244 APPENDIX 



" A hare will pass by the same muses until her death 

 or escape " (Blome, p. 92). 



NUMBLES. M. E. mmbles, noumhles ; O. F. nombles. 

 The parts of a deer between the thighs, that is to say, 

 the liver and kidneys and entrails. Part, and sometimes 

 the whole of the numbles were considered the right of 

 the huntsman ; sometimes the huntsman only got the 

 kidneys, and the rest was put aside with the tit-bits re- 

 served for the King or chief personage (Turb., pp. 128- 

 129). Numbles by loss of the initial letter became 

 umbles (Harrison, vol. i. p. 309), and was sometimes 

 written humbles, whence came " humble pie," now only 

 associated with the word humble. Humble pie was a pie 

 made of the umbles or numbles of the deer, and formerly 

 at hunting feasts was set before the huntsman and his 

 followers. 



OTTER. The Duke of York does not tell us any- 

 thing of the chase of the Otter, but merely refers one at 

 the end of the chapter on "The Nature of the Otter" 

 to Milbourne, the King's Otter-hunter, for more informa- 

 tion and says, "as of all other vermin I speak not" 

 (P* 73)« "^^^ Otter was evidently beneath his notice, as 

 being neither regarded as a beast of venery nor of the 

 chase (Twety and GyfFord, Brit. Mus. MS. Vesp. 

 B. XIL). But the very fact that the King had an Otter- 

 hunter shows that it was a beast not altogether despised, 

 although probably hunted more for the value of its skin 

 and for the protection of the fish than for the sport. 



The Milbourne referred to by the Duke of York can 

 scarcely be any other than the William Melbourne we 

 find mentioned in Henry IV. 's reign as " Valet of our 

 Otter-hounds" (Privy Seal, 674/6456, Feb. 18, 1410). 



PARFET, the perfect. Twici says : line autre chasce 

 il y ad qe homme appelé le parfet. Dunkes covient il qe vous 

 corneez en autre maneree, . . . E isse chescun homme qest en 



