CHAPTER XXIII 



HOW A MAN SHOULD LEAD HIS GROOM IN QUEST 

 FOR TO KNOW A HART BY HIS TRACE 



Then should his groom lead his lymer (tracking 

 hound) in quest after him in the morning, and 

 teach him to know what difference is between a 

 hart's trace and a hind's. As I have said before, 

 this word quest is a term of hart hunters beyond the 

 sea, and is as much for to say as when the hunter 

 goeth to find of a hart and to harbour him. For to 

 know a great hart's trace from a young, and to 

 know the trace of a young deer of antler from a 

 hind's, and how many judgments and what know- 

 ledge there be, and for to make more certain 

 thereof, he should have an old hart's foot and a 

 young hart's and a hind's foot also, and should 

 put it in hard earth and in soft, and once put it 

 fast in the earth as though the hart were hunted 

 and another time soft, as if the hart went a pase 

 (slowly), thereby he may advise him to know the 

 differences of a hart's feet, and he shall find that 

 there is no deer so young if he be from a brocket 

 upwards, that his talon (heel) is not larger and 



better and hath greater ergots (dew claws') than 



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