IN DAYS OF YORE 207 



by Tempesta, 1555-1630, certainly justifies Du Fouil- 

 loux's complaint about the behaviour of the horsemen, 

 two cavaliers being therein depicted riding lance in 

 hand, regardless of hounds, to spear a stag who is 

 galloping through shallow water with the pack at his 

 haunches. The deer being killed, he was broken up 

 with elaborate rites, different portions being reserved 

 for the king, the grand veneur, the chief pricker, and 

 the harbourer ; the hounds and the lymers were 

 separately blooded ; the slot or fore-foot, then as now, 

 was the trophy of the chase, and Du Fouilloux gives 

 a picture in which it is being offered on bended knee 

 to a great personage, The skin was the property of 

 the man who had done the most towards the killing 

 of the deer. 



What shall he have that killed the deer ? 

 His leather skin and horns to wear. 



As You Like //, iv. 2. 



And though in the West Country the whole deer is 

 now the master's to dispose of, yet the skin in 

 practice nearly always falls to the huntsman's share, 

 the master retaining only the head ; and a good many 

 people grudge him that. 



