Authorjhtp. 1 1 



is a will-o'-the-wifp which has led many a writer into a bog. 

 Allowing that Lord Berners' name was fometimes fpelt Barnes, 

 is that fufficient reafon for making our authorefs a member of 

 his family ? I think not. 



That the greater portion of the book on Hunting was compiled 

 by Miflrefs Barnes, is probably correft,"'' and had (he written 

 much more, and produced even an original work on the fubjeft, 

 fhe would not have flood alone, even at that early period, as an 

 authorefs. Cryfline de Pifan, two of whofe works were printed 

 by Caxton, was contemporary with Julians Barnes, and left not 

 only numerous original writings behind her — one of which was 

 upon the Art of War — but left her mark, and that no mean nor 

 ignoble one, upon the political courfe and moral development of 

 her countrymen. But Dame Julyans' work upon Hunting is certainly 

 not original, as indeed very few works upon any fubjeft were at 

 that period. This is evident from a glance at the text and the 

 grouping of the fubjefls. It begins with diflinguifhing the varieties 

 of beafls and their ages ; the proper names by which to defignate the 

 beafls, fingly and together ; on hunting and dreffmg a Roe, a Boar, 

 a Hare ; of flaying ; of the horns of a Roebuck ; of the Hart ; of the 

 feasons ; of the Hare. Then follows, from another fource, an inter- 

 polation of a difcourfe between a Mafter of the Hunt and his man, 

 going over portions of the fame ground again ; and this ended, we 

 get back again to the original MS. and the difmemberment of various 

 beafts. All through, with the exception of the interpolated conver- 

 fation, the text is addreffed to " My deare childe." Thus we read — 

 "Do fo, my child;" "Think what I fay, my fon ; " "My lief 

 childer ; " " Say, child, where you go ? my dame taught you fo." 

 Evidently that portion was originally written for a mother to ufe 



• Taking Berners and Baraes to be the lame word, it is curions to note — in connexion 

 with the work attributed to Dame Juliana, viz., The Book of Hunting — that the maAers 

 of that Iport employed men called Berners, to be ready witli relays of horfes and to feed 

 the hounds. — See Halliwell's " Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words." 



