Medieval Hunting (27 page)

This particular picture can additionally be read at another level, and that is in a very personal way. The
bas de page
is such a strange montage of untypical elements that it should perhaps be interpreted in a correspondingly unusual manner. It appears entirely possible that it commemorates, or ‘freeze-frames', a real hunting incident in the Germanic forest of five hundred years ago. The mounted hunter, who features as the central figure in the other Calendar pictures, is the patron of the Book of Hours, and the hunter thrown from his horse is his hunting companion and friend. It is a pleasant thought that the patron may have instructed the artist to include, and thus record forever, this highly memorable incident, this special day, in his personal prayer book. No doubt he afterwards took great pleasure in looking at this superb miniature during long and possibly tedious services in his private chapel.

Medieval and Renaissance man and, to an extent impossible to quantify, woman also, was fascinated by hunting and by the image of the chase. In an age when natural resources probably appeared infinite and the wilderness of nature close at hand, the pursuit of wild quarry must have fulfilled many of the needs of body and mind. For the nobility, hunting cleansed the spirit and counteracted the artificiality and sinfulness of court life. It created the Catholic guilt of pleasure then relieved it by hard exercise and the excitement of the chase. Perhaps the ritualistic procedures at the end of the hunt were a replacement for established religious practice, fulfilling some deep spiritual need to communicate with nature. Some of these instinctive needs and their solutions hold true for modern hunters, but they are seldom expressed in rhyme, song or verse any more, more often in prose form. How-to-do-it books or instructive manuals are, however, a feature of all modern sports and pastimes, including hunting and other field sports. Contemporary instructional literature stresses the ‘right way to do things', and people accept this sensible notion. How can it be otherwise? What keen and interested newcomer to hunting, fishing or shooting would go out without reading at least some literature on practices, dress and equipment? In addition, those of us who are already ‘lerned', gain much continued pleasure from reading and re-reading such texts. Books on field sports, whose modern wisdom is regarded with so much respect are, no more nor less, the equivalents of the medieval hunting books. Modern procedures are now based upon ‘good practice' rather than élitist ritual, and ceremony, still an important element, is now termed ‘tradition'. So, are modern hunters much different from our hunter-ancestors? It seems clear that in respect to the written word they differ but little from those remote aristocratic hunters of the medieval world. The real difference is that most of European society is now literate; therefore all who can read have access to textual information, which is reinforced by the many thousands of hunting, fishing and shooting websites to be found on the Internet. Being conversant with ‘the right way' is no longer an exclusive class and aristocratic prerogative. Over a period of five and a half centuries, the printed word has gradually, but inexorably, eroded and removed that particular bastion of social division. The big difference in methodology is that most hunting is now done on foot with the aid of a rifle or shotgun. Hunting live quarry on horseback with hounds is still practised but it is now the exception, rather than the rule. Indeed in some countries, hunting on horseback is no longer allowed. The development of reasonably priced and accurate firearms has democratised hunting, bringing the pursuit of almost all types of game within reach of most Europeans. Millions of people in Europe are now legitimate hunters. However, it is significant that in spite of the wide availability of hunting, poaching is still a problem in every European country.

Throughout the ensuing centuries, man has continued to hunt, in spite of the shrinkage of wild places, loss of habitat, growth of urban areas, restrictive legislation, party politics and, very importantly, changes in quarry type and populations. In some favoured areas of the world, hunting generates much-needed currency from abroad, and this includes the grouse-moors of Yorkshire and Scotland as well as the more exotic and remote hunting grounds of Africa, Asia and Russia. In most countries of the world, the right to hunt depends not upon rank and status but upon a valid permit and the ability to pay a fee or subscription. In many countries, the bag is not only limited but, particularly with larger game, is specific as to how many individuals of each quarry type may be taken on one permit. Today, there is much national and international control, and hunting is widely recognised as a vital factor in conservation policies of maintaining habitat together with the complex interdependent eco-systems of animal and bird species. It seems ironic that attitudes have come full circle. We now recognise what was obvious to our European ancestors a millennium ago: our own oneness with nature and the irreplaceable functions of hunting in the maintenance and preservation of the planet.

Hunting may be out of fashion in the British Isles at the moment, but there is nothing any individual, or political party, can do to take away man's inbuilt thrill of the chase. For that is the factor that has remained unchanged,
the chase
, the pursuit of a living, wild creature which possesses all the advantages of its wildness. Whether on horseback with hounds, on foot with dog and gun, or wading the stream with rod in hand, the hunt is all, or almost so. The climactic kill is, in a way, immaterial, though sadly, the necessary full-stop to the chase. There are few true hunters who do not experience a momentary pang of regret when coming upon the fallen quarry, be it stag, pheasant, hare or woodcock. It is strange but true that releasing caught quarry, whether fish, feather or fur, does not satisfy the inward hunter. It is peculiarly unfulfilling. There is also the simple but ancient pleasure of putting your quarry in the game-bag and taking it home, being aware that you are providing delicious food for yourself, family and friends. There are exceptions to this kill-and-keep factor, particularly in fishing, such as the necessary release of salmon and sea-trout, caught in some hard-hit British or foreign river, for conservation or re-stocking purposes. However, this does not affect the point regarding the deep atavistic traits of man and the fulfilment of some of those needs by hunting. The medieval authors and hunters perceived the great moral question and ambiguity of hunting. Man needs to hunt to release the pressures of being human, to appreciate the countryside, the seasons, to be aware of the beauty and brevity of life, and the inevitability and sadness of death. He needs to be barbaric in order to be civilised, cruel to be cultured. Many people are still fascinated by hunting and most Europeans have strong feelings either for or against this most ancient of man's pastimes. Not to allow hunting would be a gross, perhaps far reaching, miscalculation of the possible damage to our innermost psyche. We are all the inheritors of hunter-gatherers from not so long ago and the stream of consciousness of our ancient ancestors still runs deep and powerful. As that great hunter and big-game fisher Ernest Hemingway puts it in his terse but beautifully direct and perceptive way:

We were all hunters and it was the start of that wonderful thing, the hunt. There is much mystic nonsense written about hunting but it is something that is probably much older than religion.
⁵

The following abbreviations have been used:

Birrell: Jean Birrell, ‘Peasant deer poachers in the medieval forest', in Richard Britnell and John Hatcher (eds),
Progress and Problems in Medieval England
(Cambridge, 1996), pp. 68–88.

BSA facsimile edn: Dame Juliana Berners,
The Boke of Saint Albans, 1486
, facsimile edition (London, 1899).

Dalby: David Dalby,
Lexicon of the Mediaeval German Hunt
(Berlin, 1965).

H & H: John Cummins,
The Hound and the Hawk, The Art of Medieval Hunting
(London, 1988).

Ldc, 616: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale,
Livre de chasse
, MS fr. 616.

Ldc, Tilander: Gaston Phébus,
Livre de chasse
, ed. Gunnar Tilander,
Cynegetica
, XVIII (Karlshamn, 1971).

MG, 1904: Edward, Duke of York,
The Master of Game
, ed. W.A. and F. Baillie-Grohman (London, 1904).

MG, 1909: Edward, Duke of York,
The Master of Game
, ed. W.A. and F. Baillie-Grohman (London, 1909).

Modus: Gunnar Tilander, (ed.),
Les Livres du roy Modus et de la royne Ratio
, Vol. 1, Société des Anciens Textes Français (Paris, 1932).

Pisanello: Luke Syson and Dillian Gordon,
Pisanello, Painter to the Renaissance Court
(London, 2002).

PTA: M.Y. Offord, (ed.),
The Parlement of the Thre Ages
, Early English Text Society No. 246 (London, 1959; repr. 1967).

Tristan:
Gottfried von Strassburg
Tristan,
trans. and ed. A.T. Hatto (London, 1960; repr. 1967).

Introduction

1.   Nicholas Orme,
Medieval Children
(New Haven and London, 2001; repr. 2002), pp. 133 and 155.

2.   Linda Colley,
Britons, Forging the Nation 1707–1837
(New Haven and London, 1992), pp. 170–1.

3.   Marcel Thomas and François Avril,
The Hunting Book of Gaston Phébus
, Commentary by Wilhelm Schlag (London, 1998), p. 18.

4.   Roger B. Manning,
Hunters and Poachers
(Oxford, 1993), p. 116.

5.   Ralph Whitlock,
Historic Forests
(Bradford-on-Avon, 1979), pp.18 and 21.

6.   H & H, pp. 57–9.

7.   The author is grateful to Professor Anthony J. Pollard for access to, and use of, his unpublished conference paper ‘The 1390 Game Law'.

8.   J. Langton and G. Jones (eds.)
Forests and Chases of Medieval England and Wales,
c
.1000–
c
.1500
(St John's College Research Centre, Oxford, 2010).

9.   Whitlock,
Historic Forests,
p. 21.

10.   Anne Rooney, ‘Hunting in Middle English Literature, 1300–1500' (Ph.D. dissertation, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1985), p. 3.

11.   Richard, Almond, and A.J. Pollard, ‘The Yeomanry of Robin Hood and Social Terminology in Fifteenth-Century England',
Past & Present
, No. 170, February 2001, pp. 52–77.

12.   J.N. Bartlett, ‘The Expansion and Decline of York in the Later Middle Ages',
Economic History Review
, 2nd Series, Vol. XII, 1959–60.

13.   H & H, p. 2.

14.   Ldc, Tilander, p. 55, fol. 4v. ll. 35–7.

15.   PTA, Prologue, p. 1, ll. 7–14.

16.   Ldc, Tilander, p. 51, fol. 3, ll. 3–6.

17.   William Langland,
Piers Plowman
, the C-text, ed. Derek Pearsall (London, 1978), Passus IX, p. 170, l. 223.

18.   MG, 1904, p. 161.

19.   Marcelle Thiébaux,
The Stag of Love: The Chase in Medieval Literature
(Ithaca and London, 1974), p. 22.

Chapter One

1.   Marcel Thomas and François, Avril,
The Hunting Book of Gaston Phébus
(London, 1998), p. 5.

2.   Ldc, Tilander, p. 51, fol. 3, ll. 3–6.

3.   John of Salisbury,
Policraticus
, Bk 1, trans. Joseph B. Pike (London, 1938), pp. 22–5.

4.   
Ibid
., p. 18.

5.   MG, 1904, p. 4.

6.   
Ibid
., p. 5.

7.   
Ibid
., p. 69.

8.   Nicholas Orme,
From Childhood to Chivalry
(London, 1984), p. 82.

9.   
Tristan
, pp. 68–71.

10.   Orme,
From Childhood to Chivalry,
p. 84.

11.   
Ibid.
, p. 84.

12.   
Ibid
., p. 191.

13.   
Ibid
., p. 193.

14.   Marion Wynne-Davies,
Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature
(London, 1989; repr. 1992), pp. 399–400.

15.   Ldc, 616: Reading and learning the names of hounds from scrolls, Ch. 22, fol. 51v. and Practising blowing horns and holloaing, Ch. 26, fol. 54.

16.   Orme,
From Childhood to Chivalry,
p. 41.

17.   Nicholas, Orme,
Medieval Children
(New Haven and London, 2001; repr. 2002), p. 280.

18.   Orme,
From Childhood to Chivalry,
pp. 118 and 191.

19.   H & H, p. 176; A.C., Spearing,
The Gawain Poet: A Critical Study
(Cambridge, 1970), p. 10.

20.   William, Langland,
Piers Plowman
, the C-text, ed. Derek Pearsall (London, 1978), Passus VIII, p. 147, l. 24.

21.   
Ibid.
, p. 147, ll. 28–31.

22.   Robert P. Miller, (ed.),
Chaucer: Sources and Backgrounds
(Oxford, 1977), pp. 180 and 182.

23.   Philippe Contamine,
War in the Middle Ages
, trans. Michael Jones (Oxford, 1984), p. 215.

24.   Pisanello, p. 85.

25.   Spearing,
The Gawain Poet: A Critical Study,
p. 9.

26.   Langland,
Piers Plowman
, ed. Derek Pearsall, Passus IX, p. 172, l. 264.

27.   London, British Library,
The Luttrell Psalter
, Add. MS 42130, fol. 31.

28.   Derek Brewer,
Chaucer in his Time
(London, 1963), p. 187.

29.   William Twiti,
The Art of Hunting, 1327
, ed. Bror Danielsson (Stockholm, 1977), p. 21.

30.   MG, 1904, pp. 202–3.

31.   London, British Library, MS Egerton 1146, Calendar for April, fol. 5v.

32.   Ldc, 616: Making nets and snares from cord with the aid of a ropemaker's spinning wheel, Ch. 25, fol. 53v. and Hunting
par maistrise
, by cunning and skill; catching deer, wild boar and wolves with nets, Ch. 60, fol. 103.

33.   MG, 1909, p. 30.

34.   Anne Rooney,
Hunting in Middle English Literature
(Cambridge, 1993), p. 194.