The Master of Game: The Oldest English Book on Hunting. Edward of Norwich

9

Curée: The ceremony of giving the hounds their reward on the skin of the animal they have chased. See Appendix: Curée.

10

Gaston de Foix in the French parent work puts it even more forcefully; he says: "tout droit en paradis." See Lavallée's ed. 1854.

11

Trace the deer to its lair.

12

See Appendix: Excrements.

13

See Appendix: Relays.

14

Despatched with a sword or knife. See Appendix: Spay.

15

Gaston de Foix says: "Tant vaut seigneur tant vaut sa gent et sa terre," p. 9.

16

The hare was frequently spoken of in two genders in the same sentence, for it was an old belief that the hare was at one time male, and at another female. See Appendix: Hare.

17

Means here: when the hare has arisen from her form to go to her feeding. Fr. relever. G. de F. explains, p. 42: un lievre se reliève pour aler à son vianders. Relief, which denoted the act of arising and going to feed, became afterwards the term for the feeding itself. "A hare hath greater scent and is more eagerly hunted when she relieves on green corn" (Comp. Sportsman, p. 86). It possibly was used later to denote the excrements of a hare; thus Blome (1686) p. 92, says: "A huntsman may judge by the relief and feed of the hare what she is."

18

Casting her excrements.

19

A mistake of the old scribes which occurs also in other MSS.; it should, of course, read "seventh" year. G. de F. has the correct version.

20

G. de F. says: "She hears well but has bad sight," p. 43.

21

"Fear to run" is a mistake occasioned by the similarity of the two old French words "pouair," power, and "paour" or fear. In those of the original French MS. of G. de F. examined by us it is certainly " power" and not "fear." Lavallée in his introduction says the same thing. See Appendix: Hare.

22

See Appendix: Hare.

23

G. de F. has: "vonts riotans tournions et demourant," i. e. run rioting, turning and stopping, p. 44.

24

Both the Vespasian and the Shirley MS. in the British Museum have the same, but G. de F., p. 45, has, "except those of their nature" (fors que celle de leur nature).

25

This is incorrect: the hare carries her young thirty days (Brehm, vol. ii. p.626; Harting, Ency. of Sport, vol. i. p. 504).

26

Should read "three" (G. de F., p.47).

27

See Appendix: Snares.

28

September 14. See Appendix: Hart, Seasons.

29

An engine of war used for throwing stones.

30

G. de F., p. 12. "Ainsi que fet un homme bien amoureus" ("As does a man much in love)."

31

This word ligging is still in use in Yorkshire, meaning lair, or bed, or resting-place. In Devonshire it is spelt "layer." Fortescue, p. 132.

32

G. de F., p. 12, has "limer" instead of "greyhound."

33

This passage is confused. In G. de F., p. 12, we find that the passage runs: "Et aussi il y a ruyt en divers lieux de la forest et on paix ne peut estre en nul lieu, fors que dedans le part." Lavallée translates these last five words, "C'est à dire qu'il n'y a de paix que lorsque les biches sont pleines." In the exceedingly faulty first edition by Verard, the word "part" is printed "parc," as it is in our MS.

34

G. de F., p. 14, says the harts go to gravel-pits and bogs to fray.

35

The MS. transcriber's mistake. It should be "cow."

36

G. de F. has "2 calves" as it should be.

37

G. de F. has "greyhound," as it should be (p. 15): "Et dès lors vont ils jà si tost que un levrier a assés à fere de l'ateindre, ainsi comme un trait d'arcbaleste" ("And from that time they go so quickly that a greyhound has as much to do to catch him as he would the bolt from a crossbow)."

38

Well proportioned. See Appendix: Antler.

39

Shirley MS. has the addition here: "Which be on top."

40

In modern sporting terms, a warrantable deer.

41

See Appendix: Curée.

42

Should be: venison.

43

Harness, appurtenances. See Appendix: Harness.

44

Means from a cross-bow or long-bow.

45

Go off the scent.

46

This should read as G. de F. has it (p. 20): "Et aussi affin que les chiens ne puissent bien assentir de luy, quar ilz auront la Cueue au vent et non pas le nez" ("And also that the hounds shall not be able to wind him, as they will have their tails in the wind and not their noses").

47

Ponds, pools. See Appendix: Stankes.

48

G. de F., p. 21: "Et s'il fuit de fort longe aux chiens, c'est à dire que il les ait bien esloinhés." See Appendix: "Forlonge."

49

Most old writers on the natural history of deer repeat this fable. See Appendix: Hart.

50

See Appendix: Hart.

51

Nativity of St. John the Baptist, June 24.

52

See Appendix: Grease.

53

This sentence reads somewhat confusedly in our MS., so I have taken this rendering straight from G. de F., p. 23.

54

They do not make such a long flight as the red deer but by ringing return to the hounds.

55

G. de F., p. 29, completes the sense of this sentence by saying that "the flesh of the buck is more savoury to all hounds than that of the stag or of the roe, and for this reason it is a bad change to hunt the stag with hounds which at some other time have eaten buck."

56

This is wrong; they rut in the beginning of August. See Appendix: Roe.

57

A clerical error. G. de F. (p. 36) says, "as do birds," which makes good sense.

58

See Appendix: Grease.

59

"They ring about in their own country, and often bound back to the hounds" would be a better translation.

60

From the French durer, to last.

61

G. de F. says "acorns."

62

Middle English ars, hinder parts called target of roebuck.

63

From the old French pomelé.

64

See Appendix: Roe.

65

See Appendix: Hardel.

66

In spite of the boar being such a dangerous animal a wound from his tusk was not considered so fatal as one from the antlers of a stag. An old fourteenth-century saying was: "Pour le sanglier faut le mire, mais pour le cerf convient la bière."

67

Proud. G. de F., p. 56, orguilleuse. G. de F., p. 57, says after this that he has often himself been thrown to the ground, he with his courser, by a wild boar and the courser killed ("et moy meismes a il porté moult des à terre moy et mon coursier, et mort le coursier").

68

Brimming.