PREFACE. V 



The " Book of St. Albans," as Professor Skeat 

 veinarks, " is a mere hash-up of something much 

 older. Most of the hawking and hunting is a 

 translation of tiie Vcnerie de Ttvety of the time 

 of Edward II. This appears from Halliwell and 

 Wright's Reliqiiice Antiquce, where another 

 English translation of the same original is given." 

 These treatises, we may observe, are for the most 

 part simply a collection of recipes, and do not 

 present the complete and systematic form of the 

 treatise on fishing. 



The present treatise is written in the ordinary 

 dialect of the neighbourhood of London — the 

 usual literary dialect of the day. In this respect 

 it does not differ from the version already printed. 



We have carefully preserved its orthography, 

 including such mistakes of the scribe as thinhe 

 for thinge, &c., and its punctuation. Here and 

 there a word is scarcely distinguishable, and oc- 

 casionally one has been docked by the binder, 

 but the MS. is well preserved and the writing is 

 by no means difficult to read ; so that if any mis- 

 takes have escaped the five or six revisions we 

 have given the text, we must bear the blame. 



The abbreviations have been extended in all 



