HOW A MAN SHOULD LEAD HIS GROOM IN QUEST FOR TO KNOW A HART BY HIS
TRACE
Then should his groom lead his lymer (tracking hound) in quest after
him in the morning, and teach him to know what difference is between a
hart's trace and a hind's. As _I have said before, this word quest is
a term of hart hunters beyond the sea, and is as much for to say as
when the hunter goeth to find of a hart and to harbour him_. For to
know a great hart's trace from a young, and to know the trace of a
young deer of antler from a hind's, and how many judgments and what
knowledge there be, and for to make more certain thereof, he should
have an old hart's foot and a young hart's and a hind's foot also, and
should put it in hard earth and in soft, and once put it fast in the
earth as though the hart were hunted and another time soft, as if the
hart went a pase (slowly), thereby he may advise him to know the
differences of a hart's feet, and he shall find that there is no deer
so young if he be from a brocket upwards, that his talon (heel) is not
larger and better and hath greater ergots (dew claws) than hath a
hind, and commonly longer traces. Nevertheless there are some hounds
well traced, which have the sole of the foot as a staggard or a small
stag, but the talon and the ergots are not so great nor so large. Also
a great hart and an old one has a better sole to his foot, and a
better talon and better bones and greater and larger than has a young
deer or hind. And so in putting in the earth the hart's foot and the
hind's foot as I have said, he shall know the difference and better
than I can devise. And also the hinds commonly have their traces more
hollow than a staggard or a stag, and more open the cleeves (toes) in
front than a hart of ten, for of the others reck I never. The judgment
is in the talon (when it is great and large; and in the sole of the
foot)[176] when it is great and broad, and the point of the foot
broad. And men have seen a great hart and an old one, the which had
hollow traces, and that cannot matter so that he hath the other signs
before said. For a hollow trace and sharp cleeves betoken no other
thing than that the country the hart hath haunted is a soft country or
hard, and where there be but few stones, or that he has been hunted
but little. And also if a man find such a hart, and men ask him what
hart it is, he may answer that it is a hart chaceable of ten, that
should not be refused. And if he sees an hart's foot that hath these
signs aforesaid the which are great and broad, he may say that it is
an hart that some time had borne ten tines, and if he see that the
aforesaid signs are greater and broader he may say that it is a great
hart and an old (one), and this is all he may say of the hart. Also he
should call the foot of the hart the trace, and of the wild boar also.
_Also the hunters of beyond the sea_ call of an hart and of a boar the
routes and the pace (path) and both is one. Nevertheless pace, they
call their goings where a beast goes in the routes, there where he has
passed, _nevertheless I would not set this in my book, but for as much
as I would English hunters should know some of the terms that hunters
use beyond the sea, but not with intent to call them so in England_.
[176] The words in brackets have been omitted in our MS. but are in
the Shirley MS. and G. de F. p. 129; they have been thus inserted to
complete the sense.
[Illustration: THE MASTER TEACHING HIS HUNTSMAN HOW TO QUEST FOR THE
HART WITH THE LIMER OR TRACKHOUND (From MS. f. fr. 616, _Bib. Nat_.,
Paris)]