him and there break a bough for a mark. But he must remain a great while after, for some time a hart will stall and look about a great while before he will go to his lair, and specially when a great dew is falling, or else sometimes he cometh out again to look about, and to listen and to dry himself, and therefore he should stay long, so as not to frighten him. Then he should fetch his lymer and cast round as it is before said in the chapter of the harbouring of a hart, and take care that neither he nor his hounds make but little noise for dread lest he void.
CHAPTER XXVIII
HOW AN HUNTER SHOULD GO IN QUEST BETWEEN THE PLAINS AND THE WOOD
Also a man may go in quest in the fields in corn, in vines, in gardens, and in other places, where the harts go to their pasture in the fields out of the wood, and he must go forth right early so that he may look at the ground and judge well, and if he sees anything that pleases him he can break boughs and lay his mark and cast round as before is said.
CHAPTER XXIX
HOW A HUNTER SHOULD GO IN QUEST IN THE COPPICE AND THE YOUNG WOOD
Also a man may go in quest among young wood, and although he has been in the morning and (seen) nought, nevertheless he should not neglect to quest with his lymer when it is high day when all the deer have gone to their lairs, for peradventure the hart will sometimes have gone into the wood before the hunter and lymer came to quest for him.
CHAPTER XXX
HOW AN HUNTER SHOULD GO IN QUEST IN GREAT COVERTS AND STRENGTHS
Also a hunter may go in quest and put himself and his lymer in the great thickets by high time of day, as I have said, for it befalleth sometimes that harts are so malicious, that they pasture within themselves, that is to say within their covert, and go not out to the fields nor to the coppices nor to the young wood, especially when they have heard the hounds run before in the forest once or twice. He must have affeeted (trained) his lymer in such a manner that he neither opens nor quests[197] when he hunts in the morning, for he would make the hart void, and that must be by high noon, as I have said, when all beasts are in their lairs. And if his lymer find anything he should hold him short and lead him behind him, and look what deer it is, and if it be anything that pleases him, then he shall sue with his lymer till the time that he has brought it into some thicket, and then he shall break his boughs and take the scantilon and cast round as is before said, and then return home again to the assembly that in England is called a meeting or gathering.