A limer, or lymer , was a kind of dog, a
scenthound
Franz Rudolf Frisching in the uniform of an officer of the Bernese Huntsmen Corps with his Berner Laufhund, painted by Jean Preudhomme in 1785
Scent hounds (or scenthounds) are a Dog type, type of hound that primarily hunts by scent rather than ...
, used on a leash in
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
times to find large game before it was hunted down by the pack. It was sometimes known as a lyam hound/dog or lime-hound, from the
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
word ''lyam'', meaning 'leash'. The French
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
''limier'' has sometimes been used for the dogs in English as well. The type is not to be confused with the
bandog
A mastiff is a large and powerful type of dog. Mastiffs are among the largest dogs, and typically have a short coat, a long low-set tail and large feet; the skull is large and bulky, the muzzle broad and short ( brachycephalic) and the ears dr ...
, which was also a dog controlled by a leash, typically a chain, but was a watchdog or guard dog.
Use
In
medieval hunting
Throughout Western Europe in the Middle Ages, humans hunted wild animals. While game was at times an important source of food, it was rarely the principal source of nutrition. All classes engaged in hunting, but by the High Middle Ages, the necess ...
in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, certain kinds of game were not found and hunted with a full pack, as usual in modern hunting. Instead, they were first found by a limer.
The limer would be taken out at dawn by its handler, on foot, who would identify, perhaps from droppings, perhaps from footprints, where a large animal had passed during the night. He would set his hound on the trail, until it had found where the animal was browsing or at rest. This required keen scenting, the ability to ignore all other scents that might be a distraction, and silent trailing. This process became known as 'harbouring' the animal.
/ref>
Several limers might be sent out to different parts of the forest. The handlers would then report back to their lord, or the chief huntsman, who would decide on the one "which seemed to have harbored the greatest and oldest Deere, and hym which lyeth in the fairest covert". Then the huntsmen would bring the pack of scent hounds, known as 'rache
Rache , also spelled racch, rach, and ratch, from Old English ''ræcc'', linked to Old Norse ''rakkí'', is an obsolete name for a type of hunting dog used in Great Britain in the Middle Ages. It was a scenthound used in a pack to run down and kil ...
s', or 'running hounds'. Raches might be set in relays along the path where the quarry could be expected to run, held in couples, to be released on the huntsman's signal. The game animal would be put to flight or 'unharboured' and the pack would follow it on its hot scent until it was brought to bay and killed.
If the quarry escaped the pack, perhaps wounded, or if the hunt was overtaken by nightfall, the huntsmen would mark the point where the quarry was last known to have been, and the lords and ladies of the hunt would return to the hunting lodge, or to the pavilions which had been erected for them in the forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
, to sleep or occupy themselves with feasting. The limer and its handler would then set about the task of harbouring the quarry again, perhaps by following its blood-trail, and either the injured animal would be dispatched, or the hunt would resume as before.
The limer was a specialist tracker, probably outnumbered by raches in a lord's pack, in about the proportions 20:1, and it was highly valued. It is possible that on occasions it might be released to pursue the quarry with the pack, but normally it did not take part in the kill. The limer which had harboured the particular quarry should, according to the manuals, be the first to be rewarded with its special part of the carcass during the process of butchering it, apparent in this link, where the leashed hound is favoured with the head of the stag, while the raches wait impatiently for their share. It had its own special attendant who looked after it and handled it: the 'valet de limier', translated by Turbervile as 'the varlet who keeps the bloodhound'.[
To do its work, the limer had to wear a collar, the modern tracking harness surprisingly being unthought of in a period when everyone must have been familiar with the harnesses and tack of horses, and the leash had to be long enough to allow the hound to cast. ]Edward, Duke of York
Edward, 2nd Duke of York, ( – 25 October 1415) was an English nobleman, military commander and magnate. He was the eldest son of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, and a grandson of King Edward III of England. He held significant appointment ...
in ''The Master of Game
''The Master of Game'' is a medieval manuscript, a hunting treatise, written by Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, between 1406 and 1413, of which 27 manuscripts survive. It is considered to be the oldest English-language book on hunting. ''Th ...
'' 1406–1413 (a translation of ''Livre de la Chasse'')
writes (Chapter XX):
And the length of the hounds' couples between the hounds should be a foot, and the rope of a limer three fathoms and a half, be he ever so wise a limer it sufficeth.
Kinds of hounds used as limers
Medieval hunting pictures generally show the limer as a hound of similar type to the running hounds, but larger and more heavily built. In England, the Bloodhound
The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar and, since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is called, ''l ...
was so typically associated with the function of being a limer that George Turberville
George Turberville, or Turbervile (about 1540 – before 1597) was an English poet.
Life
He was the second son of Henry Turberville of Winterborne Whitechurch, Dorset, and nephew of James Turberville, Bishop of Exeter. The Turbervilles were an ...
uses the term "Bloodhound" (in preference to "limer", which was becoming archaic) for the French word "limier" throughout his 1575 translation of ''La Venerie de Jaques du Fouilloux''. For instance, du Fouilloux says limiers of the St. Hubert kind are good, so that when Turberville translates 'limiers' as 'bloodhounds', he is not saying that St. Huberts and Bloodhounds are the same breed, only that they work well as leash hounds.[
Though by then this form of hunting was becoming old-fashioned, in ''Country Contentments, or the Husbandmans Recreations'', 1615, ]Gervase Markham
Gervase (or Jervis) Markham (ca. 1568 – 3 February 1637) was an English poet and writer. He was best known for his work '' The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman'', first publishe ...
writes:
The blacke hound, the black tann'd or he that is all liver-hew'd or the milke-white which is the true ''Talbot
Talbot was an automobile marque introduced in 1902 by English-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot ...
'', are best for the string or lyam, for they do delight most in blood, and have a natural inclination to hunt dry-foot, and of these the largest are ever the best and most comely.
Changes in hunting practice
In Great Britain, the hart
Hart often refers to:
* Hart (deer)
Hart may also refer to:
Organizations
* Hart Racing Engines, a former Formula One engine manufacturer
* Hart Skis, US ski manufacturer
* Hart Stores, a Canadian chain of department stores
* Hart's Reptile Wo ...
, the wild boar
The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...
and the fallow deer
''Dama'' is a genus of deer in the subfamily Cervinae, commonly referred to as fallow deer.
Name
The name fallow is derived from the deer's pale brown colour. The Latin word ''dāma'' or ''damma'', used for roe deer, gazelles, and antelopes, ...
buck were the only animals to be harboured with the limer; all other game was found, as well as hunted, by the free-running raches.Forests and Chases of England and Wales: A Glossary.
St John's College, Oxford.
As the wild boar became extinct, and the interest of British huntsmen changed to fox-hunting, the limer lost its usefulness. In France, ''limiers'' held by "valets de limiers" are used to follow tracks in the early morning before the hunt starts so as to determine where to set loose the pack.
The word 'limer' is first recorded in surviving texts from the mid-14th century, though the way it is used suggests it was by then a familiar term to the readers. By the late 16th century, as hunting practices were beginning to change, it was becoming rarer, and later usage reflects some confusion about what it refers to, some authors just regarding it as a large mastiff
A mastiff is a large and powerful type of dog. Mastiffs are among the largest dogs, and typically have a short coat, a long low-set tail and large feet; the skull is large and bulky, the muzzle broad and short (brachycephalic) and the ears dro ...
-type dog of impure breeding.[
]
See also
* Deer hunting
Deer hunting is hunting for deer for meat and sport, an activity which dates back tens of thousands of years. Venison, the name for deer meat, is a nutritious and natural food source of animal protein that can be obtained through deer hunting. ...
* List of dog breeds
This list of dog breeds includes both Neontology#Extant taxa versus extinct taxa, extant and extinct dog breeds, Designer breed, varieties, landraces, and dog types. A research article on genomics, dog genomics published in Science/AAAS defines m ...
* List of extinct dog breeds
The following is a list of Extinction, extinct dog breeds, varieties, landraces and types.
List of extinct dog breeds, varieties, landraces and types
References Citations
Bibliography
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References
{{hounds
Dog types
Hunting
Extinct dog breeds
History of hunting