[203] Shirley MS. Dislavee—obsolete word meaning going beyond bounds, immoderate.
[204] After grease time. See Appendix: Grease Time.
CHAPTER XXXII
HOW A GOOD HUNTER SHALL GO IN QUEST TO HEAR THE HARTS BELLOW
Also a good hunter should go before daybreak to hear the harts bellow which peradventure bellow in the forest in divers parts, and to look by the bellowing of the harts which seemeth to him the greatest. And always hearkening nearer and nearer under the wind, in such wise that when he will begin to sue, that he need nothing but to bring the lymer to the fues. And anon when he seeth that it is a hart that he findeth, uncouple the finders, but not too many, and this, for fear of falling in danger (of losing the right deer), should be done right early as soon as men can see day-light, for in that time the harts chase the hinds, and go hither and thither and abide no while in one place as they do in the right season. And because a man cannot come nigh him with a lymer, it is good to uncouple the hounds, for the hounds will get nigh them quicker and the bolder hounds will soon dissever (separate) the harts from the hinds. The harts bellow in divers manners, according as they be old or young, and according whether they be in a country where they have not heard the hounds, or where they have heard them. Some of them bellow with a full open mouth and often cast up their heads. And these be those that have heard the hounds only a little in the season, and that are well heated and swelled. And sometimes about high noon they bellow as before is said. The others bellow low and great and stooping with the head, and the muzzle towards the earth, and that is a token of a great hart, and an old and a malicious, or that he hath heard the hounds, and therefore dare not bellow or only a few times in the day, unless if it be in the dawning. And the other belloweth with his muzzle straight out before him, bolking and rattling in the throat, and also that is a token of a great and old hart that is assured and firm in his rut. In short all the harts that bellow greatest and mightiest by reason should be greatest and oldest.
CHAPTER XXXIII
HOW THE ASSEMBLY THAT MEN CALL GATHERING SHOULD BE MADE BOTH WINTER AND SUMMER AFTER THE GUISE OF BEYOND THE SEA
The assembly that men call gathering should be made in this manner: the night before that the Lord or the Master of the Game will go to the wood, he must cause to come before him all the hunters and the helps, the grooms and the pages, and shall assign to each one of them their quests in a certain place, and separate the one from the other, and the one should not come into the quest of the other, nor do him annoyance or hinder him. And every one should quest in his best wise, in the manner that I have said; and should assign them the place where the gathering shall be made, at most ease for them all, and the nearest to their quests. And the place where the gathering shall be made should be in a fair mead well green, where fair trees grow all about, the one far from the other, and a clear well or beside some running brook. And it is called gathering because all the men and the hounds for hunting gather thither, for all they that go to the quest should all come again in a certain place that I have spoken of. And also they that come from home, and all the officers that come from home should bring thither all that they need, every one in his office, well and plenteously, and should lay the towels and board clothes all about upon the green grass, and set divers meats upon a great platter[205] after the lord's power. And some should eat sitting, and some standing, and some leaning upon their elbows, some should drink, some laugh, some jangle, some joke and some play—in short do all manner of disports of gladness, and when men be set at tables ere they eat then should come the lymerers and their grooms with their lymers the which have been questing, and every one shall say his report to the lord of what they have done and found and lay the fumes before the lord he that hath any found, and then the Lord or the Master of the hunting by the counsel of them all shall choose which they will move and run to and which shall be the greatest hart and the highest deer. And when they shall have eaten, the lord shall devise where the relays shall go and other things which I shall say more plainly, and then shall every man speed him to his place, and all haste them to go to the finding.
[205] G. de F. (p. 151) says "in great plenty," not "upon a great platter."