January. 1918 
FOREST AND S T R E A M 
51 
I sportsman should know how to give him- 
I self the benefit of the doubt in counting 
I the points upon the head of a hart. Thus 
I saith Gaston: 
“And if men ask what head beareth the 
■ hart he hath seen, he shall always answer 
I by even and not by odd, for if he be 
I forked on the right side, and lack not of 
I his rights beneath, and on the right side 
I antler and royal and surroyal and not 
I forked but only the beam, he shall say it 
I is a hart of ten at default, for it is always 
I called even of the greater number. And 
I every buck’s tines should be reckoned as 
I soon as a man can hang a baldric or a 
| leash thereupon and not otherwise. And 
■ when a hart beareth as many tines on the 
lone side as on the other, he may say if he 
I be but forked that he is a hart of ten, and 
jif he be troched of three that he is a hart of 
jtwelve, if he be troched of four he is a hart 
j of sixteen, always if it be seen that he hath 
I his rights beneath as before is said. And 
■ if he lack any of his rights beneath he 
I must abate so many on the top, for a hart’s 
• head should begin to be described from the 
I mule upwards, and if he hath more by two 
[on the one side than on the other, you 
[must take from the one and count up that 
[other withal.” 
N G'T size alone, we are to understand, 
gave value to a trophy head. Certain 
qualities, when present, possess value 
in the eye of the expert. In those times 
men hunted the. deer as we do today. 
[At early dawn the hunter was afoot, watch- 
ling to see some stag returning from his 
feeding ground to the thicket where he 
intended to pass the day. To mark the 
ideer in his thicket was called harboring the 
(hart. Be sure this early bird who was out 
watching the run ways was not himself 
the prince who was to ride horse back on 
the chase. Neither was he the lymerer, 
who later was to follow out the stag’s track 
to his harbor by virue of the nose of a 
trailing hound led on a leash—a custom 
Kvhich is in existence today. Almost any 
deer hunter of wide experience will have 
used a bird dog to trail deer, and a bird 
dog will in some cases point a deer just 
as it will a game bird. Very well, it would 
be bad business for the harborer or the 
lymerer to set the whole hunt after an 
unworthy stag. Hence the Master of the 
Hounds would ask the harborer what kind 
of a head he had marked down in the 
thicket. In which case Bill Jones, har¬ 
borer, would be obliged to give reasons. 
“And if men ask him by the head where- 
ay he knoweth that it is a great hart and 
m old, he may answer, that the tokens of 
:he great hart are by the head, and so the 
first knowledge is when he hath great 
learns all about as if they were set as it 
,vere with small stones, and the mules nigh 
:he head and the antlers, the which are 
:he first tines, be great and long and close 
:o the mule and well apperyng (pearled) 
ind the royals which are the second tines, 
ie nigh the antlers, and of such form, save 
hat they should not be so great; and all 
he other tines great and long and well set, 
md well ranged and the troching as I have 
laid before, high and great, and all the 
ieams all along both great and stony, as 
f they were full of gravel, and that all 
dong the beams there be small vales that 
nen call gutters, then he may say that 
te knows it is a great hart by the head.” 
(to be continued next month) 
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game 
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