222 APPENDIX 



In our MS., at the end of the chapter on the nature 

 of the hare (p. 22), the Duke of York says that he 

 "trows no good hunter would slee them so," alluding to 

 pockets, pursenets, and other poaching devices ; and 

 although G. de F. gives six ways of taking the hare, he 

 does not approve of such methods for the true sportsman, 

 but enters an amusing protest : " I would that they who 

 take hares thus should have them [the cords] round their 

 own necks" (p. 171). Snaring hares was never con- 

 sidered legitimate sport. In hare-hunting proper, the 

 hounds were taken into the fields to find the hare, as at 

 present ; or hare-finders were sent out early in the morn- 

 ing, and the tufts of grass or plants where the hare was 

 likely to be seated were beaten, and the hounds uncoupled 

 only when the hare was started. One of the chief differ- 

 ences in the sport between then and now was that often, 

 when the hare was once on foot, greyhounds were also 

 uncoupled, and our Plate, p. 182, shows greyhounds and 

 running-hounds hunting seemingly happily together. It 

 must have been rather discouraging for the old-fashioned, 

 slow scenting-hound to have the hare he has been dili- 

 gently hunting suddenly " bitten " in front of him by 

 the swifter greyhound. Trencher-fed packs also existed 

 as early as the fourteenth century, and we read in Gace 

 de la Buigne that the small farmers would assemble to- 

 gether, bringing all told some forty hounds of different 

 breeds and sizes, immensely enjoying their sport, and 

 accounting for many hares. 



HARNESS means in our text " paraphernalia where- 

 with animals can be caught or taken." It is frequently 

 used in this sense by Gaston — Hayes et autres Harnoys 

 (p. 126). In Julien's note to this same sentence occur- 

 ring in Le bon Variety he says, autres harnois, autres engins, 

 instruments, procèdes. 



HARRIER, spelt in early documents with many varia- 

 tions — eirere, heyreres, heyrer, hayrers. A hound which 



