winter, "but in harueste tyme many comyth and haunteth the vynyerde." Of the delicious smell of a vineyard. Of the damage done by foxes and swine and "tame hounds." "A few hounds," Bartholomew tells us, "wasten and dystroye moo grapes that cometh and eteth therof theuylly [thievishly]." "A vineyard," he concludes, "maye not be kepte nother sauyd but by his socour and helpe that all thynge hath and possesseth in his power and myghte. And kepyth and sauyth all lordly and myghtily." And is there any other writer who in so few words tells us of the woods in those days? Of the "beestis and foulis" therein as well as the herbs, of the woods in summer-time, of the hunting therein, of the robbers and the difficulty of finding one's way? Of the birds and the bees and the wild honey and the delicious coolness of the deep shade in summer, and the "wery wayfarynge trauelynge men"? And the final brief suggestion of the time when forests were veritable boundaries? I believe also that this is the only book in which we are told of the interesting old custom of tying knots to the trees "in token and marke of ye highe waye," and of robbers deliberately removing them. The picture is so perfect that I give it in full:-- "Woods ben wide places wast and desolate y{t} many trees growe in w{t}oute fruyte and also few hauyinge fruyte. And those trees whyche ben bareyne and beereth noo manere fruyte alwaye ben generally more and hygher than̄e y{t} wyth fruyte, fewe out taken as Oke and Beche. In thyse wodes ben ofte wylde beestes and foulis. Therein growyth herbes, grasse, lees and pasture, and namely medycynall herbes in wodes foūde. In somer wodes ben bewtyed [beautied] wyth bowes and braunches, w{t} herbes and grasse. In wode is place of disceyte [deceit] and of huntynge. For therin wylde beest ben hunted: and watches and disceytes [deceits] ben ordenyd and lette of houndes and of hunters. There is place of hidynge and of lurkyng. For ofte in wodes theuys ben hyd, and oft in their awaytes and disceytes passyng men cometh and ben spoylled and robbed and ofte slayne. And soo for many and dyuerse wayes and uncerten strange men ofte erre and goo out of the waye. And take uncerten waye and the waye that is unknowen before the waye that is knowen and come oft to the place these theues lye in awayte and not wythout peryll. Therefore ben ofte knottes made on trees and in busshes in bowes and in braunches of trees; in token and marke of ye highe waye; to shewe the certen and sure waye to wayefareynge men. But oft theuys in tornynge and metyng of wayes chaunge suche knottes and signes and begyle many men and brynge them out of the ryght waye by false tokens and sygnes. Byrdes, foules and bein [bees] fleeth to wode, byrdes to make nestes and bein [bees] to gadre hony. Byrdes to kepe themself from foulers and bein [bees] to hyde