THE TREATISE. 17 



the reasons why fishing should be accounted the 

 best sport. She takes hunting first, of which 

 the right noble and full worthy prince, the 

 Duke of York, late called Master of Game, had 

 already described the joys. Hunting she thinks 

 too laborious. The hunter must always run 

 and follow his hounds, travailing and sweating 

 full sore. He blows his horn till his lips 

 blister, and when he thinks it a hare full oft 

 it is a hedgehog. Thus he chases he knows not 

 what. He comes home at even rain-beaten, 

 pricked, his clothes torn, wet shod and miry, 

 some hounds lost, some foot sore. Therefore 

 hunting is not the best sport of the four. 



But hawking, too, is laborious and troublous, 

 for the falconer oft loses his hawks, and then 

 is his disport gone. He cries and whistles till 

 he be right evil athirst. His hawks take 

 flights on their own account, and when asked 

 to fly sit and bask. If misfed they get the 

 Frounce, the Rye, the Cray and other sick- 

 nesses that cause their downfall. Therefore 

 hawking is not the best sport of the four. 



Fowling is a foolish sport, for the fowler 

 speeds not but in winter, and in the hardest and 

 coldest weather. He cannot visit his gins for 

 the cold. Many a gin and many a snare he 

 makes, and many he loses. In the morning he 

 walks in the dew, and, wet-shod and sore 

 a-cold, does not get his dinner till the morrow, 

 or goes to bed before he has well supped, for 

 anything he may get by fowling Therefore 



