ITS INTRODUCTION INTO BRITAIN. 
21 I 
and that we are probably indebted for this game-bird to 
the enterprise of the Romans. The earliest record, we 
believe, of the occurrence of the pheasant in this country 
will be found in the tract “ De inventione Sanctae Crucis 
nostrae in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud 
Waltham,” edited by Prof. Stubbs from manuscripts in 
the British Museum, and published in 1861* In one of 
these manuscripts, dated about 1177, is the following bill 
of fare prescribed by Harold for the Canons’ Households, 
in 1059 : — 
“ Erant autem tales pitantiae unicuique canonico: a 
festo Sancti Michaelis usque ad caput jejunii, aut xii. 
merulse, aut ii. agauseae, aut ii. perdices, aut units phasianus , 
reliquis temporibus aut ancae, aut gallinae.” 
Yarrell, in his “History of British Birds,” gives an ex¬ 
tract from Dugdale’s “ Monasticon Anglicanum ” to the 
effect that the Abbot of Amesbury obtained a licence from 
the king to kill pheasants, in the first year of Henry I. 
(i 100). 
Leland, in his account of the feast given at the inthro- 
nisation of George Nevell, Archbishop of York, in the 
reign of Edward IV., tells us that, amongst other good 
things, two hundred “ fesauntes ” were provided for the 
guests. 
In the “ Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York,” 
* See “ The Ibis," 1869, p. 358. 
