CHANGE. The change, in the language of stag hunting, was the substitution of one deer for another in the chase. After the hounds have started chasing a stag, the hunted animal will often find another stag or a hind, and pushing it up with its horns or feet will oblige it to get up and take his place, lying down himself in the spot where he found the other, and keeping quiet, with his antlers close over his back, so that the hounds will, if care is not taken, go off in chase of the substitute. Sometimes a stag will go into a herd of deer and try to keep with them, trying to shake off his pursuers, and thus give them the change.
A hound that sticks to the first stag hunted, and refuses to be satisfied with the scent of another deer, is called a staunch hound, one who will not take the change, which was considered one of the most desirable qualities in a staghound. G. de F., in speaking of the different kinds of running hounds, says that there were some that, when they came to the change, they would leave off speaking to the scent, and would run silently until they found the scent of their stag again (G. de F., p. 109).
CURÉE, Kyrre, Quyrreye, or Quarry. The ceremony of giving the hounds their reward was thus called because it was originally given to the hounds on the hide or _cuir_ of the stag.
Twici, the huntsman of Edward II., says that after the stag is taken the hounds should be rewarded with the neck and bowels and the liver. ("Et il se serra mange sur le quir. E pur ceo est il apelee quyrreye.") When the hounds receive their reward after a hare-hunt he calls it the hallow. In the "Boke of St. Albans" we find the quarry given on the skin, and it is only in the "Master of Game" that it is expressly stated that a nice piece of grass was to be found on which the hounds' mess was to be put, and the hide placed over it, hair-side upwards, the head being left on it and held up by the antlers, and thus drawn away as the hounds rush up to get their share. According to Turbervile, in his day the reward was placed _on_ the hide; at least he does not in his original chapter on the breaking up of the deer notice any such difference between the French and English customs. In France, it is as well to expressly state, the _curée_ was always given on the hide until the seventeenth century, but after that it seems the hide was placed over it just as described in our text (De Noirmont, vol. ii., p. 458). Preceding the quarry came the ceremonial breaking up of the deer. The stag was laid on its back with feet in the air, slit open, and skinned by one of the chief huntsmen, who took a pride in doing it according to laws of woodmanscraft. They took a pride in not turning up their sleeves and performing everything so daintily that their garments should show no bloodstains; nobles, and princes themselves, made it a point of honour to be well versed in this art. After the skinning was done, it was customary to give the huntsman who was "undoing" the deer a drink of wine; "and he must drinke a good harty draught: for if he should break up the dear before he drinke the Venison would stink and putrifie" (Turb., 1611, p. 128).