112 THE MASTER OF GAME 



find them and run to them sooner than at any 

 other time of the year. Also the hounds scent 

 worse from May until St. John's time than in 

 any other time of all the year, for as I shall say 

 the burnt heath and the burning of fields taketh 

 away the scent from the hounds of the beasts that 

 they hunt. Also in that time the herbs be best 

 and flowers in their smelling, each one in their 

 kind, and when the hounds hope to scent the beast 

 that they hunt, the sweet-smelling of the herbs 

 takes the scent of the beast from them. 



