THE COOKERY OF VENISON 299 



of the succession of the young chieftain, more 

 attention was paid to the dressing of the skins that 

 protected the armour of the chosen champions than 

 to the dressing of the deer. We always think with 

 envy of the jovial midnight supper, when the clerk of 

 Copmanshurst entertained the royal knight-errant, and 

 the clutches of both were emulously in the bowels of 

 the mighty pasty. But both the convives were men 

 of Gargantuan appetite and ostrich-like digestion, 

 and we suspect that sundry members would have 

 backed their bills, had that pasty been sent up as ' the 

 joint' at a club in Pall Mall. But the Baron of 

 Bradwardine, who had served in France and dined at 

 the table of the Duke of Berwick, was more of a 

 connoisseur than the holy clerk. He laid down the 

 law sensibly and with knowledge, as to the compara- 

 tive qualities and the seasons of roe and red deer. 

 ' The roe may be hunted at all times alike ; for never 

 being in what is called pride of grease, he is also never 

 out of season, though it be a truth that his venison 

 is not equal to that of either the red or the fallow 

 deer'(?) To which sentence, so far as the fallow 

 deer is concerned, I venture to append a note of 

 interrogation. 



Going back to Bolton Abbey, it reminds me of 

 another great poet who celebrated, incidentally, a 



