ITS INTRODUCTION INTO BRITAIN.
The precise date of the introduction of the pheasant into Great Britain is uncertain, but there is evidence to show that it was prior to the invasion of the Normans,
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 Sanctæ Crucis nostræ in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud Waltham,” edited by Prof. Stubbs from manuscripts in the British Museum, and published in 1861.[119] 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 pitantiæ unicuique canonico: a festo Sancti Michaelis usque ad caput jejunii, aut xii. merulæ, aut ii. agauseæ, aut ii. perdices, aut unus phasianus, reliquis temporibus aut ancæ, aut gallinæ.”
Yarrell, in his “History of British Birds,” gives an extract 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. (1100).
Leland, in his account of the feast given at the inthronisation 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.
ANCIENT VALUE OF GAME.
In the “Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York,”
under date “the xiiijth day of Novembre,” the following entry occurs:—
| “Itm̃. The same day to Richard Mylner of Byndfeld for bringing a present of fesauntes cokkes to the Queene to Westminster | vs̃.” |