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
Furthermore ye should know a great hart by the fraying (for if ye find
where the hart hath frayed),[178] and see that the wood is great where
he hath frayed, and he hath not bent it, and the tree is frayed well
high, and he hath frayed the bark away, and broken the branches and
wreathed them a good height, and if the branches are of a good size,
it is a sign that he is a great hart and that he should bear a high
head and well troched, for by the troching[179] he breaketh such high
the boughs that he cannot fold them under him. For if the fraying were
bare and he had frayed the boughs under him, it is no token that it be
a great hart, and especially if the trees where he had frayed were
small. Nevertheless men have seen some great deer fray sometimes to a
little tree, but not commonly, but a young deer shall ever more[180]
fray to a great tree, and therefore should ye look at several
frayings. And if ye see the aforesaid tokens oftener upon the great
trees than upon the small ye may deem him a great hart. And if the
frayings be continually in small trees and low, he is not chaceable
and should be refused. Also ye may know a great hart by his lairs.
When a great hart shall come in the morning from his pasture, he shall
go to his lair and then a great while after he shall rise and go
elsewhere there where he would abide all the day. Then when ye shall
rise and come to the lair there where the hart hath lain and rested,
if ye see it great and broad and well trodden and the grass well
pressed down, and at the rising when he passeth out of his lair, if ye
see that the foot and the knees have well thrust down the earth and
pressed the grass down it is a token that it is a great deer and a
heavy (one). And if at the rising he make no such tokens, because that
he hath been there but a little while, so that his lair be long and
broad ye may deem him a hart chaceable. Also ye may know a great hart
by the bearing of the wood, for when a great hart hath a high head and
a large (one) and goeth through a thick wood, he findeth the young
wood and tender boughs, his head is harder than the wood, then he
breaketh the wood aside and mingleth the boughs one upon the other,
for he beareth them and putteth them otherwise than they were wont to
be by their own kind. And when the glades of the woods are high and
broad then he may deem him a great hart, for if he had not a high head
and wide he could not make his ways high and large. If it happen so
that ye find such glades and have no lymer with you, if ye will know
at what time this glade was made, ye must set your visage in the
middle of this glade, and keep your breath, in the best wise that ye
may, and if ye find that the spider hath made her web in the middle of
them, it is a token that it is of no good time[181] or at the least it
is of the middle (of the noon) of the day before. Nevertheless ye
should fetch your lymer for so ye should know better. Also ye may know
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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