[158] MS. Harl. 6395. Merry Passages and Jeasts, art. 345.

[159] Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, dated September 12, A.D. 1600.

[160] Nichols's Progresses, vol. ii.

[161] No. 4431.

[162] Maitland's Hist. London, book i. chap. 6.

[163] Stephanides Descript. London.

[164] Stow's Survey of London, vol. i. p. 157.

[165] "Pills to Purge Melancholy," 1719, vol. iv. p. 42.

[166] Blount's Ancient Tenures.

[167] Or "vautrarius," which Blount derives from the French vaultre, a mongrel hound, and supposes the name to signify an inferior huntsman; and this opinion I have adopted.

[168] E c. An. 34 Edward I. No. 37. Richard Rockesley held the same land by the same tenure, in the second year of Edward II. Blount ut supra.

[169] Entitled "Art de Venerie le quel Maistre Guillame Twici venour le Roy dangleterre fist en son temps por aprandre Autres; or the Art of Hunting, which Mr. Wm. Twici, huntsman to the king of England, made for the instruction of others." See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 221.

[170] Cotton MS. Vespasian, B. xii.

[171] MS. Harl. This book is entitled "The Maister of the Game."

[172] The Book of St. Albans, I fancy, by mistake, places the wild roe for the wild boar.

[173] The Book of St. Albans adds, that all other kinds of beasts subject to hunting are to be called "Raskall," derived, I suppose, from the Saxon word papcal, which signifies a lean beast, or one of no worth.

[174] The word in the original MS. is written fute and fuite, which I conceive to be French, and then the interpretation I have given of flight will be proper. The meaning is, that the latter leave a scent behind them when they are chased.

[175] Hist. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. cap.8.

[176] Testa Nevelli.

[177] Memb. 13.

[178] Ibid. See more in Blount's Ancient Tenures.

[179] "Booke of hauking and hunting," without date, reprinted with the title of "A Jewell for Gentrie." Lond. 1614.

[180] See Blount's Antient Tenures, art. Sutton, &c.

[181] Page 17, sec. xiii.

[182] They are called "trists" or "trestes" in the MS. and might possibly be temporary stages.

[183] The passage runs thus in the MS. "the fewtrerers ought to make fayre logges of grene boughes at their trestes," &c.

[184] Chastised greyhoundes, MS.

[185] See Blount's Ancient Tenures.

[186] See the Encyclopedia Britannica, art. Hunting.

[187] See p. 4. sec. v.

[188] See p. 11. sec. x.

[189] Memoirs des Inscrip. tom. ix. p. 542.

[190] See the Regal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England.

[191] And printed by Pynson A. D. 1508.

[192] Lib. v. cap. 8.

[193] Pliny Nat. Hist. lib. x. cap. 8.

[194] Peacham's Complete Gentleman, p. 183.

[195] Epist. Winifred. See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. ii. p. 221.

[196] See p. 3. sec. iii.

[197] This charter was granted A. D. 821. Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. i. p. 100.

[198] See the whole of the curious will in Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent, p. 540.

[199] See p. 4. sec. v.

[200] Lidgate presented this poem to king Henry VI. when that monarch held his court at Bury. The presentation MS. is yet extant in the Harleian Library, No. 2278.

[201] Walton's Hist. of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 221.

[202] Aira Accipitris.

[203] Trente fauconniers à cheval, chargez d'oiseaux. Froissart's Chron. vol. i. cap. 210.

[204] Ou en riviere. Ibid.

[205] Tous jours en riviere. Ibid. cap. 140.

[206] Garrick's Collect. of old Plays, K. vol. x.

[207] Canterbury Tales.

[208] Bury St. Edmund's, in Suffolk.

[209] That is, to the windward; I use the author's own words.

[210] MS. Harl. 6395. Merry Passages and Jeasts, art. 223.

[211] Tiberius, C. vi.

[212] Julius. A. vi.

[213] Marked 2 B. vii.

[214] [The fowls before the falconer in the original drawing are placed below in the present engraving, to accommodate it to the page.]

[215] Johan. Sarisburiensis, lib. i. cap. 4.

[216] See p. 4. sec. v.

[217] Hall in the life of Henry VIII. sub an. xvi.

[218] These observations are taken from "The Boke of Saint Albans;" a subsequent edition says, "at least a note under."

[219] "A Woman killed with Kindness," third edition, 1617. Garrick's Coll. E. vol. iv.

[220] MS. Harl. 1419.

[221] "Ke en escrit trove, si cum io lis, el livere al bon Rei Edward." MS. Harl. 978.

[222] MS. Harl. 2340.

[224] In nomine Domini volatilia cœli erunt sub pedibus tuis—Vicit Leo de tribu Juda radix David Alleluya—Quem iniquus homo ligavit, Dominus per adventum suum solvet.

[225] Carta de Forresta, cap. xi.

[226] Rot. Parl. 34 Ed. III.

[227] Ibid. 37 Ed. 111.

[228] A. D. 1337. Regist. Adami Orleton. Epis. Wint. fol. 56.

[229] A hawk was called a nyesse, or an eyesse, from her having watery eyes.

[230] Stat. xi. Hen. VII.

[231] Stat. xi. Hen. VII.

[232] Expen. Hosp. Reg. Ed. III. MS. Cott. Nero, C. viii. p. 275

[233] Between this and the next line the author makes the following observation: "These ben hawkes of toure, and ben bothe illured to be called and reclaymed." Jewel for Gentrie. Lond. 1614.

[234] Stow's Survey of London.

[235] The sheldrake is a species of wild fowl.

[236] Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, book v. chap. 8. edit Lond. 1660.

[237] Harleian, MS. 2284.

[238] Jewel for Gentrie. Lond. 1614.

[239] Testament of Love, book ii.

[240] Knight of the Swan, Garrick's Collect. K. vol. x.

[241] Equos cursores. Malmsb. de Gest. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. cap. 6.

[242] I have followed the translation published by Mr. White, of Fleet-street, A. D. 1772. See Stow's Survey of London, and republished with additions by Strype. [The translation of Fitzstephen published by Mr. White, was made by the late Dr. Samuel Pegge.]

[243] "Syr Bevys of Hampton," black letter, without date, printed by Wm. Copland. Garrick's Collect. K. vol. ix.

[244] Bourne Antiq. Vulgares, chap. xxiv.

[245] Probably the elder Randel Holme of Chester, one of the city heralds. MS. Harl. 2150 fol. 235.

[246] The thirty-first of Henry VIII.

[247] That is Shrove Tuesday.

[248] Probably the younger Randel Holme.

[249] MS. Harl. 2125.

[250] A. D. 1665. and 5 Charles II.

[251] In his Survey of the Town of Stamford, first printed A. D. 1646. chap. 10.

[253] Bernado de Nictum pro uno cursorio hardo empto de eodem, xxv. marc. Compot. Garderoba. An. xi. Ed. III. MS. Cot. Nero, C. viii. fol. 219.

[254] Michali de la Were Scut. Regis Navarr. present domino Regi duos equos cursores ex parte dono Domini sui, de dono Regis. C. sol. Ibid.

[255] MS. Harl. 4690, written early in the fourteenth century.

[256] Peer or equal.

[257] A French word, signifying a large powerful horse.

[258] Steed, rabbit, nor camel.

[259] Lib. iv. fat. 3. Edit. 1599.

[260] Poem of Covetice, quoted by Warton. Hist. English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 316.

[261] John Northbrooke.

[262] Anatomy of Melancholy, part. ii. sec. 2, chap. 4, edit. 1660.

[263] Pills to purge Melancholy, fourth edit. 1719, vol. ii. p. 53.

[264] Ency. Brit, under Race.

[265] Ibid.

[266] Probably Matthew Thomas Baskervile, whose name appears at the end; it was written about the year 1690. MS. Harl. 4716.

[267] Dated Sept. 11, A.D. 1711. Spectator, vol. iii. No. 173.

[268] Olaii Worm. Lit. Run. p. 129. Barthol. p. 420. Pontoppidan's Hist. Norway, p. 248.

[269] Claudius, B. iv.

[270] Tiberius, C. vi.

[271] Canterbury Tales.

[272] Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, p. 187. edit. 1622.

[273] Engraving 4, p. 13.

[274] Engraving 5, p. 15.

[275] See book i. ch. i. sec. xvii. p. 21.

[276] Leland's Collect. vol. iv. p. 278.

[277] Nichols's Progresses, vol. ii.

[278] Arcübalista in Latin, and also frequently steel bow in English, because the horns were usually made with steel.

[279] Camden's Remains.

[280] Nichol. Trivet. Annal.

[281] See Manners and Customs of the English, vol. i.

[282] Serres, and also most of our own historians. Froissart praises the skill of the Genoese cross-bowmen upon another occasion, saying, "They shot so surely, that lightly they myst not of their level." Vol. iv. chap. 38. fol. 47. English translation, [by Lord Berners,] and in several other places.

[283] Ascham's Toxophilus.

[284] 2 B. vii.

[285] 19 C. viii. dated 1496.

[286] Stat. 29 Hen. VII. A. D. 1508.

[287] Stat. 6 Hen. VIII. cap. 13.

[288] Stat. 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 17.

[289] History of London, book ii. p. 482.

[290] Stat. temp. Ed. II. apud Winton.

[291] Heywood's Epigrams and Proverbs, 1566. ch. 13.

[292] Stow's Survey of London, by Strype, vol. ii. p. 257. Stow died A. D. 1605.

[293] Ann. 8 Jacobi prim. Ibid.

[294] Stow's Survey, by Strype, vol. i. p. 250.

[295] Gesta Grayorum, fol. 18, printed 1594. Garrick's Collect. C. vol. 14.

[296] Maitland's London, book v. chap. i.

[297] "Archerye revived," by Robert Shotterel and Thomas D'Urfey, 1676; p. 53.

[298] Alluding, I presume, to tennice, or the balloon ball.

[299] Archæologia, vol. vii. p.58.

[300] In his "Toxophilus, or the schole of shooting," written in 1544, first published in 1571, republished by Mr. James Bennet in 1761.

[301] "Geste of Robyn Hode." Garrick's Collect. K. vol. x.

[302] Prologue to Canterbury Tales.

[303] Lib. Compotis Garderobæ sub an. 4 Ed. II. page 53, is this entry, Pro duodecim flecchiis cum pennis de pavonæ emptis pro rege, de 12 den.; that is, For twelve arrows plumed with peacocks' feathers, bought for the king, twelve pence. MS. Cott. Lib. Nero, C. viii.

[304] Country Contentments, 1615, chap. viii. p. 107.

[305] Ibid.

[306] Ascham, p. 129, et infra.

[307] Country Contentments.

[308] Survey of Cornwall, by Richard Carew, Esq. 1602. B. i. p. 73.

[310] 2 B. vii.

[311] See most of our historians.

[312] An. 7 Hen. VIII. fol. 56

[313] Archæologia, vol. vii. p. 58.

[314] Black letter, without date. Imprinted at London upon the Three Crane Wharfe, by Willyam Copland. Garrick's Collect. Old Plays, K. vol. x. Dr. Percy, bishop of Dromore, says, "There is a more ancient copy printed by Wynkin de Worde, preserved in the archives of the public library at Cambridge." Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. i.

[315] King Edward IV., I presume, is meant by the poet, for in one of the lines we read "Edward our comely kynge". Anachronisms of this kind were common enough in the old ballads.

[316] That is, he shall lose it, or rather, it shall be forfeited.

[317] Black letter, without date, and printed also by Copland in Lothbury. Its title is, The Names of the Three Archers; the whole ballad, with some small variations, is in the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. i. p. 154, &c. This copy is bound up in the same volume of the Garrick Collection of Old Plays with the Geste of Robyn Hode.

[318] Twenty score paces, says the song.

[319] I rather think the poet meant an arrow shot "compass," for the pricke or wand was a "mark of compass," that is, the arrow in its flight formed the segment of a circle. See sec. xiv. p. 62.