j:h,_ii. since the norman conquest. 41 



some honourable person/ described by Gascoigne in his ' Booke of Hunting,' 

 first printed in 1575, in the following pleasant verses : — 



Who list [by me] to leame, Assembly for to make, 



For keysar, king, or comely queene, for lord or ladies sake ; 



Or where, or in what sort, it should prepared be, 



Marke well my words, and thanke me then, for thankes I crave in fee. 



The place should first be pight, on pleasant gladsome greene, 



Yet under shade of stately trees, where little sunne is scene : 



And neare some fountaine spring, whose chrystall runing streames, 



May helpe to coole the parching heate, ycaught by Phcebus beames. 



The place appointed thus, it neither shall be clad 



With Arras nor with Tapystry, such paltry were too bad, 



Ne yet those hote perfumes, whereof high courtes do smell, 



May once presume in such a place, or Paradise to dwell. 



Away with fayned fresh, as broken boughes or leaves; 



Away, away, with forced flowers, ygathred from their' graves : 



This place must of itselfe afforde such sweete delight,' 



And eke such shewe, as better may content the greedy sight : 



Where sundrie sortes of leaves, which growe upon the ground, 



May seeme (indeede) such tapystry, as we (by art) have found. 



Where fresh and fragrant flowers, shall need no courtiers cost, 



To daube himselfe with Syvet, Muske, and many an oyntment lost. 



Where sweetest singing byrdes, may make such melodye. 



As Pan, not yet Apollds arte, can sounde such harmony. 



Where breath of westerne windes, may calmly yeeld content. 



Where casements neede not opened be, where ayre is never pent. 



Where shade may serve for shryne, and yet the sunne at hande. 



Where beautie neede not quake for colde, ne yet with sunne be tande. 



In fine and to conclude, where pleasure dwels at large, 



Which Princes seeke in Palaces, with payne and costly charge.' 



Gascoigne's work on ' The Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting ' appears 

 to have been for the most part translated from early French works on this 

 subject, founded upon some of the very ancient treatises to which I have 

 before referred.^ This, perhaps, may account for the retention of the 

 very ancient, but even in the Elizabethan age, one would suppose, very 



' Gascoigne's Noble Arte of Venerde. Ed. 1st, p. 98, ' Page 15. 



