Boke of Seynt Albans 1486

The Book of Saint Albans was written in the Middle Ages

by Dame Juliana Berners (which was extremely unusual as not many

of the men in those days could actually read or write, let alone the women).

 

The subject matter was venery from the Latin "venor" - I hunt.
(Not to be confused with its other meanig - the pursuit of sexual pleasure.)

It covered subjects such as hunting, angling and falconry

and even contained a "treatyse of fysshynge wyth an angle".

 

The poem part of which appears on a cushion I designed for Greyhound

Rescue West of England (pattern available from their site)http://www.grweshop.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Gifts_27.html

was first published in this book all those centuries ago.

 

The reason for this long preamble is that the book also includes

a very comprehensive list of collective nouns which are always

amusing, often colourful and occasionally downright rude!

 

 

Here's some of my favourite animal ones:

 

cats - a pounce

cockroaches - an intrusion

eagles - a convocation

flamingoes - a stand

peacocks - an ostentation

wombats - a wisdom

zebras - a dazzle

 

He obviously thought it was funny.

 There's even some for groups of people:

boys - a blush

shepherds - a sodom

tailors - a proud showing

 

Looks more like a "scowl" than a "skein" to me.

 And now here's the real nitty gritty: 

seamstresses - a scolding

dreams - an embroidery

knitters - a skein

elderly women - a cross stitch

stitchers - a bliss!

 

Now what shall we call a collection of Long Doggers?

Keep it clean please.