not in use since the seventeenth century, meant wheaten bread of the second quality, made of flour more coarsely sifted than that used for manchet, which was the finest quality.

Brom bread was oaten bread, and probably was very much the same as a modern dog biscuit.

One of the ancient feudal rights was that of obtaining bran from the vassals for the hounds' bread, known as the right of brennage, from bren, bran.

Although bread was the staple food given to hounds, yet they were also provided with meat. At the end of a day's hunting they received a portion of the game killed (see CurÉe), and if this was not sufficient or it was not the hunting season game was expressly killed for them. In a decree from King John to William Pratell and the Bailiffs of Falke de Breaut of the Isle of Ely, the latter are commanded to find bread and paste for the hounds as they may require, "and to let them hunt sometimes in the Bishops chase for the flesh upon which they are fed" (Close Roll, 17 John). In an extract from the Wardrobe Accounts of 6 Edward I. we find a payment was made of 40s. by the King to one Bernard King for his quarry for two years past on which the King's dogs had been fed (MS. Phillipps, 8676).

We find also that "Pantryes, Chippinges and broken bread" were given to the hounds, Chippings being frequently mentioned in the royal accounts as well as meat for the hounds (Liber Niger Domus Ed. IV.; Collection of Ordinances of the Royal Households; Jesse, ii. 125; Privy Purse Expenses Henry VIII. 1529-1532).

The cost of the keep of some of the King's hounds were paid for out of the exchequer, others were paid from the revenues and outgoings of various counties, and an immense number were kept by subjects who held land from the crown by serjeantry or in capite of keeping a stated number of running hounds, greyhounds, and brachets, &c., for the King's use (Blount's Ancient Tenures, Plac. Chron. 12, 13 Ed. I.; Issue Roll 25 Henry VI.; Domesday, tom. i. fol. 57 v).

We see by the early records of our kings that a pack of hounds did not always remain stationary and hunt within easy reach of their kennels, but were sent from one part of the kingdom to another to hunt where game was most plentiful or where there was most vermin to be destroyed. As early as Edward I.'s reign we find conveyances were sometimes provided for hounds when they went on long journeys. Thomas de Candore or Candovere and Robert le Sanser (also called Salsar), huntsmen of the stag and buckhounds (Close Rolls 49 Henry III.; 6, 8 Ed. I.), were paid for a horse-litter for fifty-nine days for the use of their sixty-six hounds and five limers (Ward. Acc. 14, 15 Ed. I.). And as late as Henry VIII.'s time the hounds seemed to travel about considerable distances, as in the Privy Purse expenses of that King the cart covered with canvas for the use of his hounds is a frequently recurring item.

O. F. eschantillon, Mid. Eng. Scantilon, Mod. Eng. scantling, mason's rule, a measure; the huntsman is continually told to take a scantilon, that is, a measure, of the slot or footprint of the deer, so as to be able to show it at the meet, that with this measure and the examination of the droppings which the huntsman was also to bring with him the Master of the Game could judge if the man had harboured a warrantable deer (see Appendix: Slot and Trace).

In mediÆval times the consideration for the larder played a far more important part in fixing the seasons for hunting wild beasts than it did in later times, the object being to kill the game when in the primest condition. Beginning with the—

Red deer stag: according to Dryden's Twici, p. 24 (source not given), the season began at the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 24), and ended Holyrood Day (September 14). Our text of the "Master of Game" nowhere expressly states when the stag-hunting begins or terminates, but as he speaks of how to judge a hart from its fumes in the month of April and May (p. 30), and further says that harts run best from the "entry of May into St. John's tide" (p. 35), we might infer that they were hunted from May on. He also says that the season for hind-hunting begins when the season of the hart ends and lasteth till Lent. But as this part of the book was a mere translation from G. de F. it is no certain guide to the hunting seasons in England. The Stag-hunting season in France, the cervaison, as it was called, began at the Sainte Croix de Mai (May 3rd) and lasted to la Sainte Croix de Septembre (Holyrood Day, Sept. 14), the old French saying being: "Mi Mai, mi teste, mi Juin, mi graisse; À la Magdeleine venaison pleine" (July 22) (Menagier de Paris, ii.). And although the stag was probably chiefly hunted in England between Midsummer and the middle of September, when they are in the best condition, and it was considered the best time to kill them, they were probably hunted from May on in the early days in England as they were in France. Had this not been customary we imagine the Duke of York would have inserted one of his little interpolations in the text he was translating, and stated that although the season began in May beyond the sea, it only began later in England.

In Twety and Gyfford we read that the "tyme of grece, begynnyth alle way atte the fest of the Nativyte of Saynt Johan baptist." Later on, according to Dryden, the season of the stag began two weeks after Midsummer (July 8).

Red deer hind, Holyrood Day (Sept. 14) to Candlemas (Feb. 2) (Twici, p. 24; Man., p. 181). According to others the hind and the doe season ends on Twelfth-day or Epiphany (Jan. 6).

Fallow deer buck. According to the Forest Laws the season began at the Nativity of St. John (June 24) and ended on Holyrood Day (Sept. 14). Dryden adds a second date, i.e. two weeks after Midsummer, to the former, but does not quote the source.

Fallow doe was hunted from Holyrood Day (Sept. 14) to Candlemas (Feb. 2).

Roe deer buck was hunted from Easter to Michaelmas (Sept. 29).

Roe doe, Michaelmas to Candlemas.

Hare. According to the Forest Laws (Man., 176) the season commenced Michaelmas (Sept. 29) and ended at Midsummer (June 24); Dryden in his notes in Twici states that it commenced at Michaelmas and ended at Candlemas (Feb. 2), while the "Boke of St. Albans" gives the same date as the first-named in Manwood. According to the "Master of Game" the hare seems to have enjoyed no close season, as G. de F.'s assertion that the hunting of the hare "lasteth all the year" is also translated without comment (p. 14): Et le peut chassier toute l'annÉe, en quelque temps que ce soit quar touzjours sa sayson dure (G de F., p. 204).

In Twety and Gyfford we also find that "The hare is alway in season to be chasyd."

In the sixteenth century in France the hare-hunting season was from the middle of September till the middle of April (Du Fouilloux, p. 51; De Noir., ii. p. 476). In England the same season seems to have been observed (Blome, p. 91).

Wild boar. According to the Forest Laws (Manwood and Twici), the boar was hunted from Christmas Day to Candlemas (Feb. 2), but we have evidence that boar-hunting usually began earlier. The boar was in his prime condition when acorns, beechmast, and chestnuts were plentiful, and was considered in season from Michaelmas to St. Martin's Day (Roy Modus, xxxi.), and by some even from Holyrood Day (Bornam, p. 100; Part, de Blois, 525).

The huntsmen of King John of England were sent to hunt in the forest of Cnappe in order to take two or three boars a day in November. King John's letter giving instructions on this point to one Rowland Bloet is dated 8th November 1215 (Jesse, ii. 32).

Wolf. According to the Forest Laws, in the book already quoted, the season during which the wolf was hunted began at Christmas and ended at the Annunciation (March 25), but considering the destruction wrought by this beast it is far more likely that it was hunted throughout the year.

Fox. According to the Forest Laws the season opened on Christmas Day and ended on March 25, but nevertheless the fox was hunted early in the autumn, for we have it on Twety and Gyfford's authority that "the sesoun of the fox begynneth at the natyvite of owre Lady, and durryth til the Annunciacion" (Sept. 8 to March 25).

The "Boke of St. Albans" gives the season of the fox and wolf from the Nativity to the Annunciation of Our Lady and that of the boar from the Nativity to the Purification of Our Lady. Manwood and other accepted authorities quote the above as alluding to the Nativity of Christ, whereas the Nativity of Our Lady, Sept. 8, was intended, thereby creating some confusion.

According to the Wardrobe Accounts of Edward I. the foxhunting season began on 1st September (Ward. Acc. Ed. I. 1299-1300).

No doubt one of the reasons why the fox was not hunted earlier in the year was on account of the fur, which was of course of less use or value if obtained in summer.

Otter. The Forest Laws give the season as from Shrove Tide (Feb. 22) to Midsummer (June 24), but we find that in King John's reign the otter was hunted in July (Close Rolls 14 John I.).

Martin, badger, and rabbit were hunted at all seasons of the year.

No work dealing with the chase of wild animals in mediÆval times would be complete were it to omit all reference to snares, traps, gins, pitfalls, and other devices to take game other than by hunting. The "Master of Game" mentions the subject but briefly, saying, "Truly I trow no good hunter would slay them so for no good," but "Gaston Phoebus" contains seventeen short chapters in which the author as well as the miniaturist describe the various contrivances then in use, although the same disdain of these unsportsmanlike methods is expressed by G. de F. that marks the Duke of York's pages. In the first edition of the present work will be found descriptions of the principal snares used in the Middle Ages.

It is difficult to say at what date these dogs were first introduced into our country; we only know that by the second half of the sixteenth century spaniels were a common dog in England. In Dr. Caius's time the breed was "in full being." He mentions land spaniels, setters, and water spaniels, besides the small spaniels which were kept as pet and lap dogs. That the breed was not then a recent importation we may infer from the fact that, when speaking of the water spaniel and giving the derivation of the name, Dr. Caius says: "Not that England wanted suche kinde of dogges (for they are naturally bred and ingendered in this country). But because they beare the general and common name of these dogs synce the time when they were first brought over out of Spaine."

The chapter in the "Master of Game" on this dog, being translated from G. de F., unfortunately throws no light on the history of the spaniel in England, although we imagine that, had there been no such hounds in our island at the time, the Duke would have made some such remark as he has in other parts of his book of their being a "manner of" hound as "men have beyond the sea, but not as we have here in England."

In his time the spaniel had enjoyed popularity in France for some two centuries, and there was such continual communication between France and England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that it would have been indeed strange if this most useful dog for the then favourite and universal sport of hawking had not been brought to England long before his time. We may conclude that the "gentle hounds for the hawk" of which he speaks in his Prologue were not spaniels.

The usual meaning of this word (castrating females) given in all dictionaries is clearly inapplicable on this occasion (p. 174), where it undoubtedly means killing a stag with a sword, probably derived from the Italian spada. When the velvet was once off the antlers the stag at bay was usually despatched with the bow, for it was then dangerous to approach him close enough to do so with the sword. When achieved by bold hunters, as it occasionally was, it was accounted a feat of skill and courage.

O. F. establie, a garrison, a station. Huntsmen and kennelmen with hounds in leash, whose duty it was to take up a post or stand assigned to them during the chase, were called stables. We have Stabilitiones venationis that are mentioned in Domesday (i. fol. 56b and fol. 252). In Ellis's introduction to Domesday he says: "Stabilitio meant stalling the deer. To drive the Deer and other Game from all quarters to the centre of a gradually contracted circle where they were compelled to stand, was stabilitio." Malmesbury, Scriptores, post Bedam, edit. 1596, p. 44, speaking of the mildness of Edward the Confessor's temper, says, "Dum quadam vice venatum isset, et agrestis quidam Stabulata illa, quibus in casses cervi urgentur, confudisset, ille sua nobili percitus ira, per Deum, inquit, et matrem ejus tantundem tibi nocebo, si potero" (Ellis, i. 112).

We see, however, at a later date from Twici and the "Master of Game" that the watchers or stables they allude to were stationary—and did not drive the game as described in above.

These stations of huntsmen and hounds were placed at intervals round the quarter of the forest to be driven or hunted in with hounds to move the game, so that the hounds could be slipped at any game escaping; sometimes they were to make a noise, and thus blench or head the game back. In French such a chase was called a Chasse À tÎtre (Lav. xxviii.), the word tÎtre meaning net or tape, but in this case used figuratively. Our "Master of Game" evidently placed these stations to keep the game within the boundaries so as to force it to pass the stand of the King. Twici describes these stations of huntsmen, using the word establie. "The bounds are those which are set up of archers, and of greyhounds (lefrers et de establie) and watchers, and on that account I have blown one moot and recheated on the hounds. You hunter, do you wish to follow the chase? Yes, if that beast should be one that is hunted up (enquillee), or chased I will follow it. If so it should happen that the hounds should be gone out of bounds then I wish to blow a moot and stroke after my hounds to have them back" (Twici, p. 6).

It was the duty of certain tenants to attend the King's hunts and act as part of the stable. In Hereford one person went from each house to the stand or station in the wood at the time of the survey (Gen. Introduction Domesday, Ellis, i. 195). From Shrewsbury the principal burgesses who had horses attended the King when he went hunting, and the sheriff sent thirty-six men on foot to the deer-stand while the King remained there.

Stable-stand was the place where these stables were posted or "set," and the word was also used to denote the place where archers were posted to shoot at driven game. Such stands were raised platforms in some drive or on some boundary of the forest, sometimes erected between the branches of a tree, so that the sportsman could be well hidden. A good woodcut of what was probably intended to represent a "stand" is in the first edition of Turbervile's "Arte of VÉnerie," representing Queen Elizabeth receiving her huntsman's report.

There is no mention made of raised stands in our text, but with or without such erections the position taken up by the shooters to await the game was called his standing or tryste, and a bower of branches was made, to shelter the occupant from sun and rain, as well as to hide him from the game. Such arbours were called Berceau or Berceil in Old French, from the word berser, to shoot with a bow and arrow; they were also called ramiers and folies, from rames or branches, and folia, leaves, with which they were made or disguised (Noir., iii. p. 354).

Manwood tells us that Stable-stand was one of four "manners in which if a man were found, in the forest, he could be arrested as a poacher or trespasser," and says: "Stable-stand is where one is found at his standing ready to shoot at any Deer, or standing close by a tree with Greyhounds in his leash ready to let slip" (Man., p. 193).

or layes; tanks or pools, large meers. Gaston says: Estancs et autres mares ou marrhÉs (G. de F., p. 21). Stank house was a moated house. A ditch or moat filled with water was called a tank.

or tecche, Mid. Eng. for a habit, especially a bad habit, vice, freak, caprice, behaviour, from the O. F. tache, a spot, a stain, or blemish; also a disgrace, a blot on a man's good name. In the older use it was applied both to good as well as bad qualities, as in our text.

to makes hides into leather; tawer, the maker of white leather. In the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, in the days of the strict guilds, a sharp line was drawn between tawers and tanners, and a tawer was not allowed to tan nor a tanner to taw (Wylie, vol. iii. p. 195). No tawers were allowed to live in the Forest according to the ancient forest laws.

"If any white Tawer live in a Forest, he shall be removed and pay a Fine, for they are the common dressers of skins of stolen deer" (Itin. Lanc. fol. 7, quoted by Manwood, p. 161).

or teaser. "A kind of mongrel greyhound whose business is to drive away the deer before the Greyhounds are slipt," is the definition given by Blome (p. 96). These dogs were used to hunt up the game also when the deer was to be shot with the bow. The sportsmen would be standing at their trysts or stable-stand in some alley or glade of the wood, and the hounds be put into the covert or park "to tease them forth."

slot, or footprint of deer. In O. F. and Ang.-N. literature the word trace seems to have been used indifferently for the track of the stag, wild boar, or any game (Borman, notes 147, 236, 237). G. de F. expressly says that the footprint of the deer should not be called trace but voyes or piÉs (view or foot), yet the "Master of Game" in his rendering says: "Of the hart ye shall say 'trace,'" so evidently that was the proper sporting term in England at the time. When slot entirely superseded the word trace amongst sportsmen it is difficult to determine. Turbervile uses slot, and in the beginning of the seventeenth century it seems the general term for the footprint of deer (Man., p. 180; Stuart Glossary, vol. ii.; Blome, p. 76). Slot, it may be contended, is as old a word as trace, but in Mid. Eng. it was employed as a general term for a foot-track or marking of any animal. The trace or slot was one of the signs of a stag, that is the mark by which an experienced huntsman could recognise the age, size, and sex of the deer.

The old stag leaves a blunter print with a wider heel than a hind, but it is difficult to distinguish the slot of a hind from that of a young stag. Although the latter has invariably a bigger heel and makes deeper marks with his dewclaws, yet his toes are narrow and pointed, their edges are sharp, and the distance between his steps is somewhat unequal, all of which may lead his slotting to be mistaken for the tracks of a hind. "He has found what he wanted," says Dr. Collyns, when speaking of the harbourer, "the rounded track, the blunted toe point, the widespread mark, the fresh slot, in short, of a stag" ("Chase of the Red Deer").

The huntsman of old used to consider that any slot into which four fingers could be placed with ease belonged to a warrantable stag (some declared a stag of ten). That would mean that the slot would be about three inches wide, if not more. I believe two and a half inches is considered a fair measurement for mark of the heel by Devonshire stag-hunters, who alone in England concern themselves with the differences in the slot, as they only chase the wild deer. No such woodcraft is necessary for the chase of the carted deer, and as long as the master and huntsman can distinguish the footprint of a deer from that of any other animal, that is all that is required of them in this matter. The stepping or gait of a stag is also a sign that was taken into consideration. The old stag walks more equally, and generally places the point of his hind feet in the heel of his fore feet. The gait of a hind is more uncertain; it is said she misprints, that is sometimes the hind foot will be placed beside the fore foot, sometimes inside or in front of it. She is not even so regular in her gait as a young stag, unless she is with fawn, when she will place her hind feet constantly outside her fore feet. A hind walks with wide-spreading claws, so does a young stag with his fore feet, but those of his hind feet will be closed. The larger the print of the fore feet are in comparison to the hind feet the older the stag.

The underneath edge of the claws round the hollow of the sole was called the esponde (sponde, edge or border). In older stags they were blunter and more worn, and in hinds and younger deer sharper, unless indeed the stag inhabited a damp and mossy country, where the esponde would not be so much worn down as if he lived on a rocky or stony ground. (G. de F., 155, 129-145; Lav., p. 246; Stuart, p. 58; Fortescue, p. 133). And thus did the woodmen of old study the book of nature, which told them all they wished to know, and found for them better illustrations than any art could give.

in the language of sport, was the place or stand where the hunter took up his position to await the game he wished to shoot. The game might be driven to him by hounds, or he might so place himself as to shoot as the game went to and from their lair to their pasturing (see Appendix: Stables and Stable-stand). In French it was called shooting À l'affut, from ad fustem, near the wood, because the shooter leant his back to, or hid behind a tree, so that the game should not see him.

In our MS. we are told that Alaunts are good for hunting the wild boar whether it be with greyhounds, at the "tryst," or with running hounds at bay within the covert. The tryst here would be the place where a man would be stationed to slip the dogs at the wild boar as soon as he broke covert, or after the huntsman had wounded the boar with a shot from his long or cross-bow (p. 118).

velteres, veltrai. A dog used for the chase, a hound. Probably derived from the Gaelic words ver, large or long, and traith, a step or course, vertragus being the name by which according to Arian, the Gauls designated a swift hound (Blanc, 52).

Winding in the chase (Halliwell). In the sentence in which this word is used in the chapter on the Mastiff (p. 122) we are told that some of these dogs "fallen to be berslettis and also to bring well and fast a wanlace about." Which probably means that some of these dogs become shooting dogs, and could hunt up the game to the shooter well and fast by ranging or circling. Wanlasour is an obsolete name for one who drives game (Strat.).

In Brit. Mus. MS. Lansdowne 285 there is an interesting reference to setting the forest "with archers or with Greyhounds or with Wanlassours."

These animals were denizens of the British forests from the most remote ages, and probably were still numerous there at the time our MS. was penned. For although the Duke of York has only translated one of the eleven chapters relating to the natural history, chase, or capture by traps of the wild boar, and does not give us any original remarks upon the hunting of them, as he has of the stag and the hare, still it was most likely because he considered these two the royal sport par excellence, and not because there were none to hunt in England in his day. If the latter had been the case, he would in all probability have omitted even the chapter he does give us, as he has done with those written by Gaston de Foix on the deer, the reindeer, and the ibex and chamois (p. 160).

In some doggerel verses which are prefixed to "Le venery de Twety and Gyfford" (in Vesp. B. XII.), the wild boar is classed as a beast of venery. In the a "Boke of St. Albans" the wild boar is also mentioned as a beast of venery.

When Fitzstephen wrote his description of London in 1174, he says wild boars as well as other animals frequented the forests surrounding London, and it would certainly be a long time after this before these animals could have been extirpated from the wild forests in more remote parts of the country.

Sounder is the technical term for a herd of wild swine. "How many herdes be there of bestes of venery? Sire of hertis, or bisses, of bukkes and of doos. A soundre of wylde swyne. A bevy of Roos" (Twety and Gyfford). In the French Twici we have also Soundre dez porcs.

Farrow (Sub.) was a term for a young pig, in Mid. Eng. farh, far, Old Eng. fearh (Strat.). Farrow (verb) was the term used when sows gave birth to young.

G. de F. says that wild boars can wind acorns as far as a bear can (p. 58), and turning to his chapter on bears, we find that he says that bears will wind a feeding of acorns six leagues off!

Routing or rooting. A wild boar is said to root when he is feeding on ferns or roots (Turb., pp. 153, 154).

Argus, as our MS. calls the dew-claws of the boar, were in the later language of venery called the gards (Blome, p. 102). Twety and Gyfford named the dew-claws of the stag os and of the boar ergos. "How many bestis bere os, and how many ergos? The hert berith os above, the boor and the buk berith ergos."

Grease, as the fat of the boar or sow was called, was supposed to bear medicinal qualities. "And fayre put the grece whan it is take away, In the bledder of the boore my chylde I yow pray, For it is a medecine: for mony maner pyne" ("Boke of St. Albans").

which at one time was extremely common in England, was included among the beasts of the chase. It is frequently mentioned in royal grants giving liberty to enclose forest-land and licence to hunt therein.

It was probably more for its skin than for diversion that the wild cat was hunted, as its fur was much used for trimming dresses at one time.

The wild cat is believed to be now extinct, not only in England and Wales, but in a great part of the South of Scotland. A writer in the new edition of the EncyclopÆdia Britannica (art. "Cat") expresses the opinion that the wild cat still exists in Wales and in the North of England, but gives no proof of its recent occurrence there.

Harvie-Brown in his "Vertebrate Fauna of Argyll" (1892) defines the limit of the range of the wild cat by a line drawn from Oban to Inverness; northward and westward of this line, he states, the animal still existed. But there is no doubt that of late years the cessation of vermin trapping in many parts of Scotland, which has caused a marked increase in the golden eagle, has had the same effect upon the wild cat.

The natural history chapter of the wild cat is taken by the Duke of York from G. de F.; did we not know this, some confusion might have arisen through the fact being mentioned that there are several kinds of wild cat, whereas only one was known to the British Isles. G. de F. says there were wild cats as large as leopards which went by the name of loups-serviers or cat wolves, both of which names he declares to be misnomers. He evidently refers to the Felis Lynx or Lynx vulgaris, which he properly classes as a "manner of wild cat," although some of the ancient writers have classed them as wolves (Pliny, Lib. viii. cap. 34).

For a long time it was a popular delusion that wolves had been entirely exterminated in England and Wales in the reign of the Saxon King Edgar (956-957), but Mr. J. E. Harting has by his researches proved beyond doubt that they existed some centuries later, and did not entirely disappear until the reign of Henry VII. (1485-1509).

This was supposed to be a preventive to the power of a mad dog's bite. It was a superstition promulgated in very early times, and seems to have been believed in until comparatively recent times. We find it repeated in one book of venery after another, French, English, and German: in England by our author, Turbervile, Markham, and others.

Pliny suggests this operation, and he quotes Columna as to the efficacy of cutting off a dog's tail when he is very young (Pliny, chap. xli.).

G. de F. and the Duke of York are careful to say that they only give the remedy for what it is worth, the latter saying: "Thereof make I no affirmation," and further on: "Notwithstanding that men call it a worm it is but a great vein that hounds have underneath their tongue" (p. 87).