IN DAYS OF YORE 203 



the author, ' shall we blow when we have seen the 

 hart ? I shall blow after one mote two motes ; and 

 if mine hounds come not hastily to me as I would, I 

 shall blow four motes for to hasten them to me, and 

 to warn the gentles that the hart is seen.' 



The horn, it must be remembered, played a very 

 important part in mediaeval, as it does still in modern 

 French, hunting. Everyone who called himself a 

 sportsman carried one, whether skilled in its use or 

 not, and no one was reckoned to know his venery un- 

 less he could blow the sounds appropriate to each and 

 every incident of the chase. And the practice of riding 

 to different points, so that someone should command 

 the pack whichever way they went, was a wise one, 

 seeing that much of the hunting was done in wooded 

 country, guiltless of rides, but containing plenty of 

 hinds and young deer, ' rascal ' to use the old technical 

 term, on which hounds might change. 



But whether through the interference of the field 

 or the cunning of the stag, no chase could be 

 expected to go on long without a check ; and if this 

 check was serious, the pack, or the greater part of 

 it, would be coupled up again, while the prickers 

 unravelled the difficulty with their lymers and a few 

 steady old hounds. In case the stag joined a herd, or 

 resorted to doubling or other shifts, whether on land or 



