Vill INTRODUCTION

illuminated, and MS. f. fr. 616, which is the copy from which our photogravure reproductions
are made, is not only the best of them, but is one of the most precious treasures of the
Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. ‘The superb miniatures are unquestionably some of the finest
handiwork ‘of French miniaturists at a period when they occupied the first rank in the
world of art. The history of this particular MS. is, as will be seen further on, a most
romantic one.

There are appended biographical accounts of our Plantagenet author and of the mighty
French Nimrod from whose writings he borrowed so much. Both personalities are of
singular historical interest. There is also added a detailed account of the English and French
MSS. of our work, as well as notes elucidating ancient hunting customs and terms of the
chase, a bibliography and a glossary, the result of investigations carried on in the principal
libraries and archives of Europe for more than ten years. Ancient terms of Venery often
bafHle every attempt of the student who is not intimately acquainted with the French and
German literature of hunting. On one occasion I appealed in vain to Professor Max Miiller
and to the learned Editor of the Oxford Dictionary. “I regret to say that I know nothing
about these words,” wrote Dr. Murray; “terms of the chase are among the most difficult
of words, and their investigation demands a great deal of philological and antiquarian research.”
There is little doubt that but for this difficulty the “ Master of Game ” would long ago
have emerged from its seclusion of almost five hundred years. It is hoped that our notes
will assist the reader to enjoy this hitherto neglected classic of English sport. Singularly
enough, as one is almost ashamed to have to acknowledge, foreign students, particularly
Germans, have paid far more attention to the “‘ Master of Game” than English students have,
and there are few manuscripts of any importance about which English writers have made
so many mistakes. et =

In conclusion, I desire to express my thanks to the authorities of the British Museum—
to Dr. G. F. Warner and Mr. I. H. Jeayes in particular,—to the heads of the Bodleian
Library, the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Mazarin and the Arsenal Libraries in Paris, the
Duc d’Aumale’s Library at Chantilly, the Bibliotheque Royale at Brussels, the Kénigliche
Bibliotheken in Munich and Dresden, the Kaiserliche und Kénigliche Haus, Hof and Staats Archit,
and the K. and K. Hof Bibliothek in Wienma, ti Ire, 1 So Furnivall, IV Itreaue ous Harting,
Mr. T. FitzRoy Fenwick of Cheltenham, and to express my indebtedness to the late Sir

Henry Dryden, Bt., of Canons Ashby, for his kind assistance in my research work.

To one person more than to any other my grateful acknowledgment is due, namely to

Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, who, notwithstanding the press of

official duties, has found time to write the interesting Foreword. A conscientious historian
t sportsmen, President Roosevelt's

of his own great country, as well as one of its keenes
qualifications for this kindly office may be described as those of a modern Master of Game.

No more competent writer could have been selected to introduce to his countrymen a
work that illustrates the spirit which animated our common forbears five centuries ago,
their characteristic devotion to the chase, no less than their intimate acquaintance with
the habits and “nature” of the wild game they pursued: all attributes worthy of some
study by the reading sportsmen of the twentieth century, who, as I show, have ae
neglected the study of English Venery. It was at first intended to print this Foreword only
in the American Edition, but it soon became evident that this would give to it an advantage

which readers in this country would have some reason to complain of, so it was inserted also

ee a ee W. A. Battiie-GROHMAN.

FOREWORD

URING the century that has just closed Englishmen have stood foremost in all
branches of sport, at least so far as the chase has been carried on by those
who have not followed it as a profession. Here and there in the world
whole populations have remained hunters, to whom the chase was part of

their regular work — delightful and adventurous, but still work. Such were the
American backwoodsmen and their successors of the great plains and the Rocky
Mountains; such were the South African Boers; and the mountaineers of Tyrol, if not
coming exactly within this class, yet treated the chase both as a sport and a profession.
But disregarding these wild and virile populations, and considering only the hunter who
hunts for the sake of the hunting, it must be said of the Englishman that he stood pre-
eminent throughout the nineteenth century as a sportsman for sport’s sake. Not only was
fox-hunting a national pastime, but in every quarter of the globe Englishmen predominated
among the adventurous spirits who combined the chase of big game with bold exploration
of the unknown. The icy polar seas, the steaming equatorial forests, the waterless tropical
deserts, the vast plains of wind-rippled grass, the wooded northern wilderness, the
stupendous mountain masses of the Andes and the Himalayas—in short, all regions,
however frowning and desolate, were penetrated by the restless English in their eager
quest for big games Not content with the sport afforded by the rifle, whether ahorse or
ee ie aan es ae of ie spear and in Ceylon the use of the
hee eae cis to assail the dangerous query of the jungle
Pate oe ee other nationalities, of CO oe recalls Germans,
Pea ee most numerous of Soe whose exploits were best
ee i re 7 ee a larger proportion of en gifted with the
hi teens oa eee deen a library of nineteenth-century
Suit ae preceding es From the Middle Ages to
re unting was carried on with Keene zest in continental
g : he literature of the chase was far richer in the French, and

even in the German, tongues than in the English ;

The Romans, unlike the Greek :

sie nem ee ieee pe 8, ee still more unlike those mighty hunters of old,
basbatian ante Bee Cae ee i. = ee the white-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed
sprang modern Europe, were passion a we a ee ee
ee a ul ed evoted to hunting. _Game of many kinds then
8 overed so large a portion of Europe. The kings

and nobles, and the fr
eemen generall f i 1
generally, of the regions which now 1 aie
Germany, followed not only the wolf, boar, and sta i ee
; and s

the hunter of the Middle Ag g—the last named the favourite quarry of

es—bu i i ill li
t the bear, the bison—which still lingers in the Caucasus

b