The Master of Game: The Oldest English Book on Hunting

All stags not chaseable, such as young or lean stags and hinds, were classed as folly or rascal. A young stag accompanying an old one was called his squire (F. escuyer).

Hinds also were called by different names from the first to the third year, but the "Master of Game" does not give these, nor do any of the earliest works. Manwood, Blome, and Cox give the following terms: first year, a calf; second year, a Hearse or brocket's sister; third year and ever after, a hind. A somewhat similar term was employed in France to denote a young stag between six months and a year old. Haire, also spelt her (G. de Champgrand Baudrillard), and Harpaille, was the term for a herd of young stags and hinds.

Hart's Age.– The fable that a stag can live a hundred years which the "Master of Game" repeats (p. 34) after G. de F. was not of the latter's invention, but one that had been current for many centuries before their day.

HORNS,

– When the "Master of Game" was written hunting horns were the curved primitive shape of those made from the horns of animals, and most of them probably were still made of the horns of cattle, while those used by the richer gentry and nobles were fashioned from some rarer animals' trophy, such as the ibex, or carved of ivory, and some were made of precious metal. But whether of simple horn, ivory, or of wood, they were decorated with gold or silver ferrules, rings, and mouthpieces, and some being provided with a stopper, could be converted into drinking horns. Unfortunately the "Master of Game" does not tell us the material of which horns should be made. He simply says how they should "be dryve." They were to be two spans long (1 ft. 6 in.), slightly curved so that both ends were raised from three to four fingers' breadth above the centre; the larger end or the bell was to be as wide as possible, and the mouthpiece not too small. It was waxed thickly or thinly, whichever the huntsman thought produced the best sound. What effect the wax had can scarcely be judged, but it was evidently considered an improvement, as it is stated that for foresters "mene hornes and unwexid" are good enough for them. Besides the hunter's horn five different kinds of horns are mentioned in our MS. – the bugle, great abbots, ruets, small foresters, and mean horns. The bugle was not the trumpet we now understand by that name, but a simple curved horn, most probably deriving its name from the bugle, as the wild ox was called; although Dryden says from the German word bugel, a curve or bend. Ruets may have been the name for a much curved or almost circular horn, from French rouette, small wheel. The mean horns were probably the medium-sized, shrill-sounding horns made out of wood or bark, known as ménuels, menuiaux, moienel, menuier, &c. (Perc. 27,166 and 27,140).

A good length for a horn is mentioned as being "une paume et demie" (Perceval, 31,750). It is uncertain whether this length and that given by the "Master of Game" were measured round the inside of the bend or in a straight line between the two extremities. The famous Borstall horn, also known as Nigel's horn, is 2 feet 4 inches long on the convex and 23 inches on the concave bend; the inside measure of the bell end being 3 inches in diameter. The size of another noted horn, i. e. the Pusey horn, is 2 feet ½ inch long, the circumference at the widest end being 12 inches. The general length of these horns seems to have been somewhere between 18 inches and 2 feet. The above-mentioned specimens were horns of tenure, the first being a hunting-, the second a drinking-horn. The Borstall horn is said to have been given by Edward the Confessor to one Nigel, in reward for his killing an immense wild boar, and by this horn he and his successors for generations held lands of the crown.

The curved horn remained in fashion in England till about the latter half of the seventeenth century, then a straight one came into use about 1 ft. 6 in. to 2 ft. long, such as we see depicted in Blome. Of this shape, but a few inches shorter, is the hunting-horn still in use in England. The French hunting-horn was used in England in the eighteenth century, but did not remain long in fashion.

HUNTING CRIES,

We can see that the hunting cries and the language used in speaking to the hounds when hunting in the days of the "Master of Game" were still those brought into Britain by the Normans, and in most instances the words can actually still be recognised as French. There are only a few examples given by him as to the manner a huntsman should speak to his hounds in the stag-hunting chapters, such as: —

Ho moy, ho moy, hole, hole, hole: To encourage the limer when drawing for a stag (p. 166).

Cy va, cy va, cy va: To call the hounds when any signs of the stag were seen (p. 167).

Le douce mon amy, le douce: "Softly, my friend, softly." To the hounds when they were uncoupled near to where the stag was supposed to be lying.

Sto arere, so howe, so howe: "Hark back," if the hounds were on a wrong scent.

Hoo sto, ho sto, mon amy, ho sto: To harriers drawing for a stag.

Oyez, à Beaumont, oyez, assemble à Beaumont: "Hark to Beaumont, hark, get to him." To the hound of that name who picks up the right line, and to bring the other hounds to him.

It is in the hare-hunting chapter that we have more of the "fayre wordis of venery," and here, if the "Master of Game" does not slavishly copy Twici, yet he employs the same cries, with a slight difference only in orthography. The "Boke of St. Albans" has also most of the following: —

Hoo arere: "Back there." When the hounds come too hastily out of the kennel.

So moun amy atreyt: Until they come into the field; these two are not given by Twici, but the following are identical in both books: —

Hors de couple, avaunt sy avaunt, and thrice so howe: When the hounds are uncoupled.

Sa sa cy avaunt, cy sa avaunt, sa cy avaunt (avaunt, sire, avaunt, in Twici): Forward, sir, forward.

Here how, amy, how amy, and Swef, mon amy, swef: "Gently, my friend, gently" (swef, from Latin swavis), when the hounds draw too fast from the huntsman.

Oyez, à Beaumont (in Twici: Oyez, a Beaumont le vaillaunt que il quide trover le coward od la courte cowe): "Hark to Beaumont the valiant, who thinks to find the coward with the short tail."

La douce, la il ad este sohowe: "Softly, there – here he has been," if the place where the hare has pastured is seen.

Illoeques, illoeques: "Here, here," if the hounds hunt well on the line (see Appendix: Illoeques).

Ha sy toutz, cy est il venuz arere, so howe. Sa cy a este so howe. Sa cy avaunt: "Here, he has gone back. Here he has been. Forward there." When the hare has doubled.

La douce amy, il est venuz illoeques, sohowe: "Softly, friend, he is here." When the hounds hunt well in fields or arable land.

La douce, amy, la est il venuz (pur lue segere sohow): "Softly, friend, here he has come to seat himself" (Mid. Eng., sege– a seat. Latin, sedere).

La douce, amy, la il est venuz (pur meyndir): "Here he has been to feed" (meyndir, from Latin manducare, mandere).

The bracketed part of the last two cries are given in the MS. of Twety and Gyff., and the following are only in the "Master of Game": —

Le valliant oyez, oyez who bo bowe, and then, Avaunt, assemble, assemble, war war, a ha war, for running riot. How assamy assamy so arere so howe bloues acoupler. On seeing the pricking or footing of the hare: Le voye, le voye ("The view, the view").

In France, Tallyho, or a very similar sounding word, was employed in the early days when the huntsman was sure that the right stag had gone away, whether he only knew it by his slot, &c., or whether he had viewed him.

It was also a call to bring up the hounds when the stag had gone away, and at the end of the curée, when the huntsman held part of the entrails of the deer on a large wooden fork, and the hounds bayed it (which was called the forhu), the huntsman called out Tallyho.

We only find Tallyho in comparatively recent English hunting literature and songs – never, so far as I am aware, before the late seventeenth century, and it does not occur at all constantly until the eighteenth century. Neither Turbervile nor Blome nor Cox, in their books on the various chases, mention such a word, though we find instruction to the huntsman to say "Hark to him," "Hark forward," "Hark back," and "To him, to him"; besides the inevitable "So how sohow." Neither in Twici, "Master of Game," "Boke of St. Albans," Chaucer, or Shakespeare can we find an invigorating Tallyho. It would almost appear as if it were a seventeenth century importation from across the Channel, which is quite possible, for Henry IV. of France sent in that century three of his best huntsmen, Desprez, de Beaumont, and de Saint-Ravy, to the Court of King James I. to teach the royal huntsmen how to hunt the stag in the French way, English Court hunting having degenerated into coursing of stags within the park palings.

Taïaut in France was used solely in the chase of red, fallow, or roe deer.

HUNTING MUSIC,

In the "Master of Game," as in all the earliest hunting literature, much importance is placed on the huntsman's sounding his horn in the proper manner in order, as Twici says, that "Each man who is around you, who understands Hunting, can know in which point you are in your sport by your blowing." The author of "Master of Game" (p. 170) says he will give us "a chapter which is all of blowing," but he omitted to fulfil this promise, so that we have only such information as we can gather in his chapters on stag and hare-hunting. The differences in the signals were occasioned by the length of the sound or note, and the intervals between each. Twici expresses these notes in syllables, such as trout, trout, trourourout. The first of these would be single notes, with an interval between them, blown probably with a separate breath or wind for each; the latter would be three notes blown without interval and with a single breath or wind. The principal sounds on the hunting horn were named as follows: —

A Moot or Mote, a single note, which might be sounded long or short.

A Recheat. To recheat, Twici says, "blow in this manner, trourourourout, trourourourout, trourourourout," therefore a four-syllabled sound succeeded by an interval, blown three times. In the "Master of Game" we find the recheat preceded or followed by a moot, the most constantly recurring melody. When the limer has moved the stag, and the huntsman sees him go away, he was to blow a moot and recheat. If the stag is moved but not viewed, and the huntsman knows only by the slot that it is his stag that has gone away, he is to recheat without the moot, for that was only to be blown when the stag was seen. When the hounds are at fault and any one finds the slot of the deer, he should recheat "in the rightes and blow a long moot for the lymerer," or if he thinks he sees the hunted stag, he should blow a moot and recheat, and after that blow two moots for the hounds.

The Forlonge. A signal that the stag had got away far ahead of the hounds or that these had distanced some or all of the huntsmen (see Appendix: Forlonge).

The Perfect or Parfit. Twici says it began by "a moot and then trourourout, trout, trout, trourourout, trourourout, trourourout, trout, trout, trourourourout," "and then to commence by another moot again, and so you ought to blow three times. And to commence by a moot and to finish by a moot." This was only blown when the hounds were hunting the right line (see Appendix: Parfet).

The Prise. Twici says, blow four moots for the taking of the deer. According to the "Master of Game," "the prise or coupling up" was to be blown by the chief personage of the hunt only, after the quarry. It was only blown when the deer had been slain by strength, or hunted, and not when shot or coursed. He was to blow four moots, wait a short interval (half an Ave Maria), and blow another four notes a little longer than the first four.

The Menée. Twici says the Menée should only be blown for the hart, the boar, the wolf, and the male wolf, but he does not give us any analysis of this melody. In the "Master of Game" we are told that the Menée was blown at the hall-door on the return of the huntsmen. The Master first blew four moots alone, then at the end of the four moots the others joined him in blowing, and they all continued keeping time together (see Appendix: Menée).

The Mort or Death was another sound of the horn, but we have no description of the notes. Perhaps it is synonymous with the Prise.

The Stroke must have been another grouping of short and long notes, but of this we have no record.

Hardouin de Fontaines Guerin wrote a poem on the chase chiefly concerning the different manners of blowing such as obtained in his native country the provinces of Anjou and Maine. The poem was illustrated with fourteen miniatures showing the notes to be blown on as many different occasions during stag-hunting.

The notes are written in little squares: □ denoting a long note; ■ a short note; □□ a note of two long syllables; ■■ a note of two short syllables; ■□□ a note of one short and two long syllables; and ■□□■■ a note of one short, two long, and two short syllables. Of these six notes combinations were made for all the signals to be blown.

ILLOEQUES,

"here in this place," from the L. illo loco. Sometimes it is spelt illecques, iluec, illosques, &c. It is constantly met with in Anglo-Norman, and the Provence dialects (Botman, pp. 90, 242; T. M., pp. 31, 93, 142; Roy Modus, lxix.; and in the will of the Duke of York, Nichols). It has been suggested that it is the origin of the familiar yoicks. In the "Boke of St. Albans" in the verses on hare-hunting it also occurs.

JOPEYE,

synonymous with jupper, which, according to Cotgrave, is an old word signifying "to whoot, showt, crie out alowd." The French word juper, jupper, also spelt joppeir, had the same meaning, and we find it employed in the "Chace dou cerf" for a halloa in hunting in a similar way to jopeye in our text:

"Et puis juppe ou corne i. lonc motChaucuns en a joie qui l'ot."

In the sense it is used in our "Master of Game" (p. 185) it means to halloa to the hounds, to encourage them with the voice.

KENETTES,

small hounds. Kenet is a diminutive form of the Norman-French kenet, and the O. F. chen, cienetes, chenet, a dog: i veneour a ii cienetes, Ne mie grans mais petitetes, Et plus blans que n'est flors d'espine (Percival, 22,895). Derived from the Latin canis (see Appendix: Harriers).

LIGGING,

a bed, a resting-place, a lair. From O. Eng. licgan, licgean, Goth. ligan, lie, lie down. The ligging of the hart was what we now call his lair, spelt also layer. In our MS. it is used for the dwelling of a wild cat (p. 71).

This old expression is not entirely obsolete, but can be heard still among the country people of the northern counties of England.

LIMER,

lymer; the name given to a scenting-hound which was held in a liam or leash whilst tracking the game. Limers never were any distinct breed of hounds, but, of course, some breeds produced better limers than others (De Noirmont, vol. ii. p. 350).

A dog used as a limer had to be keen on the scent, staunch on the line, not too fast, and was taught to run mute, for if the exact whereabouts of any game had to be discovered, it would have been impossible, if the hound gave tongue or challenged while on the scent. A likely hound was chosen from the kennel at an early age, G. de F. says at a year old (p. 157), and from that time accompanied his master, sleeping in his room, and being taught to obey him. He was continually taken out by his master with collar and liam and encouraged to follow the scent of hinds and of stags and other beasts, and punished should he venture to acknowledge the scent of any animal he was not being entered to, or should he open on finding or following the line.

In England as well as on the Continent the huntsman went out in the early morning to track the game to be hunted to its lair, or den, before the pack and huntsmen came into the field. Deer, wild boar, bear and wolves were thus harboured by means of a limer. Twici makes the apprentice huntsman ask: "Now I wish to know how many of the beasts are moved by the lymer, and how many of the beasts are found by braches? – Sir, all those which are chased are moved by a lymer, and all those which are hunted up (enquillez) are found by the braches" (Twici, p. 12; see Appendix: Acquillez).

Limers were not only employed when a warrantable stag was to be hunted by hounds, but a huntsman going out with his bow or cross-bow would have his brachet on a liam and let him hunt up the quarry he wished to shoot (see Appendix: Bercelet). Also, the day before one of the large battues for big game, the limers would be taken out to ascertain what game there was in the district to be driven.

A liam, lyome, or lyame, was a rope made of silk or leather by which hounds were led, from O. F. liamen, a strap or line, Latin ligamen. This strap was fastened to the collar by a swivel, and both collar and liams were often very gorgeous. We read of "A lyame of white silk with collar of white vellat embrawdered with perles, the swivell of silver." "Dog collors of crymson vellat with VI lyhams of white leather." "A lieme of grene and white silke." "Three lyames and colors with tirrett of silver and quilt" (Madden, "Expenses of Princess Mary").

A hound was said to carry his liam well when he just kept it at proper tension, not straining it, for that would show that he was of too eager temperament, and likely to overshoot the line; if he trailed his liam on the ground, it showed that he was slack or unwilling (D'Yauville).

As soon as the stag was "moved" the limer's work was over, but only for the time being; his master led him away, the other hounds were uncoupled, and the harbourer, mounting his horse and keeping his limer with him, rode as close to the chase as he could, skirting below the wind and being careful not to cross the line, but managing to be at hand in case the stag should run in company or give the hounds the change. In this case the huntsman had to check the hounds, and wait for the harbourer and limer to come up and unravel the change, and put the pack on the right scent once more.

The method of starting the stag with a limer was not done away with in France until the eighteenth century, although in Normandy a change had been made previously, and probably in England also. For our author says that some sportsmen even in his time, when impatient, would uncouple a few of the hounds in the covert, before the stag had been properly started by the limer, which practice he, however, was not in favour of except under the conditions he mentions.

This uncoupling of a few older hounds in covert to start the deer, coupling them again as soon as the deer was on foot, was later called tufting, and is still customary in Devon and Somerset.

The limer was not rewarded with the other hounds; he received his reward from the hands of his master before or after the other hounds, and after he had bayed the head of the stag.

When not quoting or translating the old text the more modern spelling of limer has been used.

MADNESS,

Old Eng. and Mid. Eng. Woodness, wodnesse, and wodnyss; mad, wode. The seven different sorts of madnesses spoken of by the "Master of Game" are also mentioned in nearly all subsequent works on old hunting dealing with "sicknesses of hounds." They are the hot burning madness, running madness, dumb madness, lank madness, rheumatic madness or slavering madness, falling madness, sleeping madness.

These are mentioned in Roy Modus, and the cure for rabies, of taking the afflicted dog to the sea and letting nine waves wash over him, as well as the cock cure mentioned in our English MS., were both taken by Gaston from Roy Modus, or both derived them from some common source (Roy Modus, fol. xlv. r).

The water cure is mentioned also by Albertus Magnus (Alb. Mag., 215, a 27).

It seems likely to have been to try the efficacy of this cure that King Edward I. sent some of his hounds to Dover to bathe in the sea, the following account for which is entered in his Wardrobe Accounts:

"To John le Berner, going to Dover to bathe six braches by the King's order and for staying there for 21 days for his expense 3. 6d" (6 Edward I. Quoted from MS. Philipps, 8676).

The means of recognising rabies by a cock is also mentioned in the recipe of the eleventh century given by Avicenna (957-1037), and it appears again in Vincentius Bellovacensis and is also to be found in Alexander Neckham. Although the manner of using the cock for this purpose varies, we see by the fact of its being mentioned in different works preceding our MS. that the cock enjoyed some legendary renown for at least a couple of centuries before Gaston (Werth, p. 55).

Nowadays only two varieties of rabies are recognised: furious and dumb rabies. The numerous divisions of the old authors were based on different stages of the disease and slight variations in the symptoms.

When a dog is attacked with rabies its owner often supposes that the dog has a bone in its throat, so that a report of this condition is regarded by veterinary surgeons with suspicion. This corresponds with the description in our text of dogs, with their mouths "somewhat gaping, as if they were enosed in their throat."

MASTIFF,

from F. metif, O. F. mestif, M. E. mastyf, mestiv, mixed breed, a mongrel dog (Cent. Dict., Murray). Some etymologists have suggested that the word mastiff was derived from masethieves, as these dogs protected their master's houses and cattle from thieves (Manwood, p. 113). Others again give mastinus, i.e. maison tenant, house-dog, as the origin, but the first derivation given of mestif, mongrel, is the one now generally recognised.

Although it will be quite evident to any one comparing the mastiff depicted in our Plate, p. 122, with any picture of the British mastiff that the two are very different types, we must not therefore conclude that the artist was at fault, but that the French matin, which is what our MS. describes and depicts, was by no means identical with our present English breed of mastiffs, nor even with the old British mastiff or bandog. The French matins were generally big, hardy dogs, somewhat light in the body, with long heads, pointed muzzles, flattened forehead, and semi-pendant ears; some were rough and others smooth coated.

Matins were often used for tackling the wild boar when run by other hounds, so as to save the more valuable ones when the boar turned to bay.

In this chase, as well as when they were used to protect their master's flocks against wolves, huge iron spiked collars were fastened round the dog's neck. These spiked collars were very formidable affairs; one of very ancient make which I have measures inside nearly eight inches in diameter, and the forty-eight spikes are an inch long, the whole weighing without the padlock that fastened it together about two pounds.

In England the name Mastiff was not in general use till a much later date, even as late as the end of the eighteenth century, Osbaldiston in his Dictionary ignoring the term mastiff, and using, like a true Saxon, the old term bandog (Wynn, p. 72). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the terms were generally synonymous, and it seems quite possible that the mastiff of the ancient forest laws was not our bandog, but denoted, as in France, any large house-dog capable of defending his master and his master's goods, watching his cattle, and, as frequently necessary, powerful enough to attack the depredatory wolf or the wild boar. These would in all likelihood be a very mixed breed, and thoroughly justify the name mestif or mongrel.