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with walls of tremendous thickness, situated in the centre of the other buildings, from which, however, it was usually detached. Here, in case of the outward defences being gained, the garrison retreated to make their last stand. The donjon contained the great hall, and principal rooms of state for solemn occasions, and also the prison of the fortress; from which last circumstance we derive the modern and restricted use of the word dungeon. Ducange (voce DUNJO) conjectures plausibly, that the name is derived from these keeps being usually built upon a hill, which in Celtic is called DUN. Borlase supposes the word came from the darkness of the apartments in these towers, which were thence figuratively called Dungeons; thus deriving the ancient word from the modern application of it.

Note 7. Stanza vi.

Well was he arm'd from head to heel,
In mail and plate, of Milan steel.

This affront could only be expiated by a joust with sharp lances. In the course, Dalzell left his helmet unlaced, so that it gave way at the touch of his antagonist's lance, and he thus avoided the shock of the encounter. This happened twice-In the third encounter, the handsome Courtenay lost two of his front teeth. As the Englishman complained bitterly of Dalzell's fraud in not fastening his helmet, the Scottishman agreed to run six courses more, each champion staking in the hand of the king two hundred pounds, to be forfeited if, on entering the lists, any unequal advantage should be detected. This being agreed to, the wily Scot demanded, that Sir Piers, in addition to the loss of his teeth, should consent to the extinction of one of his eyes, he himself having lost an eye in the fight of Otterburn. As Courtenay demurred to this equalization of optical powers, Dalzell demanded the forfeit; which, after much altercation, the king appointed to be paid The artists of Milan were famous in the middle ages and valour. This must appear to the reader a singular to him, saying, he surpassed the English both in wit for their skill in armoury, as appears from the follow-specimen of the humour of that time. I ing passage, in which Froissart gives an account of the preparations made by Henry, Earl of Hereford, after- Jockey Club would have given a different decision from Henry IV. wards Henry IV., and Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, Earl Mareschal, for their proposed combat in the lists of Coventry. « These two lords made ample provision of all things necessary for the combat; and the Earl of Derby sent off messengers to Lombardy, to have armour from Sir Galeas, Duke of Milan. The duke complied with joy, and gave the knight, called Sir Francis, who had brought the message, the choice of all his armour, for the Earl of Derby. When he had selected what he wished for in plated and mail armour, the Lord of Milan, out of his abundant love for the earl, ordered four of the best armourers in Milan to accompany the knight to England, that the Earl of Derby might be more completely armed.»-JONES' Froissart, vol. IV, p. 597.

Note 8. Stanza vi.
The golden legend bore aright,

WHO CHECKS AT ME, TO DEATH IS DIGHT.

The crest and motto of Marmion are borrowed from the following story. Sir David de Lindsay, first Earl of Crawford, was, among other gentlemen of quality, attended during a visit to London, in 1390, by Sir William Dalzell, who was, according to my authority, Bower, not only excelling in wisdom, but also of a lively wit. Chancing to be at the court, he there saw Sir Piers Courtenay, an English knight, famous for skill in tilting, and for the beauty of his person, parading the palace, arrayed in a new mantle, bearing for device an embroidered falcon, with this rhyme,

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Note 9. Stanza xi.

They hail'd Lord Marmion.
They hail'd him Lord of Fontenaye,
Of Lutterward, and Scrivelbaye,

Of Tamworth tower and town.

suspect the

Lord Marmion, the principal character of the present romance, is entirely a fictitious personage. In earlier times, indeed, the family of Marmion, lords of Fontenay in Normandy, was highly distinguished. Robert de Marmion, Lord of Fontenay, a distinguished follower of the Conqueror, obtained a grant of the castle and town of Tamworth, and also of the manor of Scrivelby, in Lincolnshire. One, or both, of these noble possessions was held by the honourable service of being the royal champion, as the ancestors of Marmion had formerly been to the Dukes of Normandy. But after the castle and demesne of Tamworth had passed through four successive barons from Robert, the family became extinct in the person of Philip de Marmion, who died in 20th Edward I. without issue male. He was succeeded in his castle of Tamworth by Alexander de Freville, who married Mazera, his grand-daughter. Baldwin de Freville, Alexander's descendant, in the tle of Tamworth, claimed the office of royal champion, reign of Richard I., by the supposed tenure of his casand to do the service appertaining; namely, on the day horse, into Westminster Hall, and there to challenge the of coronation, to ride completely armed, upon a barbed combat against any who would gainsay the king's title." But this office was adjudged to Sir John Dymocke, to whom the manor of Scrivelby had descended by another of the co-heiresses of Robert de Marmion; and it remains in that family, whose representative is Hereditary Champion of England at the present day. The family and possessions of Freville have merged in the Earls of Ferrars: I have not, therefore, created a new family, but only revived the titles of an old one in an imaginary personage.

It was one of the Marmion family who, in the reign of Edward II., performed that chivalrous feat before the very castle of Norham, which Bishop Percy has woven into his beautiful Ballad, « The Hermit of Warkworth.»> The story is thus told by Leland:

«The Scottes came yn to the marches of England, and destroyed the castle of Werk and Herbotel, and overran much of Northumberland marches.

«At this tyme Thomas Gray and his friends defended Norham from the Scottes.

<< It were a wonderful processe to declare, what mischefes cam by hungre and asseges, by the space of xi yeres in Northumberland; for the Scottes became so proude after they had got Berwick, that they nothing esteemed the Englishmen.

« About this tyme there was a great feste made yn Lincolnshir, to which came many gentlemen and ladies; and amonge them one lady brought a heaulme for a man of were, with a very rich creste of gold, to William Marmion, knight, with a letter of commandment of her lady, that he should go into the daungerest place in England, and ther to let the heaulme be seene and known as famous. So he went to Norham; whither within 4 days of cumming cam Philip Maubray, guardian of Berwicke, having yn, his bande 40 men of armes, the very flour of men of the Scottish marches.

<< Thomas Gray, capitayne of Norham, seynge this, brought his garison afore the barriers of the castle, behind whom cam William, richly arrayed, as al glittering in gold, and wearing the heaulme, his lady's

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Then said Thomas Gray to Marmion, 'Sir knight, ye be cum hither to fame your helmet: mount upon yowr horse, and ryde like a valiant man to yowr foes even here at hand, and I forsake God if I rescue not thy body deade or alyve, or I myself will dye for it.'

"

Whereupon he took his cursere, and rode among the throng of ennemyes; the which layed sore stripes on hym, and pulled hym at the last out of his sadel to the grounde.

a Then Thomas Gray with al the hole garrison, lette prick yn among the Scottes, and so wondid them and their horses, that they were overthrown; and Marmion, sore beten, was horsid agayn, and, with Gray, persewed the Scottes yn chase. There were taken 50 horse of price: and the women of Norham brought them to the foote men to follow the chase.»

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embassies into Scotland. This is alluded to in Stanza XXI. p. 64.

Note 11. Stanza xiii. '

Sir Hugh the Heron hold, Baron of Twisel, and of Ford, And Captain of the Hold.

Were accuracy of any consequence in a fictitious narrative, this castellan's name ought to have been William; for William Heron of Ford was husband to the famous Lady Ford, whose syren charms are said to have cost our James IV. so dear. Moreover, the said William. Heron was, at the time supposed, a prisoner in Scotland, being surrendered by Henry VIII. on account of his share in the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford. His wife, represented in the text as residing at the court of Scotland, was, in fact, living in her own castle at, Ford.-See Sir RICHARD HERON'S curious Genealogy of the Heron Family.

Note 12. Stanza xiii.
The whiles a northern harper rude
Chaunted a rhyme of deadly feud,-

How the fierce Thirlwalls, and Ridleys all, etc. This old Northumbrian ballad was taken down froin

the recitation of a woman eighty years of age, mother of one of the miners in Alston-moor, by an agent for the lead mines there, who communicated it to my friend and correspondent, R. Surtees, Esquire, of Mainsfort. She had not, she said, heard it for many years; but when she was a girl, it used to be sung at merry-makings, « till the roof rung again.»> To preserve this curious, though rude rhyme, it is here inserted. ludicrous turn given to the slaughter marks that wild and disorderly state of society, in which a murder was not merely a casual circumstance, but, in some cases, an exceedingly good jest. The structure of the ballad resembles the « Fray of Support,» having the same irregular stanza and wild chorus.

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The

3 Skelp signifies slap, or rather is the same word which was originally spelled Schlap.

4 Hold their jaw, a vulgar expression still in use.

Got stolen, or were plundered; a very likely termination of the fray.

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Note 13. Stanza xviii.

James back'd the cause of that mock prince,
Warbeck, that Flemish counterfeit,

Who on the gibbet paid the cheat.
Then did I march with Surrey's power,

What time we razed old Ayton tower.

The story of Perkin Warbeck, or Richard, Duke of York, is well known. In 1496, he was received honourably in Scotland; and James IV., after conferring upon him in marriage his own relation, the Lady Catherine Gordon, made war on England in behalf of his pretensions. To retaliaté an invasion of England, Surrey advanced into Berwickshire at the head of considerable forces, but retreated after taking the inconsiderable fortress of Ayton. Ford, in his Dramatic Chronicle of Perkin Warbeck, makes the most of this inroad:

SURREY. Are all our braving enemies shrunk back,

Hid in the fogges of their distemper'd climate,
Not daring to behold our colours wave
In spight of this infected ayre? Can they'
Looke on the strength of Cundrestine defac't;`
The glorie of Heydonhall devasted; that
Of Edington cast downe; the pile of Fulden
Overthrowne: And this, the strongest of their forts,
Old Ayton Castle, yeelded and demolished,
And yet not peepe abroad? the Scots are bold,
Hardie in battayle, but it seems the cause
They undertake considered, appeares
Unjoynted in the frame on 't.

Note 14. Stanza xix.

For here be some have prick'd as far,
On Scottish ground, as to Dunbar;'
Have drunk the monks of St Bothan's ale,
And driven the beeves of Lauderdale;
Harried the wives of Greenlaw's goods,

And given them light to set their hoods.
The garrisons of the English castles of Wark, Nor-
ham, and Berwick, were, as may be easily supposed,

very

troublesome neighbours to Scotland. Sir Richard Maitland of Ledington wrote a poem, called « The Blind Baron's Comfort;» when his barony of Blythe, in Lauderdale, was harried by Rowland Foster, the Eng

In explanation of this ancient ditty, Mr Surtees has furnished me with the following local memorandum:Willimoteswick, the chief seat of the ancient family of Ridley, is situated two miles above the confluence of the Allon and Tyne. It was a house of strength, as appears from one oblong tower, still in tolerable preservation. It has been long in possession of the Blacket family. Hardriding Dick is not an epithet referring to horsemanship, but means Richard Ridley of Hardriding,9 the seat of another family of that name, which, in the time of Charles I. was sold on account of expenses incurred by the loyalty of the proprietor, the immediate ancestor of Sir Matthew Ridley. Will of the Wa' seems to be William Ridley of Waltown, so called from its situation on the great Roman Wall. Thirlwall Castle, whence the clan of Thirlwalls derived their name, is situated on the small river of Tippel, near the western boundary of Northumberland. It is near the wall, and takes its name from the rampart having been thirled; i. e. pierced, or breached, in its vicinity. Featherstone Castle lies south of the Tyne, towards Alston-moor. Albany Featherstonhaugh; the chief of that ancient family, made a figure in the reign of Edward VI. Alish captain of Wark, with his company, to the numfeud did certainly exist between the Ridleys and Fea-ber of 300 men. They spoiled the poetical knight of therstones, productive of such consequences as the bal5000 sheep, 200 nolt, 30 horses and mares; the whole lad narrates. 24 Oct. 22do Henrici 8vi." Inquisitio furniture of his house of Blythe, worth 100 pounds capt. apud Hautwhistle, sup. visum corpus Alexandri Scots (1. 8: 6: 8), and every thing else that was port. Featherston, Gen. apud Grensilhaugh, felonice interable. «This spoil was committed the 16th day of Mayfecti, 22 Oct. per Nicolaum Ridley de Unthanke, Gen. 1570, (and the said Sir Richard was threescore and Hugon Ridle, Nicolaum Ridle, et alios ejusdem nominis. fourteen years of age, and grown blind,) in time of Nor were the Featherstones without their revenge; for, peace; when nane of that country lippened (expected) 36to Henrici 8vi, we have-Utlagatio Nicolai Feathersuch a thing.»« The Blind Baron's Comfort» consists ston, ac Thone Nyxson, etc., etc., pro homicidio Will in a string of puns on the word Blythe, the name of the lands thus despoiled. Like John Littlewit, he had « a conceit left him in his misery,-a miserable conceit.>> The last line of the text contains a phrase, by which the Borderers jocularly intimated the burning a house When the Maxwells, in 1685, burned the castle of Lochwood, they said they did so to give the Lady Johnstone Nor was the phrase inapplilight to set her hood.>> cable; for, in a letter, to which I have mislaid the reference, the Earl of Northumberland writes to the king and council, that he dressed himself, at midnight, at Warkworth, by the blaze of the neighbouring villages, burned by the Scottish marauders.

Ridle de Morale.

1 Neck.

Punch.

4 Bellowing.

s Belly. Silly slut. The Border Bard calls her so, because she was weeping for her slain husband; a loss which he seems to think might be soon repaired.

The Bailiff of Haltwhistle seems to have arrived when the fray was over. This supporter of social order is treated with characteristic irreverence by the moss-trooping poet.

An iron pot with two cars.

• Willimoteswick was, in prior editions, confounded with Ridley Hall, situated two miles lower, on the same side of the Tyne, the hereditary seat of William C. Lowes, Esq.

Ridley, the bishop and martyr, was, according to some authorities, born at Hardriding, where a chair was preserved, called the Bishop's chair. Others, and particularly his biographer and namesake Dr Glocester Ridley, assign the honour of the martyr's birth to Willimoteswick.

"

Note 15. Stanza xxi.
The priest of Shoreswood.

This churchman seems to have been a-kin to Welsh

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Note 18. Stanza xxvii.
The summon'd Palmer came in place;

In his black mantle was he clad,
With Peter's keys, in cloth of red,
On his broad shoulders wrought.

the vicar of St. Thomas of Exeter, a leader among the Cornish insurgents in 1549. This man, says Hollinshed, << had many good things in him. He was of no great stature, but well set, and mightilie compact: He was a very good wrestler; shot well, both in the longbow, and also in the cross-bow; he handled his handGun and peece very well; he was a very good wood-it his sole business to visit different holy shrines; traA Palmer, opposed to a Pilgrim, was one who made man, and a hardie, and such a one as would not velling incessantly, and subsisting by charity: whereas give his head for the polling, or his beard for the wash- the Pilgrim retired to his usual home and occupations, ing. He was a companion in any exercise of activitie, when he had paid his devotions at the particular spot and of a courteous and gentle behaviour. He descended which was the object of his pilgrimage. of a good honest parentage, being borne at Peneverin, in Cornwall; and yet in this rebellion, an arch-captain, tish canons 1242 and 1296. There is, in the Bannatyne seem to have been the Quæstionarii of the ancient Scotand a principal dooer.»-Vol. IV, p. 958, 4to edition. MS. a burlesque account of two such persons, entitled Simmy and his Brother.» Their accoutrements are thus ludicrously described (I discard the ancient spelling). Syne shaped them up to loup on leas, Two tabards of the tartan;

This model of clerical talents had the misfortune to be hanged upon the steeple of his own church.

Note 16, Stanza xxiii.

And of that grot where olives nod,
Where, darling of each heart and eye,
From all the youth of Sicily,

Sain: Rosalie rotired to God.

«Sante Rosalia was of Palermo, and born of a very noble family, and, when very young, abhorred so much the vanities of this world, and avoided the converse of mankind, resolving to dedicate herself wholly to God Almighty, that she, by divine inspiration, forsook her father's house, and never was more heard of, till her body was found in that cleft of a rock, on that almost inaccessible mountain, where now the chapel is built; and they affirm, she was carried up there by the hands of angels; for that place was not formerly so accessible (as now it is) in the days of the saint; and even now it is a very bad, and steepy, and break-neck way. In this frightful place, this holy woman lived a great many years, feeding only on what she found growing on that barren mountain, and creeping into a narrow and dreadful cleft in a rock, which was always dropping wet, and was her place of retirement, as well as prayer; having worn out even the rock with her knees, in a certain place, which is now open'd on purpose to show it to those who come here. This chapel is very richly adorned; and on the spot where the saint's dead body was discover'd, which is just beneath the hole in the rock, which is open'd on purpose, as I said, there is a very fine statue of marble, representing her in a lying posture, railed in 'all about with fine iron and brasswork; and the altar, on which they say mass, is built just over it.»-Voyage to Sicily and Malta, by Mr John Dryden (son to the poet), p. 107.

Note 17. Stanza xxvi.
Himself still sleeps before his beads

Have mark'd ten aves, and two crceds.

Friar John understood the soporific virtue of his beads and breviary, as well as his namesake in Rabelais. «< But Gargantua could not sleep by any means, on which side soever he turned himself. Whereupon the monk said to him, I never sleep soundly but when I am at sermon or prayers. Let us therefore begin, you and I, the seven penitential psalms, to try whether you shall not quickly fall asleep. The conceit pleased Gargantua very well; and, beginning the first of these psalms, as soon as they came to Beati quorum, they fell asleep, both the one and the other.»>

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The Palmers

They counted nought what their clouts were
When sewed them on, in certain.

Syne clampit up St Peter's keys,

Made of an old red gartane:

St James's shells, on t' other side, shows
As pretty as a partane

Toe,

On Symmye and his brother.

Note 19. Stanza xxix. 1
To fair St Andrews bound,
Within the ocean-cave to pray,

Where good St Rule his holy lay,

From midnight to the dawn of day,

Sung to the billows' sound.

St Regulus (Scottice, St Rule,) a monk of Patræ in Achaia, warned by a vision, is said, A. D. 370, to have sailed westward until he landed at St Andrews in Scotland, where he founded a chapel and tower. The latter is still standing; and, though we may doubt the precise date of its foundation, is certainly one of the most ancient edifices in Scotland. A cave, nearly fronting the ruinous castle of the Archbishops of St Andrews, bears the name of this religious person. It is difficult of access; and the rock in which it is hewed is washed by the German ocean. It is nearly round, about ten feet in diameter, and the same in height. On one side is a sort of stone altar; on the other an aperture into an inner den, where the miserable ascetic, who inhabited this dwelling, probably slept. At full tide egress and regress are hardly practicable. colonised the metropolitan see of Scotland, and converted the inhabitants in the vicinity, he has some reason to complain, that the ancient name of Killrule (Cella Reguli) should have been superseded, even in favour of the tutelar saint of Scotland. The reason of the change was, that St Rule is said to have brought to Scotland the reliques of St Andrew.

As Regulus first

Note 20. Stanza xxix.
Thence to Saint Fillan's blessed well,
Whose spring can frenzied dreams dispel,
And the crazed brain restore.

St Fillan was a Scottish saint of some reputation. Although popery is, with us, matter of abomination, yet the common people still retain some of the superstitions connected with it. There are, in Perthshire, several wells and springs dedicated to St Fillan, which are still places of pilgrimage and offerings, even among the protestants. They are held powerful in cases of

madness; and, in some of very late occurrence, lunatics have been left all night bound to the holy stone, in confidence that the saint would cure and unloose them before morning.

CANTO II.

Note 1. Introduction.

The scenes are desert now, and bare,
Where flourish'd once a forest fair.

Ettrick Forest, now a range of mountainous sheepwalks, was anciently reserved for the pleasure of the royal chase. Since it was disparked, the wood has been, by degrees, almost totally destroyed, although, wherever protected from the sheep, copses soon arise without any planting. When the king hunted there, he often summoned the array of the country to meet and assist his sport. Thus, in 1528, James V. «made proclamation to all lords, barons, gentlemen, landwardmen, and freeholders, that they should compear at Edinburgh, with a month's victuals, to pass with the king where he pleased, to danton the thieves of Teviot dale, Annandale, Liddesdale, and other parts of that country; and also warned all gentlemen that had good dogs, to bring them, that he might hunt in the said country, as he pleased: The whilk the Earl of Argyle, the Earl of Huntley, the Earl of Athole, and so all the rest of the gentlemen of the Highlands, did, and brought their hounds with them in like manner to hunt with the king, as he pleased.

<< The second day of June the king passed out of Edinburgh to the hunting, with many of the nobles and gentlemen of Scotland with him, to the number of twelve thousand men; and then past to Meggitland, and hounded and hawked all the country and bounds: that is to say, Crammat, Pappert-law, St Marylaws, Carlavirick, Chapel, Ewindoores, and Longhope. I heard say, he slew, in these bounds, eighteen score

of harts.»>

These huntings had, of course, a military character, and attendance upon them was a part of the duty of a vassal. The act for abolishing ward, or military tenures, in Scotland, enumerates the services of hunting, hosting, watching, and warding, as those which were in future to be illegal.

Taylor, the water poet, has given an account of the mode in which these huntings were conducted in the Highlands of Scotland, in the seventeenth century, having been present at Braemar upon such an occasion: << There did I find the truly noble and right honourable lords, John Erskine, Earl of Mar; James Stuart, Earl of Murray; George Gordon, Earl of Engye, son and heir to the Marquis of Huntley; James Erskine, Earl of Buchan; and John, Lord Erskine, son and heir to the Earl of Mar, and their Countesses, with my much honoured, and my last assured and approved friend, Sir William Murray, knight of Abercarney, and hundred of others, knights, esquires, and their followers; all and every man, in general, in one habit, as if Lycurgus had been there, and made laws of equality: for once in the year, which is the whole month of

1 Pitscottie's History of Scotland, folio edition, p. 143.

August, and sometimes part of September, many of the nobility and gentry of the kingdom (for their pleasure) do come into these Highland countries to hunt: where they do conform themselves to the habit of the Highland-men, who, for the most part, speak nothing but Irish; and, in former time, were those people which were called the Red-Shanks. Their habit isshoes, with but one sole a-piece; stockings (which they call short hose); made of a warm stuff of diverse colours which they call tartan; as for breeches, many of them, nor their fore fathers, never wore any, but a jerkin of the same stuff that their hose is of; their garters being bands or wreathes of hay or straw; with a plaid about their shoulders; which is a mantle of diverse colours, much finer and lighter stuff than their hose; with blue flat caps on their heads; a handkerchief, knit with two knots, about their necks: and thus they are attired. Now their weapons are-long bows and forked arrows, swords and targets, harquebusses, muskets, durks, and Lochaber-axes. these arms I found many of them armed for the hunting. As for their attire, any man, of what degree soever, that comes amongst them, must not disdain to wear it; for if they do, then they will disdain to hunt, or willingly to bring in their dogs; but if men be kind unto them, and be in their habit, then are they conquered with kindness, and the sport will be plentiful, This was the reason that I found so many noblemen and gentlemen in those shapes. But to proceed to the hunting:

With

« My good Lord of Mar having put me into that shape, I rode with him from his house, where I saw the ruins of an old castle, called the castle of Kindroghit. It was built by King Malcolm Canmore (for a hunting house), who reigned in Scotland when Edward the Confessor, Harold, and Norman William reigned in England. I speak of it, because it was the last house I saw in those parts; for I was the space of twelve days after, before I saw either house, corn-field, or habitation, for any creature, but deer, wild-horses, wolves, and such like creatures,-which made me doubt that I should never have seen a house again.

«Thus, the first day, we travelled eight miles, where there were small cottages, built on purpose to lodge in, which they call Lonquhards. I thank my good Lord Erskine, he commanded that I should always be lodged in his lodging: the kitchen being always on the side of a bank: many kettles and pots boiling, and many spits turning and winding, with great variety of cheer,— as venison baked; sodden, rost, and stewed beef; mutton, goats, kid, hares, fresh salmon, pigeons, hens, capons, chickens, partridge, muir-coots, heath-cocks, caperkellies, and termagants; good ale, sacke, white and claret, tent (or allegant), with most potent aquavitæ.

« All these, and more than these, we had continually in superfluous abundance, caught by falconers, fowlers, fishers, and brought by my lord's tenants and purveyors to victual our camp, which consisteth of fourteen or fifteen hundred men and horses. The manner of the hunting is this: Five or six hundred men do rise early in the morning, and they do disperse themselves divers ways; and seven, eight, or ten miles compass, they do bring, or chase in the deer, in many herds (two, three, or four hundred in a herd), to such or such a place, as the noblemen shall appoint them; then, when day is come, the lords and gentlemen of their com

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