HOW THE ASSEMBLY THAT MEN CALL GATHERING SHOULD BE MADE BOTH WINTER
AND SUMMER AFTER THE GUISE OF BEYOND THE SEA
The assembly _that men call gathering_ should be made in this manner:
the night before that the Lord or the Master of the Game will go to
the wood, he must cause to come before him all the hunters and the
helps, the grooms and the pages, and shall assign to each one of them
their quests in a certain place, and separate the one from the other,
and the one should not come into the quest of the other, nor do him
annoyance or hinder him. And every one should quest in his best wise,
in the manner that I have said; and should assign them the place where
the gathering shall be made, at most ease for them all, and the
nearest to their quests. And the place where the gathering shall be
made should be in a fair mead well green, where fair trees grow all
about, the one far from the other, and a clear well or beside some
running brook. And it is called gathering because all the men and the
hounds for hunting gather thither, for all they that go to the quest
should all come again in a certain place that I have spoken of. And
also they that come from home, and all the officers that come from
home should bring thither all that they need, every one in his office,
well and plenteously, and should lay the towels and board clothes all
about upon the green grass, and set divers meats upon a great
platter[205] after the lord's power. And some should eat sitting, and
some standing, and some leaning upon their elbows, some should drink,
some laugh, some jangle, some joke and some play--in short do all
manner of disports of gladness, and when men be set at tables ere they
eat then should come the lymerers and their grooms with their lymers
the which have been questing, and every one shall say his report to
the lord of what they have done and found and lay the fumes before the
lord he that hath any found, and then the Lord or the Master of the
hunting by the counsel of them all shall choose which they will move
and run to and which shall be the greatest hart and the highest deer.
And when they shall have eaten, the lord shall devise where the relays
shall go and other things which I shall say more plainly, and then
shall every man speed him to his place, and all haste them to go to
the finding.
[205] G. de F. (p. 151) says "in great plenty," not "upon a great
platter."
[Illustration: HOW TO QUEST FOR THE HART IN COVERTS (From MS. f. fr.
616, _Bib. Nat._, Paris)]