The Master of Game: The Oldest English Book on HuntingEdward, of Norwich
History
The Master of Game: The Oldest English Book on Hunting
Edward, of Norwich
Hunting -- Early works to 1800
fee, and have it at the curée, but let him beware that he marks no
lord's mark nor_ (other) _fewterers nor hunters, or he will lose his
fee. And also it is to be known that the fees of all follies belong to
the master of the harriers, if so be that he or his deputy be at the
hunting, and blow three motes and else not, in which case the Master
of the Game can give it to whom he wishes save what the King slayeth
with his bow or the Queen or my lord the prince, or that which they
bid with their own mouth to let run to. And all shall be judged folly
of red deer which is beneath the hart, and of fallow deer which is
beneath the buck, nevertheless if the harrier would challenge the deer
for folly, and it is not folly, if there be a strife with him who
asketh the fee, the Master of the Game shall judge it, and right so
shall he do of all these strifes for fees between bow and bow, and
fewterer and fewterer, and of all other strifes and discords that
belong to hunting. And when all the deer be delivered, and the hunters
and the fewterers of the kennel be assigned to undo the deer that be
delivered for the king's larder, then should the grooms chacechiens of
the hart-hounds gather the paunches and small guts together and do
with them as is advised in the chapter of the hart hunting with
strength, and get them a skin to lie thereover, and do as in the same
chapter described with the greatest and best head_ (antlers) _that
they can find in all the curée. Save the blowing of the prise and the
stroking and the menee, the bay should wait till the curées be done,
and the flesh taken away, and there should the Master of the Game be,
and the sergeant and all the yeomen and grooms of the office. And if
the greyhounds[246] shall be rewarded it should be done right as is
devised in the aforesaid chapter, except that the blowings above
described shall be left out. And also whosoever slew the deer the
yeomen of the office should have the skin that lyeth upon the deer
when the hounds are rewarded. And also it is to know that the harriers
when they have run shall be rewarded with the paunches and guts, but
there is no need to make a long bay with the hart's head to them, for
they are made to run and chase all game that one wishes, and that is
the cause why the master of them has the fees of all deer save the
hart and the buck, unless it be in the certain case before mentioned.
And when the curée is done, and the bay made, then is the time for
every man to draw homeward to his supper and to make himself as merry
as he can. And when the yeomen berners and grooms have led home the
hounds and set them well up and supplied them with water and straw
according to what they need, then should they go to their supper and
drink well and make merry. And of the fees it is to be known that the
man whoever he be, who has smitten a deer while posted at his tree
with a death-stroke so that the deer be got before the sun goes down,
he shall have the skin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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