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
VELTRES, _velteres_, _veltrai_. A dog used for the chase, a hound.
Probably derived from the Gaelic words _ver_, large or long, and
_traith_, a step or course, _vertragus_ being the name by which
according to Arian, the Gauls designated a swift hound (Blanc, 52).
WANLACE. Winding in the chase (Halliwell). In the sentence in which
this word is used in the chapter on the Mastiff (p. 122) we are told
that some of these dogs "fallen to be berslettis and also to bring
well and fast a wanlace about." Which probably means that some of
these dogs become shooting dogs, and could hunt up the game to the
shooter well and fast by ranging or circling. _Wanlasour_ is an
obsolete name for one who drives game (Strat.).
In Brit. Mus. MS. Lansdowne 285 there is an interesting reference to
setting the forest "with archers or with Greyhounds or with
Wanlassours."
WILD BOAR. These animals were denizens of the British forests from the
most remote ages, and probably were still numerous there at the time
our MS. was penned. For although the Duke of York has only translated
one of the eleven chapters relating to the natural history, chase, or
capture by traps of the wild boar, and does not give us any original
remarks upon the hunting of them, as he has of the stag and the hare,
still it was most likely because he considered these two the royal
sport _par excellence_, and not because there were none to hunt in
England in his day. If the latter had been the case, he would in all
probability have omitted even the chapter he does give us, as he has
done with those written by Gaston de Foix on the deer, the reindeer,
and the ibex and chamois (p. 160).
In some doggerel verses which are prefixed to "Le venery de Twety and
Gyfford" (in Vesp. B. XII.), the wild boar is classed as a beast of
venery. In the a "Boke of St. Albans" the wild boar is also mentioned
as a beast of venery.
When Fitzstephen wrote his description of London in 1174, he says
wild boars as well as other animals frequented the forests surrounding
London, and it would certainly be a long time after this before these
animals could have been extirpated from the wild forests in more
remote parts of the country.
_Sounder_ is the technical term for a herd of wild swine. "How many
herdes be there of bestes of venery? Sire of hertis, or bisses, of
bukkes and of doos. A soundre of wylde swyne. A bevy of Roos" (Twety
and Gyfford). In the French Twici we have also _Soundre dez porcs_.
_Farrow_ (Sub.) was a term for a young pig, in Mid. Eng. _farh_,
_far_, Old Eng. _fearh_ (Strat.). Farrow (verb) was the term used when
sows gave birth to young.
G. de F. says that wild boars can wind acorns as far as a bear can (p.
58), and turning to his chapter on bears, we find that he says that
bears will wind a feeding of acorns six leagues off!
_Routing_ or rooting. A wild boar is said to root when he is feeding
on ferns or roots (Turb., pp. 153, 154).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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