Melissa Raymond

In many of the tales of Robin Hood, there is a scene with someone poaching a deer or outlaws who have been caught and punished for killing one of the king’s deer in the forest. Actual hunting, however, was part of the lives of the social upper class as a sport. One source describes hunting as a relaxed way of conducting business. It also provided training for war because of the tracking skills, weapon usage, horsemanship, and courage that were all required.

Large game hunting such as of the boar and deer consisted of two methods: At Force and Bow and Stable, the first of which was considered more challenging. An At Force hunt was well planned with huntsmen going out looking the day before the hunt for an appropriate animal that was not too old or diseased. A number of "teams" consisting of huntsmen and dogs would be positioned on the morning of the hunt to take up for each other when the animal neared or a team tired of the chase. The quarry normally either collapsed from the exhaustion of being chased or was cornered by the huntsmen and dogs. The less strenuous method of hunting, Bow and Stable, was primarily for hunting deer and was more suited to women and less active men. Huntsmen and dogs would drive deer into an enclosure where the party could kill them at close range. The main animals hunted were the boar, hart, and deer, of which the boar was the most dangerous to hunt and is now extinct. The hart is known today as the European Red Deer. The deer, or roe or roebuck, was smaller and more abundant.

Lid, Adam R., "Elizabethan Hunting: A Brief Introduction." http://users.aol.com/maist/hunting.htm.