xl viii THE MASTER OF GAME

The sheriff of each county where the forests and parks were situated was comm
huntsmen’s wages as well as to defray the keep of the hounds.
with salt and barrels for the venison, and usually also had to pro
the royal residence for which it was destined. W
down to Henry tv. numerous instances of the K
venison. (See Appendix: Hunt Officials.)

In the fifteenth century game was becoming scarcer, civil strife

anded to pay the
He had, further, to furnish them
vide the carriage of the same to
e find in the public records from King John
ing’s huntsmen thus acting as purveyors of

pose ; and the wars with France
mulitating against such large outlays being made for the hunting establishments, and we find less

about such frequent hunting expeditions to distant forests, althou
and Henry vu. we hear of hounds travelling lo
in covered carts.

The sport described in the last chapter of the Master of Game of “the ordinance and
manner of hunting when the King would hunt in the forest or in the park for ye hart with bows
and grey hounds and stable,” more resembled the German drives within enclosures of stretched
canvas, “‘ Lappen” or Sewells, pailings or stations of huntsmen and hounds placed at short distances
from one another taking the place of nets or other boundaries. This was a kindred sport to that of
our Saxon forefathers when hunting with the aid of hayes. (See Appendix : Snares.)

In the reign of Henry vit. we find the ideas on sport have undergone a change. It is no
longer hunter's craft or woodcraft that is held up as the ideal. Sir Thomas Eliot, writing in 1531,
speaks of the chase as a means of obtaining exercise and showing prowess, and he recommends a
reward at the close of the day’s sport that would undoubtedly be most distasteful to any Englishman
of the present day. ‘‘In the hunting of redde dere and fallow, mought be a great parte of semblable
exercise used by noble men specially in forestis which be spaciouse if they wolde use but fewe
nombre of houndes onely to harborowe or rouse the game, and by their yorning to gyue knowledge
whiche way it fleeth, the remnant of the disporte to be pursuying with javelins and other waipons
in manner of warre. And to them which in this hunting do shewe most prowesse and actiyuytie, a
garland or some other lyke token to be gyen in signe of victorie and with a joyfull maner to be
broughte in the presence of him that is chiefe in the company then to receive condigne prayse for
their good endeavour.” (‘The Boke named the Governour,” i. 143.)

gh even as late as Henry vu.
ng distances, and being taken to their destination

This is indeed far removed from the spirit which animated the early Norman veneurs !

In Queen Elizabeth’s day and after we read little of the great stag being harboured in his
forest haunts, but being seen in the park herd he was singled out by means of hounds, who “ teased
him forth,” or even by a sportsman on horseback riding after him, and thus severing him from the
herd. Coursing and shooting within parks was the most favoured sport in this Queen’s reign, and
wild-deer hunting was completely neglected, at least at Court.

It is true that in the “ Arte of Venerie or Hunting,” supposed to have been compiled by George
Turbervile in 1575-6, we have many chapters devoted to stag-hunting, but these were taken bodily
from one of the greatest of the old French classics on the subject, z.e., Jacques Du Fouilloux’s
Venerie, and the translator’s only original account of sport is that of coursing, which he declares
we in England held in higher estimation than was accorded to it in France.

In the beginning of the seventeenth century sportsmen galloped after the deer in parks, sword
in hand, or sometimes even with lassoes tried to capture the stag with the largest antlers (Memoires
de Vieilleville, vol. i.).

James 1., it is true, tried to resuscitate the ancient art of venery, and caused French masters in
the art to be sent to him by Henry tv. of France for this purpose. In the chase of at least one
beast of venery, z.e., the hare, the Frenchmen found that they could learn more from the English
than they could teach them (de Noirmont ii. 380). But stags no longer tenanted our forest in
large numbers, game was getting scarce, and in spite of yearly importation of stags and hinds from
France under James 1., the conditions had passed away under which large herds of wild red deer
could exist in England.

But we have wandered more than two centuries from the time at which our “ Master of the

G IN THE MIDDLE AGES xlix

eady laid for the coursing, shooting and
d that had been allowed to be imparked
had not the right to hunt in

ENGLISH HUNTIN

n, although the seeds were then alr

n
stabbing of deer in parks, first by the large amount of la
5

1 hey
e sport as above described, when t :
ee eae the large royal drives, as described by the Duke 0

and that this sport was viewed with
therein to be found

Game” was writte

wherein the o
the adjoining forests or chases. ee,
York, were the precursors of those that Queen : ie aaa
favour at Court we can well fancy, for as Turbervile rem

without unmeasurable toyle and payne ” (p. 250).

g d ed oO such a d

I 1s rage for coursing nd shooting never obtain t ;
g a

por oO wil 1-¢ eer Nt nting. One oeneration of huntsmen a

loyed the same terms and the same ceremonials for gues ~ ie
That the face of the country ridden over was changing
that the hounds became faster, and that lime
altered none of the principles of the sport,
f our Norman venery from studying the old
than we can by contemplating the

egree in France, ee it i
ter anothe
there succeed in ousting the s
studied Zart de venerie, and emp
with but slight and immaterial alterations. Pat
by the disappearance of some of the immense ae :
hounds no longer started the stag, were changes tha

and it is for this reason that we can get a eae idea o a
French works on hunting, and even their present methoas, t
rt of English Courts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. ; ad AD Farah,
- 5 hi ‘od we have but the scantiest literature relating to hunting in Eng 5 f
Previous to this peri _ ae ee
lance at the Bibliography at the end of this volume will show ; 1n ay ere oO aera
aa c ans oO
‘  wici and the Boke of 5t. 2
i 4 f the fourteenth century, a
treatises, one by Twici 0 ees
quarter of the fifteenth century, neither of which throw nearly as much light on our sub)

- ya ta
iG VI Bid WwW h has been trea ed a } e centuries with S ich comp te negl Cc
he aster of Game, hic a e€ eatec nese le ect, no

gle printer or publisher deeming it worthy of type.

sip . . .
More details on ancient venery will be found in the Appendices.