2 54 APPENDIX 



the consideration for the larder played a far more im- 

 portant part in fixing the seasons for hunting wild beasts 

 than it did in later times, the object being to kill the 

 game when in the primest condition. Beginning with 

 the — 



Red deer stag : according to Dryden's Twici, p. 24 

 (source not given), the season began at the Nativity of 

 St. John the Baptist (June 24), and ended Holyrood 

 Day (September 14). Our text of the "Master of 

 Game " nowhere expressly states when the stag-hunting 

 begins or terminates, but as he speaks of how to judge a 

 hart from its fumes in the month of April and May (p. 

 30), and further says that harts run best from the " entry 

 of May into St. John's tide" (p. 35), we might infer 

 that they were hunted from May on. He also says that 

 the season for hind-hunting begins when the season of 

 the hart ends and lasteth till Lent. But as this part of 

 the book was a mere translation from G. de F. it is no 

 certain guide to the hunting seasons in England. The 

 Stag-hunting season in France, the cervaison^ as it was 

 called, began at the Sainte Croix de Mai (May 3rd) and 

 lasted to la Sainte Croix de Septembre (Holyrood Day, 

 Sept. 14), the old French saying being: '•^ Mi Mai^ mi 

 teste^ mi Juin^ mi graisse ; a la Magdeleine venaison pleine *" 

 (July 22) (Menagier de Paris, ii.). And although the 

 stag was probably chiefly hunted in England between 

 Midsummer and the middle of September, when they 

 are in the best condition, and it was considered the best 

 time to kill them, they were probably hunted from May 

 on in the early days in England as they were in France. 

 Had this not been customary we imagine the Duke of 

 York would have inserted one of his little interpolations 

 in the text he was translating, and stated that although 

 the season began in May beyond the sea^ it only began 

 later in England. 



In Twety and Gyfford we read that the " tyme of 

 grece, begynnyth allé way atte the fest of the Nativyte 

 of Saynt Johan baptist." Later on, according to Dryden, 



