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
and of the wolf also they call traces _beyond the sea_. And that of
the stinking beasts that men call vermin, he shall call them steps as
I have said. And if he hath seen a hart with his eyes, there are three
kinds of hues of them, that one is called brown, the other yellow, and
the third dun, and so he may call them as he thinketh that they
beareth all their hues. And if men ask what head beareth the hart he
hath seen, he shall always answer by even and not by odd, _for if he
be forked on the right side, and lack not of his rights[185] beneath,
and on the right[186] side antler and royal and surroyal and not
forked but only the beam, he shall say it is a hart of ten at
default_,[187] for it is always called even of the greater number. And
every buck's tines should be reckoned as soon as a man can hang a
baldric or a leash[188] thereupon and not otherwise. And when a hart
beareth as many tines on the one side as on the other, _he may say if
he be but forked that he is a hart of ten, and if he be troched of
three he is a hart of twelve, if he be troched of four he is a hart of
sixteen, always if it be seen that he hath his rights beneath as
before is said. And if he lack any of his rights beneath he must_
_abate so many on the top, for a hart's head should begin to be
described from the mule[189] upwards, and if he hath more by two on
the one side than on the other, you must take from the one and count
up that other withal, as I shall more clearly speak in a chapter
hereafter in describing a hart's head._ And if it be so that the
hart's trace have other tokens than I have said and he thinks him a
hart chaceable, and men ask what hart it is he may say it is a hart of
ten and no more. And if it seem to him a great hart and men ask what
hart it is, he shall say it is a hart that the last year was of ten
and should not be refused. And if he happen to have well seen him with
his eye or the before said tokens, so that he knoweth fully that it is
as great a hart as a hart may be, if men ask him what hart it is, he
may say it is a great hart and an old deer. And that is the greatest
word that he may say as I have said before. And if men ask him whereby
he knoweth it, he may say for, he hath good bones[190] and a good
talon and a good sole of foot, _for these four[191] things makes the
trace great_, or by fair lairs or the grass or the earth well pressed
or by the high head,[192] or by the fumes or else other tokens as I
have said before. And if he see a hart that hath a well affeted
(fashioned) head after the height and the shape and the tines well
ranged by good measure, the one from the other, and men ask him what
he beareth he may answer that he beareth a great head and fair of
beam, and of all his rights, and well opened; and if a man ask him
what head he beareth, he shall answer that he beareth a fair head by
all tokens and well grown. And if he see a hart that hath a low head
or a high, or a great, or a small, and it be thick set, high and low
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