Himselfe to welde, like a lyfly man:
And some will have of chose-geseran,
On his doublette but a haberyon;
And some only but a sure gepon,

Over his polrynges reaching to the kne;
And that the sleves eke so long be,
That bis wambras may be cured nere:

A pryckynge palet of plate the cover:
And some wyll have els no viser,

To save his face, but only a naser;

And some will have a payer of plates lighte,

To welde bym well whan that he shall fyghte;
And some will have a target or a spere,
And some a pavede his body for to were,
And some a targe made strong to laste,
And some will have dartes for to caste,
Some a pollax headed of fyne stele,
And picked square for to last wele;

And some a swerde his enemy for to mete,
Aud some wyll have a bow for to shete,
Some an arblaste to standen out a syde,
And some on foote, and some fond to ryde."
CLARIODES, MS.

Who yaf broche and belghe?

Who bot Douke Morgan ?- P. 334, st. 25.

Morgan, agreeable to ancient custom, is represented as solemnizing his accession to the kingdom of Ermonie, by distributing rich ornaments and jewels, the emblems probably of dignity, among his favoured vassals. The coronation of a monarch was always attended with similar marks of splendour and munificence. That of Edward Longshanks is thus described in a MS. chronicle of England, penes the Marquis of Douglas, apparently written about the reign of Henry V.

"And aftur this Kyng Henry reygned his sone Edward, the worthyest knight of al the world, for the honor of Godis grace. And as sone as he myght, aftur that Kyng Henry his fadur was dede, he come to London with a fayr company of prelatis, and of erles, and barons and alle maner of men hym moche honoryd; for in every place that Sir Edwarde rode, the streets were covered over his hede wythe rych clothes of sylke, of carpytes, and of ryche coverings: and therefore, for joye of his comyng, the noble burges of the cite caste oute atte ouper windows, golde and sylver handesfull, in tokenynges of love and worschepefull servyces and reverence. And oute of the condytt of Chepe ran whyte wyne and red, as stremes dothe of water. And thus Kyng Edward was crowned and anoynted as ryght heyr of England, wyth moche honor. And whan he was sete unto his mete, the Kyng Alysandre of Scotlonde came for to do him honor and reverence, with a queyntise [pageant] and an C knyghtes wyth hym wel horsed and arayed, and whan they were lyght adowne of her stedes, they lett hem gone whether that they wold, and who that myght take hem, toke at her own wel wythoute any challenge. And aftur come Symend, Kyng Edward's brother, a curteys knight, an a gentil of renowne, and the Erle of Cornewayle, and the Erle of Glocester, and after hem come the Erle of Pembroke, and eche of hem by herselfe led in her hond an Ç of knyghtes, gaylich disgysed in her armor, and whanne they wer lyght of her horse, and lete hyr gon whether that hym liked, who that myght hem take, have hem still withoute eny lete."

In contemplating this rich picture of feudal grandeur, it is impossible to suppress a sigh, when we reflect how little Alexander III. anticipated, that the ambition of the brother sovereign, to whom he offered his congratulation and honorary attendance, should in future prove the most dreadful scourge by which Scotland was ever visited.

He taught him ich alede,

Of ich maner of glewe.-P. 334, st. 27.

The education of Sir Tristrem, comprising the art of war and of combat, with the mysteries of the chase, skill in music, in poetry, and in the few sedentary games used by the feudal nobility, united all that was necessary, or even decent to be known, by a youth of noble birth. Huon of Bordeaux, disguised as a minstrel's page, gives the following account of his qualifications to a heathen soldan :-"Sire," dit Huon, “je sais muer un epervier, voire un falcen, chasser le cerf, voire le sanglier, et corner quand la bete est prinse, faire la droicture aux chiens, trancher au festin d'un

grand roi ou seigneur, et des tables et echecs en sais autant et plus que homme qui vive."-"Oh! Oh!" se dit Yvoirin, "ces ne sont mie la les faits de valet de menestrier, bien duiroient ils a gentil damoiseau."

On hunting oft he yede,
To swiche alawe he drewe,
Al thus ;

More be couthe of veneri,

Than couthe Manerious.-P. 334, st. 27.

Tristrem is uniformly represented as the patron of the chase, and the first who reduced hunting to a science. Thus the report. of a hunter, upon sight of “a hart in pride of greece," begins, "Before the king I come report to make,

Then hushed and peace for noble Tristrame's sake."

The Noble Art of Venerie, London, 1644.

The Morte Arthur tells us, that "Tristrem laboured ever in hunting and hawking, so that we never read of no gentleman more that so used himself therein. And as the book saith, he began good measures of blowing of blasts of venery, and of chace, and of all manner of vermeins; and all these terms have we yet of hawking and hunting. And therefore the booke of venery, of hawking and hunting, is called the booke of Sir Tristrem : wherefore, as we seemeth, all gentlemen that bear old armes, of right they ought to honour Sir Tristrem, for the goodly termes that gentlemen have and use, and shall to the worldes end, that thereby in a manner all men of worship may dessever a gentleman from a yeoman, and a yeoman from a villaine. For he that is of gentle blood will draw him into gentle latches, and to follow the custome of noble gentlemen." It is not impossible that there may have been some foundation for this belief. The ancient British were as punctilious as the English concerning the rules of hunting, the Welsh laws of which are printed at the end of Davies and Richard's Dictionary. Every huntsman, who was ignorant of the terms suitable to the nine chases, forfeited his horn. Most of our modern hunting terms are, however, of French derivation.

"Sir Tristrem," or "An old Tristrem," seems to have passed into a common proverbial appellation for an expert huntsman. The title of a chapter in The Art of Venerie bears, "How you shall rewarde your houndes when they have killed a hare; which the Frenchmen calleth the rewarde, and sometime the querry, but our old Tristrem calleth it the hallow.'--P. 174. In another passage it is said, "Our Tristrem reckoneth the bore for one of the four beastes of venerie."-Marginal Note, p. 448.

I am ignorant who is meant by Manerious. Du Cange gives us Manerius, as synonymous to Mandaterius, i. e. Villicus. Mr. Ellis suggests, that a work upon the chase may have been compiled by a person designing himself, Regis vel Comitis Manerius, the bailiff of such a king or noble, and that the office may have been confounded with the name.

With haukes white and grey.-P. 335, st. 28.

"The Northern mountains (in Norway) breed faulcons very fierce, but generous, and white ones, that are never shot at, with bows, by the inhabitants, but are held as sacred, unless they do too much hurt and rapine. But if they do mischief, how white and noble soever they be, they shall not escape their arrows. Version of Olaus Magnus, by J. S., London, 1658, p. 200. The estimation in which the Norwegian hawks and falconers were held in England, appears from the fabulous account of Regnar Lodbrog's arrival in Kent, or Northumberland, as given by Brompton and William of Malmesbury.

A cheker he fond bi a cheire.-P. 335, st. 29.

The game of chess is supposed to have been invented in the East, a subject upon which the learned Hyde has poured forth an amazing profusion of Oriental erudition. But it was early known to the northern people; and skill in that interesting game was one of the accomplishments of a Scandinavian hero. It is therefore with great propriety that a Norwegian mariner is introduced as the antagonist of Tristrem. Frequent mention of chess occurs in

ancient romance. In that of Ogier le Danois, Churlot, the dege nerate son of Charlemagne, incensed at losing two games to the young Baldwin, kills him with the massive chess-board. In the beautiful romance of Florence and Blaunche Floure, the hero procures access to the haram of the Soldan of Babylon, where his mistress is confined, by permitting the porter to win from him at chess,-a sacrifice of which every amateur of the game will fully understand the value. A similar stratagem was practised by Huon de Bordeaux in Egypt. But the most splendid game of chess, and which puts to shame even that which the late King of Prussia and Marshal Keith were wont to play, with real soldiers. occurs in the romance of Sir Gaheret. That champion was entertained in the enchanted castle of a beautiful fairy, who engaged him in a party at chess in a large hall, where flags of black and white marble formed the chequer, and the pieces, consisting of massive statues of gold and silver, moved at the touch of the magic rod held by the player. Sir Gaheret, being defeated, was obliged to remain the fairy's prisoner, but was afterwards liberated by his cousin Gawin, who checkmated the mistress of the enchanted chess-board. A similar adventure occurs in the romance of Lancelot du Lac, 2d partie, f. 101.

But it is not in romance alone that we trace the partiality of our ancestors for this amusement. In the laws of Howel Dha, a chess-board is allotted as the reward of the King's principal bard. Sir William de Granville won, for King Edward III., the town and castle of Evreux, by offering to show the French governor of the fortress the most goodly set of chess-men he had ever beheld, provided he would play a game with him for a cup of wine. The French Castellan having for this purpose admitted him within the gate, Sir William slew him with a stroke of his battle-axe, and defended the entrance till a party of his men, who lay in ambush, rushed in, and possessed themselves of the fortress.-FROISSART, translated by Bourchier, folio lxxxvii.

"Thare squyres undyd hyre dere,

Eche man after his manere:
Yppomeden a dere gede unto,

That ful connyngly gen he hit undo,
So feyre that venysou he gan to dight,
That both hym beheld squyre and knight.
The ladye looked out of her pavylon,
And saw bym dight the venyson;

There she had great dainté,

And so bad all that dyd him se;

She saw all that he down droughe,

of buntynge she wist he coude ynoughe;

And thoght in her bert then,

That he was come of gentilimen."

Tristrem schare the brest, etc.-Pp. 336, 337, st. 44, 45, 46, 47.

In an age when knowledge of every kind was rare, there prevailed a natural disposition to attach mystery to the most common trades, and even to the amusements of the period. Arts, but imperfectly known to the professors themselves, were rendered dark and impenetrable to the uninitiated, by the introduction of minute forms, and the use of a peculiar phraseology.

Shrouded by such disguises, ignorance itself assumed the language and port of mysterious knowledge, and the mystic orders of religion and of chivalry were imitated in the inferior associations of mechanics and fellow-crafts. It is therefore no wonder that the chase, the exclusive amusement, or rather the only pacific employment, of the great, should be decorated with an appropriate diction, and rendered solemn by an established code of regulations. The mystery of woods and of rivers" was a serious subject of study to the future candidate for the honours of chivalry. In order to add yet greater splendor to this important art, it was, as has been seen, universally believed, that our hero, Sir Tristrem, was the first by whom the chase was reduced into a science. There are numerons allusions to this circumstance in old authors, and some have been already quoted. But the most respectable testimony is that of Lady Juliana Berners, the venerable Abbess of St. Albans, who, for the instruction of the noble youth of the fifteenth century, did herself deign to compose a treatise upon field sports. The book upon hunting commences thus:

"Beastes of Venerie are of Three Kinds.

"Where so ever ye fare, by frith or by felle,

Mi dere childe, take heed how Tristrem doth you tel How many maner beastis of veneri there were; Lysten to your dame, and she will you lere. Foure maner of beastes of venery there are; The first of them is the hart, the second is the bare, The bore is one of tho, the wolf, and not one moe." Spenser, with the usual richness of his colouring, blazons out Tristrem in his appropriate character of a gallant young forester:

"Him stedfastly he marked, and saw to bee

A goodly youth, of amiable grace,

Yet but a slender slip, that scarce did see
Yet seventeen years, but tall and faire of face,
That sure he deemed him borne of noble race.
All in a woodman's jacket he was clad.

Of Lincolne greene, belayd with silver lace,
And on his head a hood, with aglets spred,
And by his side his hunter's horne be hanging bad.
"Buskius he wore of costliest cordawain,

Pinkd upon gold, and paled part per part,

As then the guise was for each gentle swain;
In his right hand he held a trembling dart,
Whose fellow he before had sent apart,
And in his left he held a sharp boar-speare,
With which he wont to launce the salvage heart

Of many a lion, and of many a bear,

That first unto his hand in chace did happen near."

In answer to the enquiries of Sir Calidore, Tristrem informs him of his name and parentage, and concludes —

"All which my days I have not leudly spent,
Nor spilt the blossom of my tender years

In idless, but, as was convenient,

Have trained been with many noble feres

In gentle thewes, and such like seemly leers;
Mongst which, my most delight bath always been
To hunt the salvage chace, amongst my peers,

Of all that rangeth in the forest green,

Of which none is to me unknown, that ever yet was seen.
"Ne is there hawk which mantleth her on pearch,
Whether high-towring, or accosting low,

But I the measure of her flight do search,
And all her prey, and all her diet know;
Such be our joys, which in these forests grow."

Every department of the chase had its peculiar language and laws; but to have described all these in the romance would have been tediously digressive, and the author has therefore limited himself to the mode of cutting up, or, according to the scientific phrase, breaking, the hart. This was an operation of great skill and nicety, as was also the carving of the venison, when dressed. The dissection required some practical knowledge of anatomy; nay, the very carving of a wild boar, roasted whole, and of the similar cumbrous dainties which loaded a feudal board, was probably no slight trial to the strength of the youthful gallants. The process of breaking the stag is minutely described in the Book of St. Albans, and it may not be improper to insert the directions of the worthy abbess, as an illustration of the text of Thomas of Erceldoune :

"How ye shall breke an Hart.

"And for to speake of the hart while we think on,

My childe, firste ye shal him serve when he shal be undon,

And this is for to say, or ever ye him dyght,

Within bis bornes to lay hym upryght.
At the assay kitte him, that lordes may see
Anon fat or lene, whether that he bee;
Then cut of the coddes the belly even fro,

Or ye begin him to flay, and then shall ye go
At the chaules to begyn, soone as ye may,

And slit him downe to th'assay,

And fro th'assay, euen down to the bely shal ye slyt,
To the pyssil, there the codde was away kit.
Then slit the left legges euen first before,

And then the left legges behynde or ye doe more,
And these other legges vpon the right syde;
Upon the same maner slyt ye that tide,
To go to the chekes looke that y be prest,
And to flay him downe euen to the brest,
And to flay him forth ryght vnto th'assay,
Euen to the place where the codde was cut away.
Then flay the same wyse al that other syde,
But let the tayle of the beast styll theron abyde;
Then shal be him vndoo, my childe, I you rede,
Ryght vpon his own skynne, and lay it on bred,
Take hede of the cutting of the same dere,
And begin first to make the erbere,
Then take out the shoulders, and slitteth anon
The bely to the side, from the corbyn bone,
That is corbins fee, at the death he will be;
Then take out the sewet, that it be not lafte,
For that, my childe, is good for leche crafte;

Then put thyn band softly vnder the brest bone,

And there shal ye take out the erber anon;

Then put out the paunche, and from the paunche chase

Away lyghtly the race, such as he base;

Hold it with a finger, doo as I you ken,

And with the bloud and the grece fill it then,

Looke threde that ye have and nedle thereto,

For sewe it withall or ye more doo.
The small guttes then ye shall out pyt,
From them take the maw, forget not it;
Then take out the liver and lay it on the skynne,
And after that the bladder, without more dyne;
Then dress the numbles first, that Y recke,
Downe the auauncers kerue that cleueth to the necke,
And downe with the boltbrote put them anon,
And kerue vp the flesh there vp to the back bone,
And so foortbe to the fillettes that ye vp arere,
That falleth to the numbles, and schal be there;
With the neres also and sewet that ther is,
Euen to the midryfe that vpon him is;
Than take downe the midryfe, from the side hote,
And beaue up the numbles whole by the boll tbrote,
In thyn band than them holde, and looke and see
That all that longeth them to togither that it bee;
Than take them to thy brother, to hold for tryst,
Whiles that thou them doublest and dresse at the lyst;
Than a way the lightes, and on the skinne them lay,
To abyde the querre, my chylde, I you pray;
Than shall you slyt the slough, there as the bart lyeth,
And take away the heares from it and flyeth,
For such heares hath his hert aye it upon,
As men see in the beast whan he is vndoon.
And the middes of the bert a bone ye shall fynde,
Looke ye gyve it to a lord, and, childe, be kynde,
For it is kynde for many maladyes,

And in the middes of the hert euer more it lyes.
Than shall ye cut the shyrtes the teeth euen fro,
And after the rydge bone kytteth, euen also

The forches and the sydes euen betwene,

And looke that your kniues aye whetted bene;

Than turn up the forches, and froute them with bloud,

For to saue grece, so doo men of good.

Than shall ye cut the necke the sydes euen fro,

And the head from the necke cutteth also,

The tongue, the brayne, the paunche, and the necke,
Whan they washed ben wel with the water of the beck,
The small guttes to the lygbtes in the deres,
Aboue the bert of the beast, whan thou them reres,
With all the bloud that ye may get and wynne,
Altogether shall be take, and laid on the skynne,
To gyue your boundes, that called is, Y wis,
The querre, aboue the skynne, for it eaten is.
And who dresseth so by my counsayle,
Shall haue the left shoulder for his trauayle,
And the right shoulder, where so euer he be,

Bere it to the foster, for that is his fee,
And the lyuer also of the same beast

To the fosters knaue gyue it at the least;

The numbles trusse in the skynne, and hardell them fast
The sydes and the forchesse togither that they last,

With the hindre legges, be doone so it shall,

Then bringe it home and the skyn withall,
The numbles and the hornes at the lordes gate,
Then boldly blow pryce thereat,

Your play for nymme, or that ye come in."

Tristrem's process may be thus analyzed :-He opened the breast, and placed the tongue next the pride, or spleen, then cut off and put aside the hemynges. He next slit the skin, and, by pressing down the breche (buttocks), pulled it off. The spand (i. e. shoulder, from spalla) was the first breadth, or division; he then made the arber, cut asunder the stifles, or back-sinews of the leg, and, adjusting the rede (small-guts), took away the paunch. The numbles he bestowed upon the hunters and spectators, then crossed, or clefte, the rigge (backbone), and cut the chine in two. To the forester he gave his rights, the left shoulder for himself, and the heart, liver, lights (lungs), and blood, which, being arranged on the hide, and eaten there by the hounds, formed the quirré, or quarry. This operation was called by the French huntsman, fairre la curee. He then gave the raven, who sat by on the forked tree, his due gift, aud called for the hunters to blow the tokening, or death-note. He lastly tied up the maw, (or paunch), containing the grease, etc., to be reserved, as Lady Juliana directs, for medical purposes, as also the gargiloun, and concluded the ceremony by reciting the appropriate rhyme, and blowing the right note.

A matter so important, in the eyes of our ancestors, is worthy of some illustration, besides that which may be derived from com. paring it with the directions of the Abbess of St. Alban's. The hemynges was a piece of the hide cut out to make brogues for the huntsmen. When the versatile David de Strathbogie, Earl of Athole, was hard pressed, and driven to the Highlands, by the Earl of Murray, in 1335, Winton mentions, as a mark of his distress, "That at sa gret myschef he wes,

That his knychtis weryd rewelynys, Of hydis, or of hart hemmynys."

The mode of making those rullions, or rough shoes, is thus described:-" We go a hunting, and after that we have slain red deer, we flay off the skin bye and bye, and setting of our bare foot on the inside thereof, for want of cunning shoemakers, by your grace's pardon, we play the cobblers, compassing and measuring so much thereof as shall reach up to our ancles, pricking the upper part thereof with holes, that the water may repass where it enters, and stretching it up with a strong thong of the same above our said ancles. So, and please your noble grace, we make our shoes. Therefore, we, using such manner of shoes, the rough hairy side outwards, in your grace's dominions of England, we be called Rough-footed Scols."-ELDER'S Address to HENRY VIII. apud PINKERTON's History, vol. ii. p. 597.

The numbles seem to have been the inwards of the deer :

"Faith, a good well-set fellow, if his spirit

Be answerable to his umbles."

The numbles seem to have included the midriff, and the dowsets, or testicles. The gargiloun, the meaning of which seems uncertain, also belonged to this division:

"The man to his master speaketh blythe,

Of the numbles of the heart that he wolde them kythe,

How many ends there shall be them within.'

Quod the master, But one thicke nor thinne,
And that is but the gargylyon to speke of all bydene.
And all these others, crokes and roundelles bene.-
Yet wold I wyt, and thou woldest me lere,

The crookes and the roundels of the numbels of the dere.'-
"One crooke of the numbels lyeth ever more

To a comparatively late period, this continued to be a sign of mourning. The Editor's great-grandfather wore his beard till his death, in regret for the supposed injuries of the unfortunate house of Stuart; and he was not absolutely singular in this odd expression of zeal for their cause. The miseries of Rohand seem to have been very severe; but one is omitted which afflicted Sir Baldwin, who, in similar circumstances, complained, "Les poux croissent en mes habillemens, comme fait l'herbe dans un pré." -La Fleur des Batailles.

Rohand be yaf the wand.-P. 340, st. 83.

The wand, or symbol of power. When Sigebert, who had abdicated the throne of East Anglia for a monastery, was compelled by his subjects again to lead them to battle, he disclaime d the use of offensive arms, and only carried a leading wand, or truncheon.-TURNER'S History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. i.

p. 293.

Mani man wepen sare,

For ransoun to Yrland.-P. 341, st. 85.

"Quant le Roy de Cornouaille entend, que ceulx d'Irlande sont venus querre le treu, si commencent le dueil et le cry, sus et jus."-Tristan, feuillet 30. With this adventure of the Morhoult, commences the resemblance betwixt the metrical romance of Thomas, and the French prose folio. But the connexion is far closer betwixt the former and Mr. Douce's fragments. -See p. 369.

Thre hundred barnes fre. P. 341, st. 86.

A tribute of slaves was no unusual badge of subjection during the dark ages. Tressan says, the custom came from the north, and was imposed by Odin on the nations whom he conquered.Corps d'Extraits des Romans, tom. i. p. 10. During the contest betwixt the too polished Chinese and their savage neighbours, the former submitted to this badge of servitude in its most disgraceful shape. "A select band of the fairest virgins of China was annually devoted to the rude embraces of the Huns."-GIBBON, vol. iv. p. 363. In some of the Spanish chronicles it is narrated, that the subjugated Christians paid for some time a tribute of this sort to their Moorish conquerors. At length, while a band of Spanish gentlemen were escorting the fair captives to the place where they were to be delivered to the Moors, they were surprised and shocked at the indecent behaviour of a maid of noble birth, who, laying aside all restraint, spoke and acted with as little reserve as if in private with her female companions. "Faise cowards!" she answered, to the remonstrances of the cavaliers, "can I look upon you as aught but women, who deliver up your wives and daughters to the harams of the infidels?' Deeply stung with this reproach, the Spaniards changed their purpose, cut to pieces the Moors who came to receive the captives, and laid the foundation of the independence of their country.

Moraunt the noble knight.-P. 341, st. 87.

Moraunt, or Le Morhoult, as he is called by the French romancers, makes a great figure in the prose romance of Meliadus, and even in that of Tristrem. In the famous romance of Amadis de Gaul, it is prophesied by Urganda the Unknown, that Ireland should never produce such a champion as Abies, king of that country, slain by Amadis, "jusques a ce que le bon frere de la dame vienne, lequel y fera amener, par force d'armes, le trebut d'autre pays; et cestuy mourra par la main de celuy, qui finira pour la chose du monde qu'il aymera le plus : et ainsi advint par Marlot d'Irlande, frere de la reyne d'Irlande, que Tristan de Leonnois occist, sur la querelle de tribut, que l'on demandoit au Roy Marc de Cornouaille, son oncle; lequel depuis mourut pour l'amour qu'il portoit à la Reyne Yseult, qui fut la chose du monde que plus il ayma."

Dr. Hanmer informs us, that the history of Moraunt, or Morogh, as he was properly called, is preserved in the book of Houth. He is there said to have been brother to the Queen of Leinster, and one of King Arthur's knights. He was sent by Anguish, King of Ireland, (who, by all the romancers, is transferred to the throne of Scotland.) to claim the tribute of Cornwall. The rest of the story, as throwing some dubious light upon the loves of Tristrem and Ysonde, I give in Hanmer's own words :

"Marke, King of Cornewayle, denieth the tribute, offereth the combate, and Sir Tristrem undertaketh it for him. Morogh, for himself, pleaded, that he was to encounter with none, unlesse he were a king or queene, a prince or princesse sonne. The circumstances being considered and agreed upon, the combatants meete, and fiercely fight. The battaille was a long time doubtfull; in the end Sir Tristrem gave Sir Morogh, with his sword, a sore blow, that a piece of the edge stucke in his scull, whereupon the combat ended. Morogh returned into Ireland, and shortly after died of