14 Author/hip. 



than one manufcript in French. Haflewood gives a lift of fuch as are 

 in the Britifh Mufeum, in feveral of which portions of the printed 

 work are contained. Works on Hunting and Hawking were not 

 uncommon in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and are ftill found 

 in all large collections of manufcripts. There were feveral in the 

 libraries of the Dukes of Burgundy in the fifteenth century, and many 

 are ftill extant in the national collections of England and France. 



The other tractates in the volume have an origin very fimilar 

 to that of the Book of Hunting. The Book of Hawking is an evident 

 compilation from feveral manufcripts, which accounts perhaps for its 

 deficiency in arrangement and want of continuity. The Book of Coat 

 Armour alfo has two diftincl: fources in contemporary works, one of 

 which was the " De Offtcio Militari " of Nicholas Upton. From this 

 the fchoolmafter copied Book IV. almoft word for word, fupple- 

 menting it from " The Book of the Lineage of Coat Armour," as 

 Hated already. The only other literary work which can be attributed 

 to our printer is the extenfive compilation known as the St. Albans' 

 Chronicle or the Fruc~lus Temporum. But neither in the Chronicle, 

 where he fimply combined two hiftories into one, nor in the Book of 

 St. Albans, which is alfo a compilation, does the fchoolmafter fhow 

 any literary ability above the average of fcholars of his period. 



As fpecimens of the fchoolmafter' s powers of compofition we 

 annex the following, the originals of which can be feen in the en- 

 suing facfimile pages : 



Prologue to tje Boofc of Ipatofctng, 



"In fo much that gentlemen and honeft perfons have great delight 

 in Hawking, and defire to have the manner to take hawks : and alfo 

 how and in what wife they fhould guide them ordinately : and to 

 know the gentle terms in communing of their hawks : and to under 

 (land their fickneffes and infirmities, and to know medicines for them 

 according, and the many notable terms that be ufed in hawking 



