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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 tinèd 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 Montería, 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 Phœnicians 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 Phœbus, 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 Phœbus 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 —

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 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 esloinhés"). 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 youe at thys tyme but … more ovr I entende to kepe my gresse tyme in yat countre, where fore I wolle yat no mane huntte tylle 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,