INTRODUCTION INTO BRITAIN. 29 



record of tliu occurrence of the pheasant in (ireat Jjiitain is 

 to be found in the tract ' ])e iuventione iSancttie (Jrucis nostra; 

 in Monte Aciito et de ductione ejusdeni apud Wa.lthani,' 

 edited from manuscripts in tht; British ATuseum liy I'rofessor 

 iStubbs, and pablislied in 180f . The bill of fare drawn m.) by 

 Harold for the Canons' lionseholds of from six to seven 

 jiersons. A.i>. 10.")9, and preserved in a manuscript of the 

 date cirra 1177, was as follows (p. IG) : 



"Ernut aut I '111 tales ])itauti;r iuiifui((ne raiiiiuico ; a fcstii 8a net i Mirliaelis 

 usque ad caput jejunii [Asli Weduesday] aut xii iiienike. aut ii atrauseie 

 [Aiiacc, a luatfliie {?), Diiramje^. aut ii jierdices, aut unus jiluisiauus, 

 reli(juib teuipiii-il)us aut aucie [(jeese, Ducitiuje^ aut i,''alliiui'. 



"Now the point of this passage is that it shows that 

 l'lia.'<i(niu-'i nilcli tciiNliwd become naturalised in England before 

 the Norman invasion; and as the English and Danes wei-e not 

 the introducers of strange animals in any well authenticated 

 case, it offers fair presumptive evidence that it was introduced 

 by the Koman conquerors, who naturalised the fallow^ deer in 

 Britain. 



"The eating of magpies at ^Valthanl, though singular, 

 was not so remarkable ;is the eating of liorse by the monks of 

 St. (ialle in the time of Charles the Great and the returuing 

 thanks to God for it : 



"Sit feralis ecjui cam dulcis sul) cvui'e Christi '. 



The bird was not so unclean as the horse — the emlilem of 

 paganism — was unholy." 



But the conclusion that the pheasant was introduced into 

 England before the Norman Conipiest is not regarded as 

 proved l)V those authorities who inaisider the tract " De 

 iuventione Crucis " as a miracle-niongei ing work that no 

 cautious antiquary would accept as conclusive evidence. 



In Duo-dale's " Monasticun Antjlicanuin " is a reference 

 from wdiich it appears that the Abbot of Amesliui'y obtained a 

 licence to kill hares and pheasants in the first years of the 



