Note 3 — Chapter I · Authorship.

Sir Tristram, the well-known knight of the Round Table, was a mighty hunter, and the great authority upon all subjects connected with the chase. Popular belief attributed to him the origin of all the special terms used in hunting, and his name was invoked to give authority to any statement upon this subject, just as in a later century the arithmetical rules of Cocker give rise to the popular phrase—“According to Cocker.”