HOW A MAN SHOULD KNOW A GREAT HART BY THE PLACE WHERE HE HATH FRAYED
HIS HEAD
Furthermore ye should know a great hart by the fraying (for if ye find
where the hart hath frayed),[178] and see that the wood is great where
he hath frayed, and he hath not bent it, and the tree is frayed well
high, and he hath frayed the bark away, and broken the branches and
wreathed them a good height, and if the branches are of a good size,
it is a sign that he is a great hart and that he should bear a high
head and well troched, for by the troching[179] he breaketh such high
the boughs that he cannot fold them under him. For if the fraying were
bare and he had frayed the boughs under him, it is no token that it be
a great hart, and especially if the trees where he had frayed were
small. Nevertheless men have seen some great deer fray sometimes to a
little tree, but not commonly, but a young deer shall ever more[180]
fray to a great tree, and therefore should ye look at several
frayings. And if ye see the aforesaid tokens oftener upon the great
trees than upon the small ye may deem him a great hart. And if the
frayings be continually in small trees and low, he is not chaceable
and should be refused. Also ye may know a great hart by his lairs.
When a great hart shall come in the morning from his pasture, he shall
go to his lair and then a great while after he shall rise and go
elsewhere there where he would abide all the day. Then when ye shall
rise and come to the lair there where the hart hath lain and rested,
if ye see it great and broad and well trodden and the grass well
pressed down, and at the rising when he passeth out of his lair, if ye
see that the foot and the knees have well thrust down the earth and
pressed the grass down it is a token that it is a great deer and a
heavy (one). And if at the rising he make no such tokens, because that
he hath been there but a little while, so that his lair be long and
broad ye may deem him a hart chaceable. Also ye may know a great hart
by the bearing of the wood, for when a great hart hath a high head and
a large (one) and goeth through a thick wood, he findeth the young
wood and tender boughs, his head is harder than the wood, then he
breaketh the wood aside and mingleth the boughs one upon the other,
for he beareth them and putteth them otherwise than they were wont to
be by their own kind. And when the glades of the woods are high and
broad then he may deem him a great hart, for if he had not a high head
and wide he could not make his ways high and large. If it happen so
that ye find such glades and have no lymer with you, if ye will know
at what time this glade was made, ye must set your visage in the
middle of this glade, and keep your breath, in the best wise that ye
may, and if ye find that the spider hath made her web in the middle of
them, it is a token that it is of no good time[181] or at the least it
is of the middle (of the noon) of the day before. Nevertheless ye
should fetch your lymer for so ye should know better. Also ye may know
a great hart by the steps _that in England is called trace_. And that
is called stepping,[182] when he steppeth in a place where the grass
is well thick, so that the man may not see therein the form of the
foot, or when he steppeth in other places, where no grass is but dust
or sand and hard country, where fallen leaves or other things hinder
to see the form of the foot. And when the hart steppeth upon the grass
and ye cannot see the stepping with your eyes, then ye shall put your
hand in the form of the foot that hunters call the trace, and if ye
see that the form of the foot be of four fingers of breadth, ye may
judge that it is a great hart by the trace. And if the sole of the
foot be of three fingers' breadth ye may judge him a hart of ten, and
if ye see that he hath well broken the earth and trodden well the
grass, it is a token that it is a great hart and a heavy deer. And if
ye cannot well see it for the hardness of the earth, or for the dust,
then ye must stoop down for to take away the dust and blow it away
from the form of the foot until the time that ye may clearly see the
form that is called the trace. And if ye cannot see it in one place,
ye should follow the trace until the time that ye can well see it at
your ease. And if ye can see none in any place, ye should put your
hand in the form of the foot, for then ye shall find how the earth is
broke with the cleeves of the foot on either side, and then ye can
judge it for a great hart or a hart chaceable, as I have said before
by the treading of the grass; and if leaves or other things be within
the form that ye may not see at your ease, ye should take away the
leaves all softly or the other things with your hands, so that ye undo
not the form of the foot and blow within and do the other things as I
have before said.[183] (After I will tell you how a man shall speak
among good hunters of the office of venery.) First he shall speak but
a little, and boast little, and well (work[184]) and subtlely, and he
must be wise and do his craft busily, for a hunter should not be a
herald of his craft. And if it happen that he be among good hunters
that speaketh of hunting he should speak in this manner. First if men
ask him of pastures he may answer as of harts and for all other deer,
sweet pastures, and of all biting beasts as of wild boar, wolves, and
other biting beasts he may answer, they feed, as I have said before.
And if men speak of the fumes ye shall call fumes of a hart,
_croteying_ of a buck, and of a roebuck in the same wise of a wild
boar and of black beasts and of wolves ye shall call it lesses, and of
hare and of conies ye shall say they crotey, of the fox _wagging_, of
the grey the _wardrobe_, and of other stinking beasts they shall call
it drit, and that of the otter he shall call sprainting as before is
said. And if men asketh of the beasts' feet, of the harts ye shall say
the trace of a hart _and also of a buck_, and that of the wild boar
and of the wolf also they call traces _beyond the sea_. And that of
the stinking beasts that men call vermin, he shall call them steps as
I have said. And if he hath seen a hart with his eyes, there are three
kinds of hues of them, that one is called brown, the other yellow, and
the third dun, and so he may call them as he thinketh that they
beareth all their hues. And if men ask what head beareth the hart he
hath seen, he shall always answer by even and not by odd, _for if he
be forked on the right side, and lack not of his rights[185] beneath,
and on the right[186] side antler and royal and surroyal and not
forked but only the beam, he shall say it is a hart of ten at
default_,[187] for it is always called even of the greater number. And
every buck's tines should be reckoned as soon as a man can hang a
baldric or a leash[188] thereupon and not otherwise. And when a hart
beareth as many tines on the one side as on the other, _he may say if
he be but forked that he is a hart of ten, and if he be troched of
three he is a hart of twelve, if he be troched of four he is a hart of
sixteen, always if it be seen that he hath his rights beneath as
before is said. And if he lack any of his rights beneath he must_
_abate so many on the top, for a hart's head should begin to be
described from the mule[189] upwards, and if he hath more by two on
the one side than on the other, you must take from the one and count
up that other withal, as I shall more clearly speak in a chapter
hereafter in describing a hart's head._ And if it be so that the
hart's trace have other tokens than I have said and he thinks him a
hart chaceable, and men ask what hart it is he may say it is a hart of
ten and no more. And if it seem to him a great hart and men ask what
hart it is, he shall say it is a hart that the last year was of ten
and should not be refused. And if he happen to have well seen him with
his eye or the before said tokens, so that he knoweth fully that it is
as great a hart as a hart may be, if men ask him what hart it is, he
may say it is a great hart and an old deer. And that is the greatest
word that he may say as I have said before. And if men ask him whereby
he knoweth it, he may say for, he hath good bones[190] and a good
talon and a good sole of foot, _for these four[191] things makes the
trace great_, or by fair lairs or the grass or the earth well pressed
or by the high head,[192] or by the fumes or else other tokens as I
have said before. And if he see a hart that hath a well affeted
(fashioned) head after the height and the shape and the tines well
ranged by good measure, the one from the other, and men ask him what
he beareth he may answer that he beareth a great head and fair of
beam, and of all his rights, and well opened; and if a man ask him
what head he beareth, he shall answer that he beareth a fair head by
all tokens and well grown. And if he see a hart that hath a low head
or a high, or a great, or a small, and it be thick set, high and low
and men ask him what head he beareth he may answer he bears a thick
set head after his making, or that he hath low or small or other
manner whatever it be. And if he see a hart that hath a diverse head,
or that antlers grow back or that the head hath double beams or other
diversities than other harts commonly be wont to bear, and men ask
what head he bears, he may answer a diverse head or a counterfeit
(abnormal), for it is counterfeited. And if he see a hart that beareth
a high head that is wide and thin tined with long beams, if men ask
what head he beareth, he shall answer a fair head and wide, and long
beams, but it is not thick set neither well affeted. And if he see a
hart that hath a low and a great and a thick set (head) and men ask
what head he beareth, he may say he beareth a fair head and well
affeted. And if men ask him by the head whereby he knoweth that it is
a great hart and an old, he may answer, that the tokens of the great
hart are by the head, and so the first knowledge is when he hath great
beams all about as if they were set as it were with small stones, and
the mules nigh the head and the antlers, the which are the first
tines, be great and long and close to the mule and well apperyng
(pearled) and the royals which are the second tines, be nigh the
antlers, and of such form, save that they should not be so great; and
all the other tines great and long and well set, and well ranged and
the troching as I have said before, high and great, and all the beams
all along both great and stony, as if they were full of gravel, and
that all along the beams there be small vales that men call gutters,
then he may say that he knows it is a great hart by the head.
[178] The words in brackets are omitted in our MS. but are in the
Shirley MS. and in G. de F. p. 132.
[179] The tines at top. See Appendix: Antler.
[180] Ever more is here a mistake; it should be never more. G. de F.
says: "Mes jeune cerf ne froyera jà en gros arbre" (p. 132). Also in
the Shirley MS.
[181] Not of "good time" means in the old sporting vocabulary an old
track, not a recent one.
[182] G. de F. calls the track of deer on grass "_foulées_," from
which the modern "foil," "stepping on grass," is derived.
[183] A whole line is missing here in our MS. The words in brackets
are taken from the Shirley MS. It runs: "Affter I wal telle yowe a man
howe he shal speke amonge good hunters of y offyce of venerye."
[184] The word "work" has been omitted. "Et bien _ouvrer_ subtilement"
(G. de F. p. 134).
[185] Brow, bay, and tray tines. See Appendix: Antler.
[186] In Shirley MS. it is "left."
[187] Instead of this original passage G. de F. says: "For if he had
on one side ten points and on the other only one, it should be called
summed of twenty" (p. 135).
[188] G. de F. has "spur" instead.
[189] Burr, mule, from the Fr. _meule_.
[190] Dew claws.
[191] According to Shirley MS. and the sense, the "iiii" should be
omitted.
[192] G. de F. (p. 136) says: "Ou belles portées"--portées being the
branches, and twigs broken or bent asunder by the head of the deer,
termed "entry" or "rack" in mod. Eng.--Stuart, vol. ii. 551.
After I will tell you how ye should know a great wild boar, and for to
know how to speak of it among hunters of beyond the sea. And if a man
see a wild boar the which seemeth to him great enough, as men say of
the hart chaceable of ten, he shall say a wild boar of the third year
that is without refusal, and whenever they be not of three years men
call them swine of the sounder, and if he see the great tokens that I
shall rehearse hereafter he may say that he is a great boar. Of the
season and nature of boar and of other beasts, I have spoken here
before. And if men ask him of a boar's feeding, it is properly called
of acorns of oak's bearing, and of beechmast, the other feeding is
called worming and rooting of the roots out of the earth that feed
him. The other kind of feeding is of corn and of other things that
come up out of the land, and of flowers and of other herbs; the other
kind of feeding is when they make great pits, and go to seek the root
of ferns and of spurge within the earth. And if men ask whereby he
knoweth a great boar, he shall answer that he knoweth him by the
traces and by his den, and by the soil (wallowing pool). And if men
ask whereby he knoweth a great boar from a young, and the boar from
the sow, he shall answer that a great boar should have long traces and
the clees round in front, and broad soles of the feet and a good
talon, and long bones, and when he steppeth it goeth into the earth
deep and maketh great holes and large, and long the one from the
other, for commonly a man shall not see the traces of a boar without
seeing also the traces of the bones, and so shall he not of the hart,
for a man shall see many times by the foot, that which he will not see
by the ergots, but so shall he not see of the boar. What I call the
bones of the boar, of the hart I call the ergots, and the cause that a
man shall not know as well by the ergots of the hart as by bones of
the boar is this, for the bones of the boar are nearer the talon than
those of a hart are, and also they are longer, and greater and sharper
in front. And therefore as soon as the form of the traces of his foot
is in the earth, the form of the bones is there also, and commonly a
great boar maketh a longer trace with one of his claws than with the
other in front or behind, and sometimes both. And when a man seeth the
tokens beforesaid greater, he may deem him greater, and the smaller
the trace, the smaller the boar. The sow from the boar ye may know
well, for the sow maketh not so good a talon as a right young boar
doth. And also a sow's claws are longer and sharper in front than a
young boar's. And also her traces are more open in front and
straighter behind, and the sole of the foot is not so large as of a
young boar, and her bones are not so large nor so long, nor so far the
one from the other as those of a young boar, nor go not so deep in the
earth, for they be small, and sharp and short, and nearer the one to
the other, than a young boar's. And these are the tokens by the which
men know a young boar so that he be two year old from all sows, by the
trace, for that say I not of the young boars of sounder. And if men
ask him how he shall know a great boar by his den, he may answer that
if the den of the boar be long and deep and broad, it is a token that
it is a great boar so that the den be newly made and that he hath lain
therein but once. And if the boar's den is deep without litter, and if
the boar lie near the earth it is a token that it is no[193] fat boar.
And if men ask him how he knoweth a great boar by the soil, then may
he answer that commonly when a boar goeth to soil in the coming in or
in the going out, men may know by the trace, and so it may be deemed
as I have said by his wallowing in the soil. Nevertheless some time he
turneth himself from the one side upon the other, and up and down, but
a man shall evermore know the form of his body. Also sometimes when
the boar parteth from the soil, he rubbeth against a tree, and there a
man may know his greatness and his height. And some time he rubs his
snout and his head higher than he is, but a man may well perceive
which is of the chine and which is of the head. For by his lesses,
that is to say what goes from him behind, nor by other judgment a man
cannot know a great boar unless he see him, save that he maketh great
lesses, and that is a token that he hath a great bowel, and that he be
a great boar, and also by the tusks when he is dead, for when the
tusks of a boar be great as of half a cubit or more and be both great
and large of two fingers or more and there be small gutters along both
above and beneath, these be the tokens that he is a great boar and
old, and of a smaller boar the judgment is less. And also when the
tusks be low and worn, by the nether tusks it is a token of a great
boar.
[193] G. de F. (p. 139) says if "le senglier gise près de la terre,
c'est signe qu'il ait bonne venoison," so our MS. is evidently wrong
when it says "it is a token that it is _no_ fat boar."