xil THE MASTER OF GAME

creatures of the forest and the mountain can best and most permanently be preserved. Even
in the United States the enactment and observance of such laws has brought about a marked
increase in the game of certain localities, as, for instance, New England, during the past
thirty years; while in the Yellowstone Park the elk, deer, antelope, and mountain sheep,
and, strangest of all, the bear, are not merely preserved in all their wild freedom, but, by
living unmolested, have grown to show a confidence in man anda tameness in his presence
such as elsewhere can be found only in regions where he has been hitherto unknown.

The chase is the best of all national pastimes, and this none the less because, like every
other pastime, it is a mere source of weakness if carried on in an unhealthy manner, or to an
excessive degree, or under over-artificial conditions. Every vigorous game, from football to
polo, if allowed to become more than a game, and if serious work is sacrificed to its enjoy-
ment, is of course noxious. From the days when Trajan in his letters to Pliny spoke with
such hearty contempt of the Greek over-devotion to athletics, every keen thinker has realised
that vigorous sports are only good in their proper place. But in their proper place they are
very good indeed. The conditions of modern life are highly artificial and too often tend to
a softening of fibre, physical and moral. It is a good thing for a man to be forced to show
self-reliance, resourcefulness in emergency, willingness to endure fatigue and hunger, and at
need to face risk. Hunting is praiseworthy very much in proportion as it tends to develop
these qualities. Mr. Baillie-Grohman, to whom most English-speaking lovers of sport owe
their chief knowledge of the feats in bygone time of the great hunters of continental Europe,
has himself followed in its most manly forms this, the manliest of sports. He has hunted
the bear, the wapiti, and the mountain ram in the wildest regions of the Rockies, and, also
by fair stalking, the chamois and the red deer in the Alps. Whoever habitually follows
mountain game in such fashion must necessarily develop qualities which it is a good thing
for any nation to see brought out in its sons. Such sport is as far removed as possible from
that in which the main object is to make huge bags at small cost of effort, and with the
maximum of ease, no good quality save marksmanship being required. Laying stress upon
the mere quantity of game killed, and the publication of the record of slaughter, are sure
signs of unhealthy decadence in sportsmanship. As far as possible the true hunter, the true
lover of big game and of life in the wilderness, must be ever ready to show his own power
to shift for himself. The greater his dependence upon others for his sport the less he
deserves to take high rank in the brotherhood of rifle, horse, and hound. ‘There was a very
attractive side to the hunting of the great medieval lords, carried on with an elaborate
equipment and stately ceremonial, especially as there was an element of danger in coming to
close quarters with the quarry at bay ; but after all, no form of hunting has ever surpassed
in attractiveness the life of the wilderness wanderer of our own time—the man who with
simple equipment, and trusting to his own qualities of head, heart and hand, has penetrated
to the uttermost regions of the earth, and single-handed slain alike the wariest and the
grimmest of the creatures of the waste.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

Tue Wuirte House,
February 15, 1904.

CONTENTS

Histroricat anp Literary Notes :—

The Authorship of “ The Master of Game
The Choice of the Manuscript of “ The Master of Game

”

”

Gaston de Foix (“Gaston Phoebus”’) and his book
The MS. 616 of “ Gaston Phoebus”

The Miniatures of MS. 616 here reproduced
English Hunting in the Middle Ages

List or SOME Books CONSULTED .

Tue Texts :
Chapter 1.
2.

AnciENT AND Mopern :—

The Prologue .

Of the hare and of her nature

Of the hart and his nature

Of the buck and of his nature

Of the roe and of his nature

Of the wild boar and of his nature

Of the wolf and of his nature

Of the fox and of his nature

Of the badger and of his nature .

Of the wild cat and its nature

The otter and his nature .

Of the manner and habits and conditions of hounds
Of sicknesses of hounds and of their corruptions
Of running hounds and of their nature

Of greyhounds and of their nature

Of alauntes and of their nature .

Of spaniels and of their nature .

Of the mastiff and of his nature

What manner and condition a good hunter should have

How the kennel for the hounds and the couples for the raches and
the ropes for the lymer should be made

How the hounds should be led out to scombre

How a hunter’s horn should be driven

How a man should lead his groom in quest for to know a hart by his trace

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