fuite, fute (M. E.), O. Fr. fuite (voie de cerf qui fuit), track, trace, foot. Gawaine: feute. Will of Palerne (90): foute. Some beasts were called of the sweet fute, and some of the stinking fute. The lists of the beasts which should come under either heading vary somewhat; some that are placed by the "Boke of St. Albans" under "Swete fewte" coming under the other category in the MS. Harl., 2340.
| In "Boke of St. Albans." | In Harl. MS. 2340, fol. 50b. |
|---|---|
| Beasts of "Swete fewte." | |
| The Buck, the Doo, the Beere, the Reynd, the Elke, the Spycard, the Otre, and the Martwn. | The Buke, the Doo, the Ber, the Reyne der, the Elke, the Spycard. |
| Beasts of the "Stinking fewte." | |
| The Roobucke, the Roo, the Fulmard, the Fyches, the Bauw, the Gray, the Fox, the Squirrel, the Whitecat, the Otyr, the Stot, the Pulcatt. | The Fulmard, the Fechewe, the Catt, the Gray, the Fox, the Wesyll, the Marteron, the Squirrel, the Whyterache, the Otyr, the Stote, the Polcatte. |
In Roy Modus the beasts are also divided into bestes doulces and bestes puans. The reasons for doing so are also given (fol. lxii.): "Les bestes doulces sont: le cerf, la biche, le dain, le chevreul et le lièvre. Et sont appelées doulces pour trois causes: La première si est que d'elles ne vient nulle mauvais senteur; la seconde, elles ont poil de couleur aimable, lequel est blond ou fauve; la tierce cause, ce ne sont mie bestes mordans comme les autres cincq, car elles n'ont nulz dens dessus; et pour ces raisons puent bien estre nommées bestes doulces." Under the bestes puans are classed the wild boar, the wild sow, the wolf, the fox, and the otter.
the man that lets loose the greyhounds (Blome, p. 27); from veltraria, a dog leader or courser; originally one who led the dogs called veltres, viautres (see Veltres). In Gallo-Latin, Veltrahus. It has been asserted that the word fewterer is a corruption of vautre or viautre, a boarhound, but although both evidently owe their origin to the same parent-word, fewterer can scarcely be derived from vautre, a boarhound. It was only in the Middle Ages in France that the word vautre, from originally meaning a powerful greyhound, was applied to a large boarhound. Fewterers in England appear invariably as attendants on greyhounds, not boarhounds. Another derivation has been also given from fewte, foot or track, a fewterer being, according to this, a huntsman who followed the track of the beast. But venator was the contemporary designation for a huntsman, and as far as we can ascertain the fewterer was always merely a dog-leader.
forloyng, forlogne, from the Fr. fort loin. G. de F. says, "flies far from the hounds," i.e. having well distanced them ("Fuit de fort longe aux chiens, c'est a dire que il les ait bien esloinhés"). Hounds are said to be hunting the forlonge when the deer is some way in front of them, or when some of the hounds have got away with the deer and have outpaced the rest. As our MS. (p. 173) says, the forlogne should be blown if the stag has run out of hearing of hound and horn, but it should not be blown in a park. In old French hunting literature it is an expression one constantly comes across.
Twici, writing almost a hundred years earlier than the Duke of York, says: "The hart is moved and I do not know where the hart is gone, nor the gentlefolk, and for this I blow in that manner. What chase do we call this? We call that chase The chase of the forloyng."
Forloyneth: "When a hound meeteth a chase and goeth away with it far before the rest then we say he forloyneth" (Turber., ed 1611, p. 245).
According to the laws of Canute the fox was neither reckoned as a beast of venery nor of the forest. In Manwood's Forest Laws he is classed as the third beast of chase (p. 161), as he is also in Twety and Gyfford, and the "Boke of St. Albans."
Although early records show that the English Kings kept their foxhounds, we hear nothing of their having participated in this sport, but they seem to have sent their hounds and huntsmen about the country to kill foxes, probably as much for the value of the pelt as for relieving the inhabitants of a thievish neighbour.
In Edward's I.'s Wardrobe Accounts, 1299-1300, appear some interesting items of payments made to the huntsman for his wages and the keep of the hounds and his one horse for carrying the nets. These allusions to nets throw an interesting light on the fox-hunting of those days. William de Blatherwyke, or, as he is also called, William de Foxhunte, and William Fox-dog-keeper, had besides their wages an allowance made to them for clothes and winter and summer shoes (see Appendix: Hunt Officials). As only one horse was provided, and that to carry the nets, the huntsman, we must presume, had to hunt on foot, not such an arduous undertaking when we remember that the country was so much more thickly wooded than at present, and that every possible precaution was taken to prevent Reynard's breaking covert.