16 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



beat him when he will not do that his master com- 

 mandeth him, unto the time the child be a-dread to 

 fail. And first I shall teach thee to take him and write 

 all the hounds' names and of the hues, unto the time the 

 child knows them both by the hues and by the names. 

 After, I shall teach him to make clean every day in the 

 morning the hounds' kennel of all foul things that is 

 therein. After, I will him learn to put before them, 

 twice in the day, fair clean water of a clean well in a 

 vessel thereas the hounds drinketh, or fair running 

 water, in the morning and in the evening. After, I will 

 teach him that once in the week he void the kennel, and 

 make all clean and renew their straw, and put again 

 fresh new straw a great deal and right thick, and thereas 

 he layeth it the hounds should lie. And the place 

 thereas they should lie it should be made of tree a foot 

 high from the earth, and then should the straw be laid 

 upon that, because that the moistness of the earth 

 should not make them morfounde nor engender any 

 sickness by which they might be worse for hunting. 

 And also that he love a field, and in a wood delighteth, 

 and be well eyed, and well advised of his speech and of 

 his terms, and ever glad to learn, and that he be not 

 in nowise no boaster nor no jangler. Also I will teach 

 the child to lead the hounds twice in the day, in the 

 morning and in the evening, so that the sun be up, and 

 especially in winter. Then should he let them play 

 long in a fair meadow in the sun, and then comb every 

 hound after other and wipe them with a great wisp of 

 straw. And this shall he do every morning. And then 

 he shall lead them to some fair place thereas the tender 

 grass groweth as corn and other things, that there they 

 may feed them for to take their medicines, for some- 

 time houndsi be sick and with grass that they eat void 

 and heal themselves." 



It must be confessed that the age of eight years was 

 a very early period of life for a boy to commence even 

 the most insignificant studies or operations in the 

 mysteries of woodcraft ; but the remark is a very true 

 one, that it requires all a man's life to make him a pro- 

 ficient, much less to make him perfect in the science. 

 Some insight into the management of hounds in the 

 olden time is obtained from the last chapter; and it is 



