FOREWORD TO FIRST EDITION xxv 



authors on venery, both the Count of Foix and 

 the Duke of York show an astonishing familiarity 

 with the habits, nature, and chase of their quarry. 

 Both men, like others of their kind among their 

 contemporaries, made of the chase not only an 

 absorbing sport but almost the sole occupation of 

 their leisure hours. They passed their days in 

 the forest and were masters of woodcraft. Game 

 abounded, and not only the chase but the killing 

 of the quarry was a matter of intense excitement 

 and an exacting test of personal prowess, for the 

 boar, or the bear, or hart at bay was slain at close 

 quarters with the spear or long knife. 



" The Master of Game " is not only of interest 

 to the sportsman, but also to the naturalist, be- 

 cause of its quaint accounts of the " nature " of 

 the various animals ; to the philologist because of 

 the old English hunting terms and the excellent 

 translations of the chapters taken from the French; 

 and to the lover of art because of the beautiful 

 illustrations, with all their detail of costume, of 

 hunting accoutrements, and of ceremonies of " la 

 grande vénerie " — which are here reproduced in 

 facsimile from one of the best extant French manu- 

 scripts of the early fifteenth century. The trans- 

 lator has left out the chapters on trapping and 

 snaring of wild beasts which were contained in the 

 original, the hunting with running hounds being 

 the typical and most esteemed form of the sport. 



