62 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



prologue are original. The titles of the last three chapters 

 are : (i) " How the hert shuld be snaryd with the lymer, and 

 ronne to and slayn with strength"; (2) "How an hunter 

 shuld seke and fynde the hare with rennyng houndes, and slee 

 here with strength"; and (3) " Of the Ordinaunce of the 

 maner of hundyng whan the king wil hunt in foreste or 

 parke for the hert with bowes, greyhoundes and stable." It will 

 therefore be seen that, interesting as this translation of a French 

 book is, it throws but little, if any, light on ordinary English 

 hunting and forest customs, for that which it does state in the 

 words of the Duke of York, only applies to the formal hunting 

 of the Court on a grand scale. It is the lack of knowledge of 

 original and contemporary forest proceedings in England that 

 has led so many writers astray. When purporting to write 

 about England, they have really been writing about France, 

 and the Continental customs relative to forests and forest 

 hunting differed as widely in mediaeval days from those in use 

 in our own country, as does "sport" in the two countries at 

 the present time. 



The best manuscript of The Master of Game is the one in 

 the British Museum (Cott. MSS. Vesp. B. xii.), written about 

 1440. It is from this copy that several of the illustrations of 

 this volume are taken. 



Prefixed to this manuscript is the English rendering of the 

 Twici tract (first printed in Wright and Halliwell's Reliquice 

 Antiqucc in 1541), whilst the two opening folios contain the 

 following rhymes, the work of the fifteenth-century tran- 

 scriber, which are rendered more valuable by the three small 

 groups of wild animals of English forests, here reproduced : 



Alle suche dysport as voydith ydilnesse, 



It syttyth every gentilman to knowe, 



For myrthe annexed is to gentilnesse, 



Qwerfore among- alle othyr as y trowe 



To knowe the crafte of hontyng, and to blowe 



As thys book shall witnesse is one the beste, 



For it is holsum, plesaunt, and honest. 



And for to settle yonge hunterys in the way, 



To venery y caste me fyrst to go, 



Of wheche iiij bestis be that is to say, 



The hare, the herte, the wulfhe, the wylde boor also, 



Of venery for sothe there be no moe ; 



And so it shewith here in porteteure 



Where every best is set in hys figure. 



