WHAT MANNER AND CONDITION A GOOD HUNTER SHOULD HAVE.
Thou, Sir, whatever you be, great or little, that would teach a man to
be a good hunter, first he must be a child past seven or eight years
of age or little older, and if any man would say that I take a child
in too tender age for to put him to work, I answer that all nature
shortens and descends. For every man knoweth well that a child of
seven years of age is more capable in these times of such things that
he liketh to learn than was a child of twelve years of age (in times
that I have seen). And therefore I put him so young thereto, for a
craft requires all a man's life ere he be perfect thereof. And also
men say that which a man learns in youth he will hold best in his age.
And furthermore from this child many things are required, first that
he love his master, and that his heart and his business be with the
hounds, and he must take[170] him, and beat him when he will not do
what his master commands him, until the time that the child dreads to
fail. And first I shall take and teach him for to take in writing all
the names of the hounds and of the hues of the hounds, until the time
that the child knoweth them both by the hue and by the name. After I
will teach him to make clean every day in the morning the hounds'
kennel of all foul things. After I will learn him to put before them
twice a day fresh water and clean, from a well, in a vessel there
where the hound drinks, or fair running water, in the morning and the
evening. After I will teach him that once in the day he empty the
kennel and make all clean, and renew their straw, and put again fresh
new straw a great deal and right thick. And there where he layeth it
the hounds should lie, and the place where they should lie should be
made of trees a foot high from the earth, and then straw should be
laid thereupon, because the moisture of the earth should not make them
morfounder nor engender other sicknesses by the which they might be
worse for hunting. Also that he be both _at field and at wood
delivered_ (active) _and well eyed and well advised of his speech and
of his terms, and ever glad to learn and that he be no boaster nor
jangler_.
[170] "Take" is probably the scribe's mistake for "tache," teach.