ii8 THE MASTER OF GAME 



great lips and great ears, and with such men help 

 themselves at the baiting of the hull and at hunting 

 of a wild boar, for it is their nature to hold fast, 

 but they be (heavy) and foul (ugly) that if they be 

 slain by the wild boar or by the bull, it is not very 

 great loss. And when they can overtake a beast 

 they bite it and hold it still, but by themselves 

 they could never take a beast unless greyhounds 

 were with them to make the beast tarry. That 

 other kind of alauntes of the butcheries is such as 

 you may always see in good towns, that are called 

 great butchers' hounds^ the which the butchers keep 

 to help them to bring their beasts that they buy in 

 the country, for if an ox escape from the butchers 

 that lead him, his hounds would go and take him 

 and hold him until his master has come, and 

 should help him to bring him again to the town. 

 They cost little to keep as they eat the foul things 

 in the butcher's row. Also they keep their master's 

 house, they be good for bull baiting and for hunt- 

 ing wild boar, whether it be with greyhounds at 

 the tryst or with running hounds at bay within the 

 covert. For when a wild boar is within a strong 

 hatte of wood (thicket), perhaps all day the running 

 hounds will not make him come out. And when 

 men let such mastiffs run at the boar they take 

 him in the thick spires (wood) so that any man 

 can slay him, or they make him come out of his 

 strength, so that he shall not remain long at bay. 



