INTRODUCTION INTO BRITAIN. 29 



record of the occurrence of the pheasant in Great Britain is 

 to be found in the tract ' De inventione Sanctae Crucis nostrae 

 in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud Waltham/ 

 edited from manuscripts in the British Museum by Professor 

 Stubbs, and published in 1861. The bill of fare drawn up by 

 Harold for the Canons' households of from six to seven 

 persons. A.D. 1059, and preserved in a manuscript of the 

 date circa 1177, was as follows (p. 16) : 



" Erant autem tales pitantiae unicuique canonico : a festo Sancti Michaelis 

 usque ad caput jejunii [Ash Wednesday] aut xii merulae. aut ii agauseae 

 [Agace, a magpie (?), Ducange], aut ii perdices, aut unus phasianus, 

 reliquis temporibus aut ancae [Geese, Ducange] aut gallinse. 



" Now the point of this passage is that it shows that 

 Phasianus colchicus had become naturalised in England before 

 the Norman invasion ; and as the English and Danes were not 

 the introducers of strange animals in any well authenticated 

 case, it offers fair presumptive evidence that it was introduced 

 by the Roman conquerors, who naturalised the fallow deer in 

 Britain . 



"The eating of magpies at Waltham, though singular, 

 was not so remarkable as the eating of horse by the monks of 

 St. Galle in the time of Charles the Great and the returning 

 thanks to God for it : 



" Sit feralis equi caro dulcis sub cruce Christi ! 



The bird was not so unclean as the horse the emblem of 

 paganism was unholy." 



But the conclusion that the pheasant was introduced into 

 England before the Norman Conquest is not regarded as 

 proved by those authorities who consider the tract " De 

 inventione Crucis" as a miracle-mongering work that no 

 cautious antiquary would accept as conclusive evidence. 



In Dugdale's " Monasticon Anglicanum " is a reference 

 from which it appears that the Abbot of Amesbury obtained a 

 licence to kill hares and pheasants in the first years of the 



