stable-stand

English

Noun

stable-stand (uncountable)

1. (UK, law, obsolete) The position of a person found standing in the forest with a crossbow or longbow bent, ready to shoot at a deer, or close by a tree with greyhounds in a leash ready to slip; one of the four presumptions that a person intended to steal the king's deer.
   • 1623, Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale:

     I'll keep my stable-stand where I lodge my wife, I'll go in couples with her.

   • 1818 December, “The Gothic Laws of Spain”, in Edinburgh Review, volume 31, number 61, page 96:

     The four indications of offence against Vert and Venison, in like manner arrange themselves in rhyme - Dog draw, stable stand, Backberinde, and bloody hand;-and this formed the precept of the Forester, and instructed him to seize the trespasser who was taken with the mayneer whilst roaming in the green-wood shade.

   • 1834, George Soane, The Frolics of Puck - Volume 3, page 87:

     Ah, honest Will Rufus! You were the king for my money – ill betide the fool who shot thee; —you had a halter for every rogue; there was STABLESTAND, when the knave was found in the forest with his bow bent; DOGDRAW, when he was drawing with a hound after the hurt deer; BACKBEAR, when he had killed, and was carrying off, his venison; and BLOODYHAND, when he was seen coursing with blood upon his hands.

   • 1868, Thomas Newbigging, History of the Forest of Rossendale, page 63:

     The Law further provides that the Forester may take a man if he be found either at “Dog-draw," "Stable-stand," "Back-bear,” or “Bloody-hand."

   • 1868, Frank Forester, The Complete Manual for Young Sportsmen, page 37:

     although it is usually known in common parlance as hunting, is not properly such, but comes under one of three heads, — "stalking," which is here generally termed still-hunting, where the animal is followed by his sign, left on the soil, or on the trees and coppice which he may have frayed, by the aid of the eye and experience in woodcraft and the habits of the quarry alone, without the assistance of hounds— "stable-stand," where the sportsman, taking his station at the intersection of deer-paths, at a haunted salt-lick, or at a well-ascertained watering place, awaits the voluntary advent of the animal, when he shall be impelled to move by the solicitation of his own instincts—or, lastly, "dog-draw," where, posting himself, as before, in such place as he judges likely to be passed by the fugitive, the shooter expects its coming when driven by slow hounds, who have drawn for it, and aroused it from its lair, under the guidance of his servants or companions.

   • 2013, Edward of Norwich, William A. Baillie-Grohman, F. N. Baillie-Grohman, The Master of Game, page 261:

     These dogs were used to hunt up the game also when the deer was to be shot with the bow. The sportsmen would be standing at their trysts or stable-stand in some alley or glade of the wood, and the hounds be put into the covert or park "to tease them forth."