136 THE MASTER OF GAME 



ever more ' fray to a great tree, and therefore 

 should ye look at several frayings. And if ye 

 see the aforesaid tokens oftener upon the great 

 trees than upon the small ye may deem him a 

 great hart. And if the frayings be continually 

 in small trees and low, he is not chaceable and 

 should be refused. Also ye may know a great 

 hart by his lairs. When a great hart shall come 

 in the morning from his pasture, he shall go to 

 his lair and then a great while after he shall rise 

 and go elsewhere there where he would abide all 

 the day. Then when ye shall rise and come to 

 the lair there where the hart hath lain and rested, 

 if ye see it great and broad and well trodden and 

 the grass well pressed down, and at the rising 

 when he passeth out of his lair, if ye see that the 

 foot and the knees have well thrust down the 

 earth and pressed the grass down it is a token 

 that it is a great deer and a heavy (one). And if 

 at the rising he make no such tokens, because 

 that he hath been there but a little while, so that 

 his lair be long and broad ye may deem him a hart 

 chaceable. Also ye may know a great hart by the 

 bearing of the wood, for when a great hart hath 

 a high head and a large (one) and goeth through 

 a thick wood, he findeth the young wood and 



1 Ever more is here a mistake ; it should be never more. 

 G. de F. says : " Mes jeune cerf ne froyera jà en gros arbre" 

 (p. 132). Also in the Shirley MS. 



