The queen's hounds and stag-hunting recollections, with an introduction on the hereditary mastership, by Edward Burrows, comp. from the Brocas papers in his possession

Front matter

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Introduction

Few of those who share with the writer the memories of an Eton ' wet-bob,' to whom ' The Brocas,' ' ' Brocas Clump,' ' Brocas Meadow,' and ' Brocas Lane ' are ' familiar in their mouths as household words,' know the origin of the strange un-English name which thus lingers on the Eton bank of the Thames just above Windsor Bridge, but has died out on the opposite side where lay the manor, styled, at least until the beginning of the sixteenth century, 'Brocas in Clewer,' or ' Clewer-Brocas,' and where the position of the Brocas Chantry, founded by that notable knight Sir Bernard Brocas, may still be traced in Clewer Church.

Few of those who ride with her Majesty's Buckhounds are aware that the hereditary Mastership was held by the family

1 Materials for this Introduction are taken from The Family of Brocas of Bcaurcpaire and Roche Court, by Montagu Burrows, Captain E.N., M.A.„ F.S.A., Chiehele Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford a work founded on the collection of original Brocas documents now in the writer's possession.

B of Brocas for nearly three hundred years, from the middle of the fourteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century.

Fewer still among those who ride or row have ever heard of the connection between this long line of hereditary Masters and the ruined castle of Sault and a church and villages in South-Western France, still bearing the name of Brocas, far from the track of the modern traveller, and buried among the woodlands and sand dunes of ancient Gascony.

A brief account of certain of these Masters of old time may form a becoming introduction to modern incidents of stag-hunting, may bring to light picturesque details of sport closely mingled with war, may show that the Mastership can claim an ancient and romantic past, and add proof that in all ages good sportsmen have been staunch fighting-men and loyal subjects.

The lands held in ' Clyware, New Windesore, Old Windesore, Eton, Dauneye, Boveneye, Cokeham and Bray ' during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by this family of Gascon knights, transplanted into England by Edward II., were important and extensive. Some ten men of this name and blood occupied notable positions as favoured courtiers and trusted servants of the Crown in the brilliant and romantic period of the reigns of the second and third Edward and the second Richard, and in successive generations held such offices as those of Master of the Horse, Master of the Buckhounds, Chief Forester of Windsor, Warden of King's Castles, Gaols, and Parks, Captain of Calais, Controller of Calais, Constable of Aquitaine, Controller of Bordeaux, Royal Ambassador, Chamberlain to the Queen, Chamberlain of the Exchequer, and King's Clerk of the Works. It is, therefore, hard to understand the almost complete oblivion into which has fallen the real origin of the name that still survives under the shadow of Windsor Castle. So fantastic and so far from the truth have been the suggested derivations that they only prove how completely family traditions disappear amid the building of royal palaces and the founding of royal colleges. Sir John de Brocas acquired these lands before Edward III. began to enlarge "Windsor Castle. His descendants had ceased to reside on them before the foundation of Eton College, and entirely relinquished them soon after that event. So long ago ' the knight was dust, and his good sword rust,' that on the spot where he dwelt not even

a herald who that way doth pass Finds his cracked name at length in the church glass.

Yet the swords of these Gascon knights, among whom the most illustrious was the first Brocas Master of the Buckhounds, were kept bright for many years in the service of their adopted country, for we find them at Crecy, at the siege of Calais, at Poitiers and at Xajara, while others of their kin met death in defence of the English shores.

It is singularly unfortunate that the painstaking author of a recent ' History of the Royal Buckhounds ' ' was ignorant of the Gascon origin of the hereditary Masters, or ignored the information that might have been obtained on this matter. It is, moreover, much to be regretted that in a history which shows so much research the foolish tradition is repeated that the ancestor of the hereditary Masters was Sir Bernard Brocas, who came into England with William the Conqueror, from whom, in reward for his military services, he received permission to select lands to the value of 400/. ; that he chose these lands in Hampshire, and built thereon a mansion styled ' Beaurepaire,' and that the lives of three successors of the same name sufficed, by a startling assumption of longevity, to cover a period of 280 years from the date of the Conquest to the year when Sir John de Brocas served

1 History of the Royal Buckhounds, by J. P. Hore.

b 2 with distinction under Edward III. at the siege of Calais.1 Such a descent is too incredible to be recorded elsewhere than in that storehouse of many such apocryphal genealogies, the College of Arms, where it appears to have stood without question for a long period, and whence it emerged to find, unfortunately, place in the inscription, inserted only in the eighteenth century, above the ancient and elaborate tomb of this early Master of the Buckhounds, Sir Bernard Brocas, in St. Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey. In fact, this Gascon origin is a matter of more interest than is generally supposed ; for it was plainly in consequence of their knowledge of breeding and training horses on the turbulent marches of Gascony that so many members of the family of Brocas were well fitted to have charge, as Masters of the Horse, of the royal studs, and, as Masters of the Buckhounds, of the royal hunting establishment. Thus is furnished an early and significant instance of the obligations under which England has ever lain to France in all matters connected with the chase, and of the striking advantage which during the Middle Ages accrued to the former country from the ancestral possessions derived by her kings from Eleanor of Guienne, not only in the graver matters of state and commerce, but in the improvement of the breed of light horses.

The cradle of the race whence sprang the hereditary Masters is found on the borders of Gascony, where a considerable tract of land was once known as ' the Brocas March,' where villages still bear the name, and where still

1 Strangely different from these false legends are the real facts. For the settlement in England of certain members of the Gascon family of de Brocas did not begin until the reign of Edward II., and it was not until the year 13o:J> that the uncle of Sir Bernard Brocas purchased Beaurepaire from John Pecche, whose ancestors had held it for several generations. The line of the family that remained in Gascony is still represented there by the Comte de Broca?.

IXTRODUCTION 5

stands the ruined keep of their ancestral stronghold of Sault, twice styled by Froissart ' a strong and good castle.' Here dwelt Sir Peter Arnald de Brocas, foully slain at Bayonne during truce by Earl Simon de Montfort, and here, during many years of incessant border forays, the de Brocas showed with other loyal Gascons their gallant devotion to their ' Roy Outremer,' by holding their fortress as a bulwark of the English rule in Gascony against the ceaseless attacks of their turbulent neighbours the Vicomtes de Beam, to whose castle of Orthez the road still runs due south across the old border line. Wild tales of flight and hot pursuit, of desperate rally and midnight foray, could that old highway tell in the days when English and French knights, hard-riding Gascon borderers and swaggering Free Companions, mustered under the rival royal standards and the banners of de Montfort, de Beam and d'Albret, while from the keep above floated the sable pennon of de Brocas. Strangely must old memories have been stirred when along the same road in later days, after the stubborn fight at Orthez, British squadrons pursued the flying French and Wellington received his only wound. Ruined at length by their loyalty to the English cause during the disasters of Edward II. 's latter years, the children of Arnald de Brocas, ' lately slain in the King's service in Scotland,' possibly at Bannockburn, were' taken into the royal household and brought up at the English Court. As no less than three of these young Gascon officers of the King became Masters of the Horse, and by their length of service proved their aptness for the appointment, there are sufficient entries under the name of ' de Brocas ' in the Record Office to supply almost a history of Edward III.'s equestrian organisation. Space only permits the mention of certain facts illustrative of the experience in this matter of the family which had charge for so long a period of the royal hunting establishment.

Edward is too often blamed for his large expenditure on horses, but it is forgotten that his mighty conflict with the hosts of France, his contests of chivalry, his ' hastiludes ' and military Orders, which largely operated to ensure his victories, entailed an enormous and special provision for breeding studs, large sums for purchase money, and a great array of persons employed in the business. With the very beginning of this work the de Brocas ' were concerned. Sir John superintended it for a great part of his life, and when the great war seemed to be over, it was to him and to William of Wykeham that the King entrusted the sale and breaking up of the war establishment. In the long lists which occur in the Exchequer Accounts of the Wardrobe of numerous classes of horses belonging to the King — coursers, palfreys, trotters, hobbies, genets, hengests, and somers — the ' dextrarii ' or ' great horses ' received most attention. Provision was made for 102 of their housings out of 441 ells of canvas and 360 ells of cloth, which was to come from Candlewyk Street in London. The boundary between the great cavalry establishments was formed by the Trent, the division to the north of this river having its separate ' custos ' under the Master of the Horse'. The studs were distributed among the King's manors, such as Windsor, Guildford, Odiham, Woodstock, and Waltham. The due proportion of expense necessary for corn, shoeing, litter, headstalls and bridles was borne by the sheriffs of the various counties. The keep of thirty horses by one of these sheriffs for sixty days in the year 1338 amounted to 40?. 12s. Gel., or about o^d. per horse per day, while the keep of a hound cost \&. per day. Special provision was made for a tunic of blue and a cape of white Brussels cloth as the attire of ' John Brocaz,' styled in these records

1 The deeds show that the ' de ' before Brocas is gradually dropped as the family begin to acquire lands in England.

IXTRODUCTION 7

' Custos equorum regis ' or ' Gardein denos grands chevaux.' The prices paid for horses in 1330 are shown by the following sums which passed through the hands of Brocas. ' To Master Thomas de Garton, Keeper of the King's Wardrobe, in money paid to him by the hands of John Brocaz for the purchase of the three undermentioned chargers, to wit, one called Pomers, of a grey colour with black head, price 120Z. ; another called Lebryt, a dappled grey, price 701. ; and a third called Bayard, a bright bay with hind fetlocks white, price 50/.' '

The great cavalry department appears to have been kept at its full war complement for about twenty years, until the power of France, after the battle of Poitiers, seemed finally broken. Thus in 1357 the King commissions Sir John de Brocas, Edmund Bose, and William of Wykeham to sell off that portion of the stud kept in Windsor Park, and the next year the horses beyond the Trent which were of no further use were sold ; while in 1360, after the Peace of Bretigny, all the royal studs south of Trent were disposed of and the proceeds handed to William of Wykeham, ' surveyor of the King's work in Windsor Castle.' Too soon were frustrated the fond hopes that it would never again be necessary to sweep over France with English squadrons, and great was the need of this magnificent cavalry before the end of the reign.

Many and various were the duties of this active Master of the Horse. After employment with his son Sir Oliver in buying horses for the King in Gascony before the great campaign of Crecy, he is found in command of a considerable company at the siege of Calais, and he was chosen as ambassador to congratulate Alfonso XL of Castile on his capture of Algeciras from the Moors, and to negotiate concerning the marriage of Edward III.'s daughter to the

1 The proper multiple for money of this date, for the sake of comparison with the present day, is approximately 20.

Spanish prince known as Pedro the Cruel. After one of these embassies he brought back two Spanish jennets as a gift from Alfonso to Edward. Amid all these public services he found time to add by degrees to his estates at Windsor and in Hampshire with the caution becoming one who was a Gascon and an alien.

The career of his son Sir Bernard, to whom came by marriage and subsequent direct royal grant the hereditary Mastership, is so full of stirring episodes and knightly deeds that it might well form the subject of an historical romance.

Certain picturesque points can only be glanced at here. As Chamberlain to the Queen, as King's Warden and Ambassador, as Constable of Aquitaine and Controller of Bordeaux, as Captain of Calais and Master of the Buckhounds, as a warrior at Crecy, Poitiers, and Xajara, this illustrious Anglo-Gascon trod every stage of the brilliant times in which he lived. Twice was he summoned as a witness on high matters of chivalry. Prom his evidence given in the famous Scrope and Grosvenor Poll, it appears that he was first armed as esquire on the shore of La Hogue on the day when the Black Prince was knighted, and ' that he had fought in France, in Scotland, in Gascony, in Brittany, and in Spain, in the presence of kings, princes, dukes, counts, barons, and other great lords, knights, and esquires, during forty years.' On another occasion Brocas is found as a witness, with such renowned co-signatories as Oliver de Clisson, the Earl of Salisbury, Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, Robert Holland, and Thomas de Eos, to the claim that King John of France surrendered to the Gascon Bernard de Trouttes and not to the French knight fighting on the English side, Sir Denis de Morbeque. The Brocas pennon must therefore have been in the thick of that final furious melee which raged on the bloodstained field of Poitiers round the spot where the French king turned at bay, while his gallant stripling son stood at his side warning him of the blows rained on him by the ring of emulous Gascon and English knights. "Well might the French chronicle quoted later on describe Sir Bernard as ' ung des hautz homines et nobles d'Angleterre, tres bon chevalier qui moult grandement avoit servi le Prince.' In boudoir as well as in tented field his fame appears to have stood high. In the court of Venus as well as in that of Mars did the Black Prince befriend him. It has been generally received on the authority of the Metrical Chronicle of Harding that the Prince began his suit not for himself, but on behalf of some nameless comrade-in-arms, to that beauteous dame of royal blood the Lady Joan Plantagenet, best known as the ' Fan- Maid of Kent.' We now learn from the ' Chronique des Quatre Premiers Valois ' that Sir Bernard Brocas was the knight for whom the Prince thus pleaded, and whose fruitless suit became the direct cause of that romantic royal match.

The narrative is so quaint in language and so characteristic in incident that it deserves full quotation below.1

1 ' Apres le trespassement de son dit Seigneur moult de nobles chevaliers qui moult avoient servi le Eoy d'Angleterre et le Prince son tils en leurs guerres vindrent requerre au Prince qu'il lui pleust a parler a la Comtesse de Hollande. En especial ung des hautz hommes et nobles d'Angleterre nonime Monseigneur de Brocas tres bon chevalier qui moult grandement avoit servi le Prince et pour lui tant en ses guerres que autrement avoit moult travaillie. requist le Prince qu'il lui pleust tant faire qu'il eust la dicte Dame et Comtesse pour lui a femme, et qu'il en parlast a la dicte dame. Le Prince pour le dit chevalier parla a la dicte Dame de Hollande par plusieurs fois. Car moult voulentiers aloit pour soy deduire veoir la dicte dame qui estoit sa cousine et souventeffoiz regardoit sa tres grande beaute et son tres gracieux contenement qui merveilleusement lui plaisoit. Et comme une foiz le Prince parloit a la dicte Comtesse pour le dit chevalier la Comtesse lui respondi que jamais espoux n'auroit. Et elle qui moult estoit soubtille et sage par plusieurs foiz le dit au Prince. " Ha ! A! " se dit le Prince "belle cousine en cas que vous ne voulez marier a mez amis mal fut vostre grant beaute dont tant estes plaine. Et sevous etmoy ne nous apartenissons de lignage il n'est dame soubz le ciel que j'eusse tant chiere comme vous." Et alors fut le Prince moult supprins de l'amour a la Comtesse. Et lors prinst la Comtesse a plourer comme femme soubtille et plaine d'aguet. Et done le Prince la prinst a conforter et la prinst a baisier moult souvent en prenant ses larrnes a grant doulieur et lui dit " Belle cousine j'ay a vous parler io STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS

This episode must have occurred soon after Sir Bernard's divorce from his first wife, Agnes Vavasour, and he rapidly found consolation for the failure of his ambitious attempt to gain the Fair Maid's hand by marrying an heiress and a King's ward, Mary, daughter of Sir John de Koches and widow of Sir John de Borhunte. With her he acquired not only ' Hunter's Manor ' and the hereditary Mastership, but other lands and manors in Hampshire, one of which, the Manor of Roche Court, still remains after nineteen generations in the possession of his descendants. To these lands he added the lordship of Beaurepaire, near Basingstoke, purchased from its previous lord, John Pecche, in the year 1353, which he received licence from the King to empark, and which was destined to be for so many centuries the chief seat of the Brocas Masters. At length, full of years and honours, after making elaborate arrangements for the foundation of the Brocas Chantry in Clewer Church, this pour ungdes preux chevaliers d'Angleterre et avecceil est moult gentilz homs." Madame la Comtesse respondi en plourant au Prince " Ha Sire pour Dieu vueillez vous souffrir de me parler de cettes paroles. Car c'est mon entente que je n'aye jamaiz espoux. Car je me suys de tout donnee au plus preux de dessoubz le firmament. Et pour l'amour d'icellui jamaiz espoux fors Dieu n'auray tant que je vivray. Car c'est chose impossible que je l'aye, et pour la sienne amour me vueil garder de compagnie d'omme, ne jamaiz n'est m'intencion de moy marier." Le Prince fut moult en grant desir de scavoir cil qui estoit le plus preux du monde et moult requist la Comtesse qu'elle lui deist. Mais la dicte Comtesse plus Ten veoit eschauffe plus lui prioit qu'il n'en cerchast plus avant et lui disoit : " Pour Dieu tres cher Seigneur, en soy agenouillant, pour la tres douce Vierge mere vueillez vous en souffrir a tant."

1 A brief renconter le Prince lui dist que s'elle ne lui disoit qui estoit le plus preux du monde qu'il seroit son mortel ennemy. Et lors lui dit la Comtesse " Tres chier et redoubte Seigneur c'est vous, et pour l'amour de vous jamaiz a mon coste chevalier ne gerra." Le Prince qui moult fut adonc embras d'amour a la Comtesse lui dit " Dame et je voue a Dieu que jamaiz autre femme que vous vivres n'auroy." Et presentement la fianca, puis aprez assez briefment il l'espousa . . . . De laquelle chose Edouart le Eoy d'Angleterre fut merveilleusement marry et dolent et voult qu'elle fust mise a mort. Car moult plus hautement se fust le Prince marie et n' avoit empereur roy ne prince soubz le ciel qui n'eust eu grant joye se le Prince de Galles se fust mist en son lignage.'

IX PRODUCTION ii

preux chevalier is accorded a magnificent funeral by his grateful master Richard II., and, in St. Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, a stately tomb, round which still runs in contracted form the inscription : ' Hie jacet Bernardus Brocas Miles T. T. quondam camerarius Anne Begine Anglie c-ujus anime propicietur Deus. Amen.' It is unfortunate that no solid foundation is apparent for the legend that Sir Bernard bore the crest, used by him in seals as early as 1361, and still extant, of a Moor's head wearing an Oriental crown, in consequence of vanquishing a Moorish king in battle.1 Possibly he fought among those knights of renown who did battle with Moors ' for the good of their souls ' in the open space between the two camps at Algeciras, when besieged by Alfonso of Castile in 1344. At any rate, the tradition was so well known in Addison's time that the attention of Sir Boger de Coverley was drawn when in the Abbey to the tomb of ' the lord who had cut off the King of Morocco's head.' -

Thus, with the marriage of Sir Bernard Brocas and Mary, widow of Sir John de Borhunte and daughter of Sir Johnde Roches, begins the long period of the Brocas Mastership of the Buckhounds, and it becomes necessary to refer briefly to the early history of the office as recited in an ancient Brocas document.

List of the hereditary Masters of the Royal Buckhounds by tenure in capite of l Hunter's Manor,' in Little Weldon> Northamptonshire.

1. Osborne Lovel, Chamberlain to Henry II.

2. William Lovel.

3. Hamon le Venour, by grant from Henry III. in 1216.

4. "William Lovel.

5. John Lovel, oh. 1316.

6. Thomas de Borhunte, ob. 1340, jure Margaret Lovel.

7. William Danvers, ob. 1361, jure Margaret Lovel.

1 Arras of Brocas : Sable, a lion, rampant-gardant. or. Crest of Brocas : A Moor's head in profile, crowned.

- Spectator, No. 329.

8. Sir Bernard Brocas (1363), ob. 1395, jure Mary cle Borhunte.

9. Sir Bernard Brocas, second of the name, executed 1400.

10. William Brocas (1), ob. 1456.

11. William Brocas (2), ob. 1484.

12. John Brocas, ob. 1492.

13. William Brocas (3), ob. 1506.

15. George Warham and Balph Pexall, joint Masters 1512-

1514, jure Ann and Edith Brocas.

16. Ralph Pexall (1514), ob. c. 1540, jure Edith Brocas.

17. Sir Richard Pexall, ob. 1571, son of Edith Brocas.

18. Sir John Savage (till 1584), second husband of Lady

Pexall, widow of Sir Richard.

19. Sir Pexall Brocas, ob. 1630.

20. Thomas Brocas, who in 1633 sold Hunter's Manor and the

office to Sir Lewis Watson, afterwards Lord Rockingham.

From the list of hereditary Masters given above it will be observed that one of the earliest notices of any regular establishment for the Buckhounds is the grant of certain lands in Little Weldon, a manor in Northamptonshire, near Rockingham, to Hamon le Venour, in 1216. It is certain, however, that the Lovels had held these lands at an earlier date, for certain territories and the lordship of the Manor of Little Weldon were granted by Henry II. to his Chamberlain, Osborne Lovel, from whom they descended to John Lovel, who died in 1316. Whatever were the original relations of ' Hunter's Manor in Little Weldon ' to the royal manor of that name of which it formed a part, it assumed under the Edwards a position so entirely independent of the larger manor that it is styled in the Brocas deeds and official documents the ' Manor of Little Weldon,' with ' Hunter's Manor ' sometimes prefixed as an alias. To this ' Hunter's Manor ' was attached in Grand Serjeanty for many centuries the Mastership of the Royal Buckhounds. For the ingenious at-

1 The tenure of this Master, omittedin the list given in Tlie Family of Brocas, has been correctly noted in the History of the Royal Buckhounds.

tempt made by the author of a ' History of the Buckhounds,' to which allusion has been already made, to throw doubt on the antiquity of the hereditary transmission of the Mastership with ' Hunter's Manor ' — -an attempt apparently based on the fact that the Lovels and de Borhuntes, who held it before Sir Bernard Brocas, were styled custodians instead of masters — needs no further attention than the statement that in the Brocas documents ' magister ' and ' custos ' are frequently used as interchangeable terms of the same meaning, and that in an indenture of Elizabeth's reign the phrase ' Master or Keeper ' of the Buckhounds occurs. Remote from King and Court the situation of Hunter's Manor may seem at the present day to those who forget the central position and historical importance of Rockingham Forest and Rockingham Castle in Norman and Plantagenet times. Here, within reach of the stronghold of Northampton, was the royal residence, fitted for retirement and the pleasures of the chase, until, with the increasing necessity of moving the Court nearer to London, Rockingham was superseded by the greater convenience and magnificence of Windsor. A vast extent of country was once covered by Rockingham Forest, which, when reduced to the limits retained almost to modern times, was twenty-four miles long from Oxendon Bridge to Stamford, and twelve miles wide from Rockingham to Thrapstone. Numerous woodlands, quaint forest names, peculiar customs, and a population that retains it^ forest character still mark the ancient limits. Local names, such as ' The Lord's Walk ' and ' Harry's Wood,' still recall the memory of some forgotten royal and noble lover of the ' mimic war ' of hound and horn. Though ' Hunter's Coppice,' last relic of the ancient 'Hunter's Manor," was broken up some years ago, there still may be seen in ' Little Weldon ' mounds and foundations of an extensive building surrounded by a quadrangular moat to which the peasants give the name i4 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS

of ' The Castle ' or ' The Hall,' and which may rnark the site of the hunting lodge and kennels of the hereditary Masters. Still do the Pytchley awake the same woodland echoes as were roused by many a princely Plantagenet, and still hounds meet on the border of Farming "Woods near an ancient stone three feet high and now fast sinking into the earth, named the ' Bocase Stone,' marking the site of a yet more ancient tree, and bearing still the inscriptions, ' In this place grew Bocase tree,' and, lower down, 'Here stood Bocase tree.' Xo local tradition of the meaning of this inscription survives, and so quaint and unlikely have been the derivations suggested that leave may be taken to hold that here stood the ' Brocas Tree,' and that here, where the old forest tracks, still traceable, met near the ancient kennels, the hereditary Brocas Masters, surrounded by their huntsmen, their ' veutrers,' ' berners,' and hounds, and clad in the livery specially provided from the King's wardrobe, were wont, in successive generations, to await the royal hunting train emerging from Kockingham Castle.

While there is clear proof from public records and documents of the Brocas family of the chief importance of Eiockingham in the early organisation of the Buckhounds, it is strange that no direct evidence of the application of this hunting establishment to the New Forest or other royal demesnes has yet been discovered.

The tenure of the manor and office by the early Lovels and de Borhuntes is so similar in most respects to that of later times, and so interesting from its antiquity, that reference may here be made to an entry dated August 15, 1316, wherein the escheator reported that Lovel had held one messuage and one carucate of land in Weldon Parva of the King in capite by service of keeping and feeding at his own charges fifteen ' canes currentes ' of the King's for the forty days of Lent in each year, and to a later document wherein it is recited that Thomas Borhunte holds of the King in capite a chain of land in Little AVeldon of the inheritance of Margaret his wife, daughter and heir of John Lovel, by service of being ' Venom* le Boy des deymers ' (Master of the King's Buckhoimds) ; that he has charge of twenty-four hounds and six greyhounds of the King's, receiving for the keep of each an obol or \d. a day, and also of two under-huntsrnen, whose wages are \\d. a day, with a cloth coat or a mark of money by the year, and boots ; that he also has charge of a ' veutrer,' or huntsman, at Id. a day, who is also to have a coat or a mark of money and 4s. 8c?. for boots by the year ; that the Master is to keep at his own cost for the forty days of Lent, fifteen Buckhoimds and one ' berner,' or keeper of the hounds, while the second ' berner,' the ' veutrer,' and the rest of the hounds are to be kept at the King's cost for the whole of the year ; that the Master's salary is to be l^cl. a day when at Court and V2d. a day when absent on the King's business, with two robes a year or 40s. ; that the ' seigne en malades ' is to have for daily livery Id. worth of bread, a gallon of beer, a mess of ' groos,' and a mess of roast from the kitchen, and that the livery of the huntsman is to be at the King's will. The most important point in this ancient document is the absolute acknowledgment of the hereditary character of the office and of the power of its transmission through females — a power which in the next century was abolished by restricting the succession to males, but which was revived again under the Tudors in such a manner as to defeat the original object of the Mastership, and to end in its being bought and sold in the seventeenth century as private property, with the final result of the formation of the Privy Buckhounds, the Mastership of which was free from these feudal hindrances.