THE HART AND HIS NATURE 25 



the plain country. And also there are divers 

 ruts in the forest, but in the parks there are none 

 but that are within the park.^ After that they be 

 withdrawn from the hinds they go in herds and 

 in soppes (troops) with the rascal (young lean 

 deer) and abide in (waste) lands and in heathes 

 more than they do in woods, for to enjoy the 

 heat of the sun, they be poor and lean for the 

 travail they have had with the hinds, and for the 

 winter, and the little meat that they find. After 

 that they leave the rascal and gather together 

 with two or three or four harts in soppes till the 

 month of March when they mew (shed) their 

 horns, and commonly some sooner than others, if 

 they be old deer, and some later if they be young 

 deer, or that they have had a hard winter, or that 

 they have been hunted, or that they have been 

 sick, for then they mew their heads and later 

 come to good points. And when they have 

 mewed their heads they take to the strong (thick) 

 bushes as privily as they may, till their heads be 

 grown again, and they come into grease ; after 

 that they seek good country for meating (feeding) 



^ This passage is confused. In G. de F., p. 12, we find that 

 the passage runs : " Et aussi il y a ruyt en divers lieux de la 

 forest et on paix ne peut estre en nul lieu, fors que dedans 

 le part." Lavallée translates these last five vv^ords, " C'est à 

 dire qu'il n'y a de paix que lorsque les biches sont pleines." 

 In the exceedingly faulty first edition by Verard, the word 

 "part" is printed ^^ pare" as it is in our MS. 



