CHAPTER VI 



GENERAL AND OVER DOGS 



"©ctr uegpnnetf) a rpcbt fruiteful 



tt0ftt£SC." Such are the opening words 

 of one of the earliest books issued from a 

 printing press in this country, the first to 

 deal, though only incidentally, with the 

 " sportes " of England, seeing the light in 

 London in the closing years of the fifteenth 

 century. 



Though it must be admitted that 

 further perusal of the heavy periods of 

 this ponderous tome sadly belie the fair 

 initial promise, yet many, whose lot it is 

 to drive the quill and swell the ever- 

 growing mass of printed matter, must 

 envy "Master Nicolas, preste," the spirit 

 of cheerful self-confidence in which he 

 entered on his literary labours. 



138 



