OF THE ORDINANCE AND THE MANNER OF HUNTING WHEN THE KING WILL HUNT IN
FORESTS OR IN PARKS FOR THE HART WITH BOWS AND GREYHOUNDS AND STABLE
_The Master of the Game should be in accordance with the master
forester or parker where it should be that the King should hunt such a
day, and if the tract be wide, the aforesaid forester or parker should
warn the sheriff of the shire where the hunting shall be, for to order
sufficient stable,[239] and carts, also to bring the deer that should
be slain to the place where the curées at huntings have been usually
held. And thence he should warn the hunters and fewterers whither they
should come, and the forester should have men ready there to meet
them, that they go no farther, nor straggle about for fear of
frightening the game, before the King comes. And if the hunting shall
be in a park all men should remain at the park gate, save the stable
that ought to be set ere the King comes, and they should be set by the
foresters or parkers. And early in the morning the Master of the Game
should be at the wood to see that all be ready, and he or his
lieutenant or such hunters that he wishes, ought to set the greyhounds
and who so be teasers[240] to the King or to the Queen, or to their
attendants. As often as any hart cometh out he should when he passes
blow a mote and recheat, and let slip to tease it forth, and if it be
a stag, he should let him pass as I said and rally to warn the
fewterers what is coming out. And to lesser deer should no wight let
run, and if he hath seen the stag, not unless he were commanded.[241]
And then the master forester or parker ought to show him the King's
standing if the King would stand with his bow, and where all the
remnant of the bows would stand. And the yeoman for the King's bows
ought to be there to keep and make the King's standing, and remain
there without noise, till the King comes. And the grooms that keep the
king's dogs and broken greyhounds should be there with him, for they
belong to the yeomen's office, and also the Master of the Game should
be informed by the forester or parker what game the king should find
within the set,[242] and when all this is done, then should the Master
of the Game worthe_ (mount) _upon_ (his) _horse and meet the King and
bring him to his standing and tell him what game is within the set,
and how the greyhounds be set, and also the stable, and also tell him
where it is best for him to stand with his bow or with his greyhounds,
for it is to be known that the attendants of his chamber and of the
queen's should be best placed, and the two fewterers ought to make
fair lodges of green boughs at the tryste to keep the King and Queen
and ladies, and gentlewomen and also the greyhounds from the sun and
bad weather. And when the King is at his standing or at his tryste,
whichever he prefers, and the Master of the Game or his lieutenant
have set the bows and assigned who shall lead the Queen to her tryste,
then he should blow the three long motes for the uncoupling. And the
hart hounds and the harriers that before have been led by some
forester or parker thither where they should uncouple, and all the
hounds that belong to both the mutes_ (packs) _waiting for the Master
of the Game's blowing. Then should the sergeant of the mute of the
hart-hounds, if there be much rascal within the set, make all them of
office, save the yeomen of the horse, hardel[243] their hounds, and in
every hardel two or three couple of hounds at the most suffice. And
then to stand abroad in the woods for relays, and then blow three
motes to the uncoupling. And then should the harrier uncouple his
hounds and blow three motes and seek forth saying loud and long, "hoo
sto ho sto, mon amy, ho sto" and if they draw far from him in any
unruly manner he should speak to them in that case as when he seeketh
for the hare. And as oft as he passes within the set from one quarter
to another, he should blow drawing, and when he is passed the boundary
of the quarter, and entered into a new quarter, he should blow three
motes and seek forth, but if so be, that his hounds enchace anything
as he wishes, and if any hound happen to find of the King's_ (game),
_he should hue to him by his name and say loud: "Oyez a Bemond,
oyez-oyez, assemble, assemble," or what the hound is named, "assemble,
assemble" and jopey and rally. And if it be an hart and any of the
hart hounds meet with it they should blow a mote and rechace and
relay, and go forth therewith all rechacing among. And if it come to
the bows or to greyhounds and be dead, he should blow the death when
he is come thither, and reward his hounds a little, and couple them up
and go again to his place. And if the hart has escaped he should no
longer rechace, but blow drawing and draw in again, and in the best
way that he can, take up his hounds and get in front of them. And
after that the harriers have well run and well made the rascal
void,[244] then should the sergeant and the berners of the hart hounds
blow three motes, the one after the other and uncouple there where
they suppose the best ligging_ (lair) _is for a hart, and seek as
before is said; unless it be the season when the hart's head is
tender, then he shall use some of the aforesaid words of seeking to
the hounds: "Le doulez, mon amy, le doulez, le doules," and if his
hounds find anything do as before is said, and if it be a hart, do as
above is said, as he may know by his fues or by men that meet with
him. And if it be ought else, the berner ought to blow drawing, and
who meeteth with him_ (the hart) _call to them, and the berner should
say "Sto arere so how, so how." And if the lymerer meet withal, or see
by the fues that it is an hart, he should sue thereto till he be dead.
If it go to the greyhounds and if it go to the bows, and be smitten
anon, as he findeth blood he should take up his hounds and lead them
thence and reward them a little, and then if he escape out of the set,
he should reward his hounds, and take them up and go again to the wood
and look if he may meet with anything. And as often as he meeteth and
findeth, or his hounds run on a fresh scent, do as before is said. And
one thing is to be known, that the hart-hounds should never be
uncoupled before any other, unless a hart be readily harboured, and
that he may be sued to and moved with the lymer, or else that they be
uncoupled to a herd of great male deer at the view, namely within a
set in a forest or in a park, there where there is a great change of
rascal. And that is the cause why the other hounds shall be first
uncoupled to make the rascal void, for small deer will sooner leave
their covert than will a great hart, unless it be a hind that hath her
calf in the wood, and hath lately calved. And when the rascal is thus
voided then the hart hounds are uncoupled and they find the great old
wily deer that will not lightly void, and they enchace him well and
lustily and make him void both to bows and to greyhounds, so that they
fully do their duty. And all the while that the hunting lasteth should
the carts go about from place to place for to bring the deer to the
curée. And there should the server[245] of the hall be to arrange the
curées, and to lay the game in a row, all the heads one way--and every
deer's feet to the other's back. The harts should be laid in two or
three rows_ (by themselves) _according to whether there be many or
few, and the rascal in the same way by themselves, and they should
take care that no man come within the curées till the King come, save
the Master of the Game. And when the covert is well hunted and
cleared, then should the Master of the Game come to the King to know
if he would hunt any more. And if the King say yea, then shall the
Master of the Game if the greyhounds or bows or stable need not to be
removed, blow two long motes for the hounds, and forthwith blow
drawing with three long motes that men should stand still, and the
hunters may know that they should come to a new seeking with their
hounds. And when the hounds be come there where they should uncouple
blow three long motes and do and seek and blow, as is before said. And
if the bows and greyhounds and stable should be removed, then should
he blow a mote and stroke, without the mote in the middle, for to draw
men together, and thereby may men know that the king will hunt more
ere he go home. And when men come together, then should the Master of
the Game see to the placing of the King and of the Queen and of the
bows and of the greyhounds and of the stable, as I have said here
before, and the hunters to their seeking, and of all other things do
in the same manner as I have said. And if the king will hunt no more,
then should the Master of his Game, if the King will not blow, blow a
mote and stroke with a mote in the middle and the sergeant or whoso
bloweth next him, and no man else, should blow the first mote but only
the middle, and so every man as oft as he likes to stroke, if they
have obtained that which they hunted for. And the middle mote should
not be blown save by him that bloweth next the master. And thereby may
men know as they hear men stroke homeward whether they have well sped
or not. And this way of stroking should serve in the manner I have
rehearsed for all hunting save when the hart is slain with strength.
And when the mote is blown and stroked, then should the Master of the
Game lead the King to the curée, and show it him, and no man as I have
said above should come within it, but every man_ (keep) _without it.
And then the King shall tell the Master of the Game what deer he would
were_ (given away) _and to whom, and_ (after this) _if the King wishes
to stay he may. Nevertheless he usually goes home when he hath done
this. And then should the Master of the Game begin at one row and so
forth, and tythe all the deer right as they lie, rascal and others,
and deliver it to the proctors of the church that ought to have it.
And then_ (separate) _the deer that the king commandeth him to
deliver, and if any of them that should have part of the deer be not
there he should charge the master forester to send it home, and then
he should deliver a certain_ (part) _of the remnant to the afore said
sewers and to the sergeant of the larder and the remnants should be
given by the Master of the Game, some to the gentlemen of the country
by the information of the forester or parker, as they have been
friendly to the bailie, and the remnant to the officers and hunters as
he liketh best. And it is to be known that every man bow and fewterer
that hath slain anything should mark it that he might challenge his
fee, and have it at the curée, but let him beware that he marks no
lord's mark nor_ (other) _fewterers nor hunters, or he will lose his
fee. And also it is to be known that the fees of all follies belong to
the master of the harriers, if so be that he or his deputy be at the
hunting, and blow three motes and else not, in which case the Master
of the Game can give it to whom he wishes save what the King slayeth
with his bow or the Queen or my lord the prince, or that which they
bid with their own mouth to let run to. And all shall be judged folly
of red deer which is beneath the hart, and of fallow deer which is
beneath the buck, nevertheless if the harrier would challenge the deer
for folly, and it is not folly, if there be a strife with him who
asketh the fee, the Master of the Game shall judge it, and right so
shall he do of all these strifes for fees between bow and bow, and
fewterer and fewterer, and of all other strifes and discords that
belong to hunting. And when all the deer be delivered, and the hunters
and the fewterers of the kennel be assigned to undo the deer that be
delivered for the king's larder, then should the grooms chacechiens of
the hart-hounds gather the paunches and small guts together and do
with them as is advised in the chapter of the hart hunting with
strength, and get them a skin to lie thereover, and do as in the same
chapter described with the greatest and best head_ (antlers) _that
they can find in all the curée. Save the blowing of the prise and the
stroking and the menee, the bay should wait till the curées be done,
and the flesh taken away, and there should the Master of the Game be,
and the sergeant and all the yeomen and grooms of the office. And if
the greyhounds[246] shall be rewarded it should be done right as is
devised in the aforesaid chapter, except that the blowings above
described shall be left out. And also whosoever slew the deer the
yeomen of the office should have the skin that lyeth upon the deer
when the hounds are rewarded. And also it is to know that the harriers
when they have run shall be rewarded with the paunches and guts, but
there is no need to make a long bay with the hart's head to them, for
they are made to run and chase all game that one wishes, and that is
the cause why the master of them has the fees of all deer save the
hart and the buck, unless it be in the certain case before mentioned.
And when the curée is done, and the bay made, then is the time for
every man to draw homeward to his supper and to make himself as merry
as he can. And when the yeomen berners and grooms have led home the
hounds and set them well up and supplied them with water and straw
according to what they need, then should they go to their supper and
drink well and make merry. And of the fees it is to be known that the
man whoever he be, who has smitten a deer while posted at his tree
with a death-stroke so that the deer be got before the sun goes down,
he shall have the skin. And if he be not posted or has gone from his
tree, or has done otherwise than is said, he shall have none. And as
of the fewterers, if they be posted, the first teaser and
receiver[247] that draweth the deer down shall divide the skin.[248]
Nevertheless in other lord's hunting whoso pincheth first and goeth
therewith to the death he shall have the skin. And all the deer's
necks are the hunters, and one shoulder and the chine is his that
undoeth the deer, and the other shoulder is the forester's or the
parker's fee that keepeth the bailie that is hunted. And all the skins
of harts slain with strength of the hart-hounds, belong to the master
of the hart-hounds as his fee, that is to say he that hath the wages
of twelve pence a day for the office. It is to be known that when the
king hunteth in the park or in the forest with bows and greyhounds,
and it happens that any hart be slain with strength of hart-hounds,
all the hart hunters after the King or the Master of his Game have
blown a mote and stroked, all day they should stroke the assise that
belongeth to the hart slain with strength, but not with eight long
motes, but with four short and four long motes, as is in the aforesaid
chapter plainly devised. And all the other hunters should stroke the
common stroking as is above described and said._
[239] Men and hounds stationed at different places, usually on the
boundaries of the district in which the game was to be roused and
hunted, or at convenient passes from whence the hounds could be
slipped at the game.
[240] Teasers, a small hound to tease forth or put up the game.
[241] A difficult sentence to unravel. In the Shirley MS. it runs:
"and yif hit have eseyne nought to ye stagge, but yif he were
avaunced."
[242] "Within the set" means within that quarter of the forest or park
around which are set or stationed the men and hounds, called the
stable.
[243] To tie the couples of hounds together.
[244] Made the smaller deer clear out of the forest.
[245] The beginning of this sentence relating to the "server of the
hall" is not in our MS. but in the Shirley MS.
[246] Shirley MS., "harthounds."
[247] Shirley MS. has "resteynour."
[248] This means that the men in whose charge the teasers and
receivers were placed were given the skin or fee.
[Illustration: THE "UNDOING" OR GRALLOCHING OF THE HART THE MASTER
INSTRUCTING HIS HUNTERS HOW IT IS DONE (From MS. f. fr. 616, _Bib.
Nat._, Paris)]
[Illustration: HART-HUNTING WITH GREYHOUNDS AND RACHES (From MS. f.
fr. 616, _Bib. Nat._, Paris)]
[Illustration: THE "CUREE" OR REWARDING OF THE HOUNDS (From MS. f. fr.
616, _Bib. Nat._, Paris)]
END OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM MS.
VESPASIAN B. XII.
THE FOLLOWING IS THE CONCLUDING PASSAGE OF THE SHIRLEY MANUSCRIPT
(Add. MS. 16, 165) IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM:--
_Now I pray unto every creature that hath heard or read this little
treatise of whatever estate or condition he be that there where there
is too little of good language that of their benignity and grace they
will add more, and there where there is too much superfluity that they
will also abridge it as may seem best by their good and wise
discretion. Not presuming that I had over much knowledge and ability
to put into writing this royal disportful and noble game of hunting so
effectually that it might not be submitted to the correction of all
gentle hunters. And in my simple manner as best I could and as might
be learned of old and many diverse gentle hunters, I did my business
in this rude manner to put the craft and the terms and the exercise of
this said game more in remembrance and openly to the knowledge of all
lords, ladies, gentlemen and women, according to the customs and
manners used in the high noble court of this Realm of England._
FINIS
APPENDIX
ACQUILLEZ, Fr., to take, to hold at bay, to gather. "Et s'il voit que
les chiens heussent acueili le change" (G. de F., p. 156)--"if he sees
that the hounds have taken the change." It also denotes: "owning to
the scent" (Senechal, p. 8; Roy Modus, xxix. v).
Twici says: "Les chevereaus ne sunt mie enchacez ne aquyllees," which
Dryden translates, "the roebuck is not chased nor hunted up," from
_enquiller_ or _aquiller_, O. Fr. a form of _accuellir_, to push, put
in motion, excite. "The word in English which is nearest to it is 'to
imprime,' which was afterwards used for the unharbouring of the hart"
(Twici, p. 26).
In the old English translation of Twici (Vesp. B. XII.) _aquylees_ is
construed "gadered," which is certainly one sense, but not the one
here required (Twici, p. 53).
The "Master of Game" translates _ils accueillent_ in G. de. F., p.
112, by "they run to them" (p. 111. _See also_ Godefroy).
AFFETED, 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 tined
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.
ALAUNTES, _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 Monteria_, 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 Ph[oe]nicians 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 Ph[oe]bus, 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).
ANTLER, 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 Ph[oe]bus 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.
BERCELET, 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:
"Parler m'orez d'un buen brachet.
Qens ne rois n'ont tel berseret."
T. M. i. 14404.
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:
"Husdent me lesse, ton brachet.
Ainz berseret à vénéor
N'ert gardeé à tel honor
Comme cist sera."
_Ibid._ i. 2660.
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).
BERNER, 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_.
BISSHUNTERS, 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.
BLENCHES, 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.
BOCE, 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."
BOUGHS, 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).
CHANGE. 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).
CURÉE, 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.
EXCREMENTS, 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--
GASTON DE FOIX AND MASTER OF GAME
Of the hart } Of the hart--Fumes.
" buck } Fumées " buck }
" roebuck } " roebuck } Croteys.
" bear } " wild boar }
" wild boar } Laisses. " black beasts } Lesses.
" wolf } " wolves }
" hare and conies--Crotes. " hare and Conies--Croties.
" fox, badger, and } " fox--The wagging.
stinking beasts } Fiantes. " grey or badger--The Wardrobe.
" otter--Spraintes. " stinking beasts--The Drit.
" otter--Spraintes.
Other forms of this term are: fewmets, fewmishing, crotels,
crotisings, freyn, fuants, billetings, and spraits.
FENCE MONTH. 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).
FEWTE, 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 "BOKE OF ST. ALBANS." IN HARL. MS. 2340, FOL. 50B.
_Beasts of "Swete fewte."_
The Buck, the Doo, the Beere, the The Buke, the Doo, the Ber,
Reynd, the Elke, the Spycard, the the Reyne der, the Elke,
Otre, and the Martwn. the Spycard.
_Beasts of the "Stinking fewte."_
The Roobucke, the Roo, the The Fulmard, the Fechewe,
Fulmard, the Fyches, the Bauw, the Catt, the Gray, the
the Gray, the Fox, the Squirrel, Fox, the Wesyll, the
the Whitecat, the Otyr, the Stot, Marteron, the Squirrel, the
the Pulcatt. Whyterache, the Otyr, the
Stote, the Polcatte.
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.
FEWTERER, 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.
FORLONGE, 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
esloinhes_"). 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).
FOX. 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).
FRAYING-POST, 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).
FUES, "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).
GLADNESS, glade. The original sense is a smooth, bare place, or
perhaps a bright, clear place in a wood.
GREASE. 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).
GREASE TIME, 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).
GREYHOUND, 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.
HARDEL, 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.
HARE. 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 York, to which Lavallée
draws attention as being one of the many ludicrous mistakes in this
edition (G. de F., xli.).
[Illustration: SHOOTING HARES WITH BLUNT BOLTS (From MS. f. fr. 616,
_Bib. Nat._, Paris)]
Our text calls the hare the most marvellous beast (p. 181), the
reasons given being because she "fumeth or croteth and rowngeth and
beareth tallow and grease." By "rowngeth" (Fr. _ronger_) it was meant
that the hare chewed the cud, as by the ancients it was generally
supposed that the hare was a ruminant. Although this is not the case,
and the hare has not a compound stomach, nevertheless this belief
showed a close observation of nature, for when a hare is seated she
can bring up parts of her food and give it a second mastication.
The hare and rabbit have little or no fat, but what they do possess is
called grease. Twici says: _Il porte gresce_ (pp. 1 and 21).
"She has teeth above in the same wise as beneath" (p. 181) is another
of the peculiarities noticed in our text, which shows that the
difference in dentition that distinguishes the hare from all other
rodents had been remarked. Instead of two incisors in the upper jaw,
the hare has four, having two small rudimentary incisor teeth behind
the two large front ones, and five or six molars in the upper jaw,
with two incisors and five molars in the lower jaw (Brehm, ii. p. 627;
Cornish, "Shooting," ii. p. 153).
It is difficult to know why the hare was considered a "melancholy"
beast, and how this curious reputation was kept up during the whole of
the Middle Ages. It was thought that eating the flesh of the hare
rendered one also subject to melancholy. G. de F. does not mention
this, and altogether his book is comparatively free of such
superstitions, but he says the flesh of the hare should not be given
to the hounds after a day's hunting, as it is indigestible: _quar elle
est fastieuse viande et les fet vomir_ (p. 210). Therefore, when
rewarding the hounds, they should only have the tongue and the
kidneys, with some bread soaked in the blood of the hare.
In our MS., at the end of the chapter on the nature of the hare (p.
22), the Duke of York says that he "trows no good hunter would slee
them so," alluding to pockets, pursenets, and other poaching devices;
and although G. de F. gives six ways of taking the hare, he does not
approve of such methods for the true sportsman, but enters an amusing
protest: "I would that they who take hares thus should have them [the
cords] round their own necks" (p. 171). Snaring hares was never
considered legitimate sport. In hare-hunting proper, the hounds were
taken into the fields to find the hare, as at present; or hare-finders
were sent out early in the morning, and the tufts of grass or plants
where the hare was likely to be seated were beaten, and the hounds
uncoupled only when the hare was started. One of the chief differences
in the sport between then and now was that often, when the hare was
once on foot, greyhounds were also uncoupled, and our Plate, p. 182,
shows greyhounds and running-hounds hunting seemingly happily
together. It must have been rather discouraging for the old-fashioned,
slow scenting-hound to have the hare he has been diligently hunting
suddenly "bitten" in front of him by the swifter greyhound.
Trencher-fed packs also existed as early as the fourteenth century,
and we read in Gace de la Buigne that the small farmers would assemble
together, bringing all told some forty hounds of different breeds and
sizes, immensely enjoying their sport, and accounting for many hares.
HARNESS means in our text "paraphernalia where-with 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_.
HARRIER, 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.
HART. 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:--
Twici, "Boke of St. Blome; Cox's
"Master of Game." Albans," Manwood, "Gentleman's
Turbervile. Recreations."
1st yr. A calf. A calf. A hinde-calf or calf.
2nd " A bullock. A brocket. A knobler or knobber.
3rd " A brocket. A spayer, spayard, or A brocket or brocke.
spayd.
4th " A staggart. A staggart or stag. A staggard.
5th " A hart of ten. A hart. A hart.
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.
HORNS.--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 1/2 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.
HUNTING CRIES. 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.
HUNTING MUSIC. 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: [**white] denoting a long
note; [**black] a short note; [**white][**white] a note of two long
syllables; [**black][**black] a note of two short syllables;
[**black][**white][**white] a note of one short and two long
syllables; and [**black][**white][**white][**black][**black] 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.
ILLOEQUES, "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.
[Illustration: FROM HARDOUIN DE FONTAINES GUERIN'S WORK, WRITTEN IN
1394]
JOPEYE, 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:
"_Et puis juppe ou corne i. lonc mot
Chaucuns en a joie qui l'ot._"
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.
KENETTES, 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).
LIGGING, 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.
LIMER, 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 _li_mer has been used.
MADNESS. 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."
MASTIFF, 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.
MENÉE, 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
crossbow, 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.
METYNGE, 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.
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_, _m[=a][=e]ta_, from _m[=o]t_, 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.
MEW, _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.
MOVE, 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.)
MUSE, _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).
NUMBLES. 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.
OTTER. 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).
PARFET, _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
venerie 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).
PARFYTIERES, 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).
POMELED; 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 roedeer, but says they
are born "_eschaquettes_" (p. 40).
RACHES; _ratches_ or _racches_, a dog that hunts by scent. A.-S.
_raecc_, a hound, and O. F. and Ang.-N. _brache_, _brachet_, _bracon_,
_braquet_; Ger. _bracken_. Ang.-Lat., _brachetus_, _bracketus_.
Raches were scenting hounds hunting in a pack, later called "running
hounds," and then simply hounds. Although raches or brachets are
frequently mentioned in the O. F. and Ang.-N. metrical romances, and
in various early documents, we have never found any description of
them, but can only gather what they were from the uses they were put
to. We find that the bracco was used by the early German tribes to
track criminals, therefore they were scenting hounds. There is plenty
of evidence that they were used for stag, wild boar, and buck hunting
during the Middle Ages. They were coupled together and led by a
_berner_ or _bracennier_ or _braconnier. Braconnier_ now means
poacher, but this is only the later meaning; originally braconnier was
the leader of the bracos, or huntsman (Daurel, p. 337; Bangert, p.
173; Dol. 9188).
We gather that these brachets of the early Middle Ages were small
hounds, sometimes entirely white, but generally white with black
markings. Sometimes they were mottled (_bracet mautré_). One
description of a _braces corant_ says this hound was as white as a
nut, with black ears, a black mark on the right flank, and flecked
with black (Blancadin, 1271; Perc. 17,555, 22,585; Tristan M., 1475,
2261; Tyolet, 332).
In the early days in England we find that braches were used to hunt up
such smaller game as was not unharboured or dislodged by the limer.
Twici says: "_Sire, touz ceaus qe sunt enchaces, sunt meuz de lymer. E
tous ceaus enquillez sunt trovez de brachez_" (_see_ Appendix:
Acquillez), _i.e._ All beasts that are enchased are moved by a limer,
and all those that are hunted up are found by braches (Twici, pp. 2,
12). Raches are mentioned in the "Boke of St. Albans" among the
"_Dyvers manere of houndes_," and the apprentice to venery is told he
should speak of "A mute of houndes, a kenell of rachys." He is also
informed that the hart, the buck, and the boar should be started by a
limer, and that all "other bestes that huntyd shall be sought for and
found by Ratches so free." John Hardyng in his Chronicle, speaking of
an inroad into Scotland by Edward IV., in whose reign he was yet
living, said, "And take Kennetes and Ratches with you and seeke oute
all the forest with houndes and hornes as Kynge Edwarde with the long
shanks dide." In the "Squyer of Low degree" we read that the huntsman
came with his bugles "and seven score raches at his rechase."
RESEEYUOUR; 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).
RELAYS. 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:
"Till all the houndes that be behynd be cum therto
Than let thyn houndes all to geder goo
That is called an _allay_."
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).
RIOT. 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.
ROE. 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.
RUNNING HOUNDS AND RACHES (F. _chiens courants_). 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:
"Manchet and chet to make brom bred hard
ffor chaundeler and grehoundes and huntes reward."
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.
SCANTILON, 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).
SEASONS OF HUNTING. 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.
SNARES. 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 Ph[oe]bus" 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.
SPANIEL. 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.
SPAY. 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.
STABLES. 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 Venerie,"
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).
STANKES, 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.
TACHE, 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.
TAW, 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).
TEAZER, 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_."
TRACE, 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.
TRYST, 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).
VELTRES, _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).
WANLACE. 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."
WILD BOAR. 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").
WILD CAT (_Felis Catus_), 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).
WOLF. 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).
WORMING A DOG. 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).
LIST OF SOME BOOKS CONSULTED AND ABBREVIATIONS USED IN TEXT
Albertus Magnus. _De Animalibus._ Ed. 1788.
---- _The Secrets of._ London, 1617.
_Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales._ 1841.
_---- of Cambria._ E. Williams. 1823.
_Anc. Ten._, for _Ancient Tenures of Land_. By Thomas Blount. London,
1874.
Andreæ, E. C. A. _Die Geschichte der Jagd._ Frankfurt, 1894.
_Archæologia._ Pub. by Soc. of Antiq. Beginning 1770.
Arcussia, Ch. d'. _La Conference des Fauconniers_ (_Cab. de Venerie_,
vii.). 1880.
Arkwright, for _The Pointer and his Predecessor_. By William A.
London, 1902. 4to. See Bibliog. in 1st edit.
_Arrow Release, The._ By Ed. S. Morse. 1885.
Aymon, for _Le Roman des quatres fils Aymon_. Edit. P. Tarbé. 1861.
_Bad. Lib. Hunt._, for "Badminton Library." Volume on Hunting by the
Duke of Beaufort and Mowbray Morris. Ed. 7. London, 1901. Errors in,
see Bibliog. in 1st edit.
---- vol. on _The Poetry of Sport_. London, 1896. Errors in, see
Bibliog. in 1st edit.
Bangert, for _Die Tiere des Altfranz. Epos_. Von Fried. Bangert.
Marburg, 1885.
Barrière-Flavy, C. _Censier du pays de Foix._ Toulouse, 1898.
Barthold, F. W. _Georg von Frundsberg._ 1833.
Bastard, A. de. _Libraire du duc de Berry._ Paris, 1834.
Baudrillart, for _Traite des Eaux et Forêts, Chasse et Pêches._ Par M.
B. Paris, 1834.
Beckford, for _Thoughts upon Hare and Fox Hunting._ By Peter B.
London, 1796.
Beltz, G. F. _Memorials of the Garter._ 1841.
Berg, L. F. Freiherr. _Gesch. der deutschen Wälder._ Dresden, 1871.
Bertheleti, T., _General Collections of Statutes, 1225-1546_. London,
1543-51.
_Bib. Accip._, for _Bibliotheca Accipitraria_. By James Edm. Harting.
London, 1891.
Blancandin, ed. _H. V. Michelant._ 1867.
Blane, for _Cynegetica, or Observations on Hare Hunting_. By W. B.
London, 1788.
Blaze, Elezear. _Catalogue d'une Collection._ Paris, 1852.
---- _Le Livre du Roy Modus._ Paris, 1839.
Blome, for _The Gentleman's Recreation_. By Richard Blome. London,
1686.
Blount, T. _A Law Dictionary and Glossary._ 1717.
_Bodl. MS. 546_, for the MS. of the "Master of Game" in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford. See "Existing MSS. of the 'Master of Game'"; see
Bibliog. in 1st edit.
Borman, for _Die Jagd in den Altfranz. Artus und Abenteuer Romanen_.
_Von_ Ernst Borman. Marburg, 1887.
_Boldon Book_, for _Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and
Ireland_ (vol. iii.). By Sir Th. Duffus-Hardy. London, 1875.
_B. of St. Albans_, for _The Boke of St. Albans_. Edit. by William
Blades. London, 1881. See Bibliog. in 1st edit.
"_B. of C._" for _Boke of Curtasye_. 14th cent. poem. Pub. by I. O.
Halliwell. Percy Soc. vol. iv.
Bonney, for _Historic Notices on Fotheringhay_. By Rev. H. K. B.
Oundle, 1821.
Borel, P., _Dictionnaire des termes du vieux François_. 2 vols. 1882.
Bouton, Victor. _L'Auteur du Roy Modus._ Paris, 1888.
Brachet, Ang. _An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language_
(Clarendon Press). 1866.
Brehm, for B.'s _Tierleben_. 3. ed. Von Dr. Pechuel-Loesche. Leipzig
and Wien, 1891.
Brèzé, Jacque de. _La Chasse du grand Sénéschal de Normandye._ Paris,
between 1489 and 1494.
Brière, L. de la. _Livre de Prières par Gaston Phébus_ (1835). Paris,
1893.
Broebel, P. _Die Fährte des Hirsches._ Halle, 1854.
Browne, for _Pseudoxia Epidemica_. By Sir Ths. B. 1650.
_Brut._, for _Le Roman de Brut_. By Wace. Ed. by Le Roux de Lincy.
Rouen, 1836-38.
Budé. _Traitte de la Venerie._ Par B. Ed. H. Chevreul (Paris). 1861.
Burrows, Montagu, Prof. _The Family of Brocas._ 1886.
Caius, for _Englishe Dogges_. By Johannes Caius. Reprint of ed. of
1576. 1880.
Camden, W. _Britannia._ 1586.
_Canterbury Tales_, Chaucer's. Ed. Furnivall. 1868.
Castellamonte, A. di. _La Venaria reale._ Torino, 1674.
_Catalogue of the Duke of Marlborough's Library at White Knight._
London, 1819.
---- London, 1881-83.
---- Oxford, 1772.
"Cecil," for _Records of the Chase_. By "Cecil," edit. London, 1877.
See Bibliog. in 1st edit.
Chaffourt, Jacques de. _Instructions._ Paris, 1609. (2nd ed.)
Champgrand, for _Traité de Venerie et Chasse_. Par Goury de C. Paris,
1769.
Champollion-Figeac, Aimi. _Louis et Charles, ducs d'Orleans._ Paris,
1844.
Charles d'Orleans, for Charles de Valois. _Les poésies du duc Charles
d'Orleans._ Edit. Champollion-Figeac. Paris, 1842.
---- _Charles of Orleans' Poems._ Roxburgh Club. Ed. G. W. Taylor.
London, 1827.
---- Edit. by Charles d'Héricault. Paris, 1874.
Chassant, Alphonse. _L'Auteur du Livre du Roy Modus._ 1869. See
Bibliog. in 1st edit.
Chaucer, _Minor Poems_. Ed. Furnivall. 1871.
Chézelles, H. de. _Vieille Vénerie._ Paris, 1894.
_Chronique de la traïson de Richard II._ Eng. Hist. Soc. 1846.
Cla., for _Li Romans de Claris et Laris_. Ed. by Dr. Alton. 1884.
Clam. _La Chasse du Loup._ Par Jean de Clamorgan. Paris, 1566.
_Close Rolls_, for _Calendars of the Close Rolls preserved in the Pub.
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Codorniu, J. _Etude historique sur Gaston Ph[oe]bus._ Floraux, 1895.
Cogho. _Des Erstlings Geweih._ Leipzig, 1886.
Collyns, C. P. _The Chase of the Wild Red Deer._ London, 1862.
_Compleat Angler._ _See_ Walton.
_Com. Sports._, for _The Complete Sportsman_. By T. Fairfax. London.
Corneli, R. _Die Jagd._ Amsterdam, 1884.
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Cotgrave. _Dictionary._ 1679.
Cotgrave and Sherwood's _Dictionary_. 1632.
------------ 1673.
Cox, Nich. _The Gentleman's Recreation._ London, 1674.
_Cran. Ch._, for _Anecdotes and History of Cranbourne Chase_. By Wm.
Chafin. London, 1818.
Culemann, L. _Delineatio Venatus._ Hanover, 1564.
Cupples, George. _Scotch Deerhounds and their Masters._ London, 1894.
Curmer, L. _Verure de J. Foncquet._ Paris, 1866.
_Curtasye, Boke of._ Ed. by Halliwell. Percy Soc. Pub. Vol. iv.
_Cynegetica._ London, 1788.
Dalton, Michael. _The Country Justice._ 1666.
Daniel, W. B. _Rural Sports._ London, 1801.
_D. et B._, for _Daurel et Beton_. Ed. by Paul Meyer. Paris, 1880.
Dalziel, for _British Dogs_. By Hugh Dalziel. 3 vols. London, 1887-96.
_Daurel et Beton._ Ed. Paul Meyer. Paris, 1880.
Duc d'Aumale, for _Recueil de la Philobiblion Society_. Vol. ii.
London, 1855-56.
Delacourt, for _Le Chasse à la Haie_. Par Peigne Delacourt. Péronne,
1872.
Delisle, L. _Inventaire des MSS. de la Biblioth. Nationale._ Paris,
1876, &c.
De Noir., for _Histoire de la Chasse_. Par le Baron Dunoyer de
Noirmont. Paris, 1876. 3 vols.
Dillon, Viscount. _Fairholt's Costumes in England._ London, 1885.
Ditschfield, R. H. _Old English Sport._ London, 1891.
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Dolopathos, for _Li Romans de D._ Ed. by Brunet et Montaiglon. 1856.
Dombrowski, E. von. _Die Lehre von dem Zeichen._ 1836.
Dombrowski, R. von. _Allgemeine Encyklopadie der gesammter Forst und
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_Domesday Book._ By Henry Ellis (2 vols.). London, 1833.
Drake, Francis. _Eboracum._ London, 1736.
Dryden, Alice. _Memorials of Northamptonshire._ 1903.
Dryden, Sir Henry. _Twici's Art of Hunting._ Middle Hill Press. 1840.
See Bibliog. in 1st edit.
---- _Daventry._ 1843.
---- _Gaston III. Le livre de la Chasse._ Daventry, 1844.
Dudik. _Kaiser Maximilian's II. Jagdordnung._ Wien, 1867.
Du Fouil., for _La Venerie_. Par Jacques du Fouilloux. Niort, 1864.
Dugdale Bar., for _The Baronage of England_. 1675.
Eglamoure, for _The Romance of E. of Artoys_. Camden Soc. 1844.
Ellis. See _Domesday Book_.
Elyot, Sir Thomas. _The Boke named the Governour._ Ed. H. H. S. Croft.
1880.
Emmanuel John, Infant of Spain. _El libro de la Caza._ Edit. by G.
Baist. Halle, 1880.
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Leipzig, 1823.
Essenwein, Augst. _Quellen zur Geschichte der Feuerwaffen._ 1872.
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E. Helsingfors. 1867.
Evans, D. S. _An English and Welsh Dict._ 1852-58.
_Ex. Brit. An._, for _Extinct British Animals_. By J. E. Harting.
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_Excerpta Historica._ London, 1831.
Fleming, H. F. von. _Der Volkommene Teutsche Jäger._ Leipzig, 1719.
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G. de P., for _Roman de Guillaume de Palerne_. Ed. H. Michelant.
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_G. de St._, for _Gottfried von Strassburg_. Ed. by P. A. Lehmann.
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_Gentleman's Magazine._ 1752.
_Gent. Recreation_, for _Gentleman's Recreation_. By Nicholas Cox.
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Harting, James Ed. See _Bib. Accip._ and _Ex. Brit. An._
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_H. de B._, for _Huon de Bordeaux_. Ed. by F. Guessard and C.
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_Journal des Chasseurs._ Vols. 27, 28, 29, and 30. Paris.
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_La Chace dou Serf._ Edited by Baron Jerome Pichon. Paris, 1840. _See
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_Liber Niger._ _See_ Hearne.
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_Maison Rustique_, for _M. R. de Maistres C. Estienne and Iean
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