88 The Dog Book 



prior writers and make no mention of the origin. Gaston de Foix was not 

 even original in all he wrote; the Duke of York made a verbatim translation, 

 with but the slightest mention of where he got his material, and making no 

 distinction between translation and original chapters. Nicholas Cox and 

 others who followed Markham, copied him verbatim without compunction, 

 and while he might have followed the universal custom of his time, there is 

 plenty of evidence to show that much must have been original. It is thor- 

 oughly English in its language and terms and up to date in the instructions 

 as to the gun or fowling piece to be used, as well as the proper ammunition 

 for the birds, or fowls, as everything flying was called. The book we refer 

 to bears the peculiar title "Hunger's Prevention, or the Whole Art of 

 Fowling by Water and Land." All prior books which contain references 

 to dogs, excepting the Caius treatise, are mainly devoted to hunting and 

 hawking, the three accomplishments of a gentleman at that time being 

 hunting, hawking and a thorough knowledge of heraldry. Indeed, all three 

 called for study and memory, for the different terms of the chase were in- 

 finite. Nicholas Cox as late as 1700 filled fifteen pages of The Gentleman s 

 Recreation with technical terms. For instance, the hart or red deer had 

 the following names: First year, hind calf, or calf; second year, knobber; 

 third year, brocke; fourth year, staggard; fifth year, stag; sixth year, hart; 

 if it had been hunted by a king or queen, royal hart; if so hunted and had 

 escaped entirely and proclamation made for his return, royal hart pro- 

 claimed. 



Fowling, outside of hawking, was a minor sport, and Markham seems 

 to have been the first to treat it fully, and certainly was the first to publish 

 a book confined to this particular branch of sport. He follows Caius in 

 the use of the English word "dogge " in place of the Continental "hound." 

 Caius wrote to his friend Gesner, "Thus much also understand, that as 

 in your language Hunde is the common word, so in our naturall tongue 

 dogge is the vniuersall, but Hunde is perticular and a speciall, for it signifieth 

 such a dogge only as serveth to hunt." 



Markham refers to three, but gives particulars of but two varieties, 

 though all are pertinent to the present subject. He treats, first of all, of 

 water fowl as being the more important on account of their greater number 

 compared with strictly land fowl, so we first have the "Water Dogge," a 

 retrieving spaniel. The word spaniel is not mentioned in connection with 

 the dog, but we know that at that time it was a spaniel, the same spaniel 



