APPENDIX 263 



unless she is with fawn, when she will place her hind 

 feet constantly outside her fore feet. A hind walks with 

 wide-spreading claws, so does a young stag with his fore 

 feet, but those of his hind feet will be closed. The 

 larger the print of the fore feet are in comparison to the 

 hind feet the older the stag. 



The underneath edge of the claws round the hollow 

 of the sole was called the esponde (sponde^ edge or border). 

 In older stags they were blunter and more worn, and in 

 hinds and younger deer sharper, unless indeed the stag 

 inhabited a damp and mossy country, where the esponde 

 would not be so much worn down as if he lived on a 

 rocky or stony ground. (G. de F., 155, 129-145 ; Lav,, 

 p. 246; Stuart, p. 58; Fortescue, p. 133). And thus 

 did the woodmen of old study the book of nature, which 

 told them all they wished to know, and found for them 

 better illustrations than any art could give. 



TRYST, in the language of sport, was the place or 

 stand where the hunter took up his position to await the 

 game he wished to shoot. The game might be driven 

 to him by hounds, or he might so place himself as to 

 shoot as the game went to and from their lair to their 

 pasturing {see Appendix : Stables and Stable-stand). In 

 French it was called shooting à Taffut^ from ad fust em ^ 

 near the wood, because the shooter leant his back to, or 

 hid behind a tree, so that the game should not see him. 



In our MS. we are told that Alaunts are good for 

 hunting the wild boar whether it be with greyhounds, 

 at the "tryst," or with running hounds at bay within 

 the covert. The tryst here would be the place where a 

 man would be stationed to slip the dogs at the wild boar 

 as soon as he broke covert, or after the huntsman had 

 wounded the boar with a shot from his long or cross- 

 bow (p. 118). 



VELTRES, velteresy veltrau A dog used for the 

 chase, a hound. Probably derived from the Gaelic words 



