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618 MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
hounds (canes currentes or raches) which followed the scent. We
hear also of harriers, for, says our author, 'the hare is a good little
beast and much good sport', and offoxhounds, Tor a fox is fair
for the good cry of the hounds'; and Edward IV kept a pack
of otterhounds. Particular attention is given in the hunting
literature to honvblowing and hunting cries. Thus Twici
tells us
Then ye shall begin to blow a long mote and afterwards two short motes
in this manner, Trout, trout, and then trout* tro ro rot, beginning with a long
mote, for every man that is about you, and can skill of venery may know
in what point ye be in your game by your horn.
The cries of the huntsmen, a curious mixture of languages,
seem to be traditional, for they appear with slight variation in
most ofthe manuals of hunting, thus to encourage the hounds
to go forward *Sa, sa, cy, avaunt, sohow' or 'how amy, swef,
mon amy, swef (gently, my friend, gently) or 'illoeques, illo^
eques' (illo loco, there there), possibly, as has been suggested, the
origin of the familiar cry 'Yoicks'.
Vast tracts ofland embracing numberless farms and villages
were set aside for the enjoyment ofthis sport and were protected
by harsh and irksome forest laws imposed to make them *a safe
dwelling place of beasts'. An army of men were engaged in
managing this enormous game preserve : huntsmen and keepers
ofhounds, foresters and warreners, and officers ofthe forest courts
over which the chief forester had supreme control. The beasts
ofthe forest thus protected were the red and the fallow deer, the
roe and the wild boar. The roe, however, ceased to be a pnv
tected 'beast ofthe forest' in the fourteenth century on the ground
that it chased away the other deer; henceforth it was classed as a
*beast ofthe warren'. Sometimes great men also had their prik
vate forests or 'chases', and many more had enclosed parks in
which to preserve deer and to exercise the pleasure of hunting.
The king also claimed, at least over his demesne lands, the
right to take the smaller game, the fox and the hare, the rabbit
and the wild cat, the pheasants and partridges; but the right to
hunt these beasts and fowl ofthe warren, as they were called,
was often granted away to privileged subjects. Indeed, these