2 THE HISTOEY OF THE EOYAL BUCKHOUNDS. 



men tell no tales, consequently the subject is a covert which, 

 we fear, will be " drawn blank " for evermore. The days of 

 chivalry passed away without producing a champion who 

 essayed such a task, and lived to record the result of his re- 

 searches. It may be, however, that some of those "spectre- 

 hunters," whom so many of the mediaeval chroniclers testify as 

 having been seen in the witching hours of night pursuing the 

 pleasures of the chase with hound and horn, set out on a his- 

 torical hunt of this description. If so, it is evident the poor 

 enthusiast came to grief, and met his fate in the pursuit of such 

 a quarry. Truly an appalling conjecture ! This infatuation 

 must have claimed many victims, for, seek where we will, there 

 is no important forest mentioned by the superstitious writers 

 of old without its " spectre hunter." Yet this ghost was a 

 popular ghost. Even Shakespeare pays homage to the venatic 

 spirit that held its nocturnal sway in Windsor Forest. With 

 such dire conjurations before us we must at once close our eyes, 

 and exclude from sight the multifarious sections of the chase 

 connected with royalty, and confine our investigations to one 

 portion only of the hunting establishment of the reigning 

 sovereigns of these realms, so far as it relates to the " Royal 

 Buckhounds." 



Even in this single department we find several distinct and 

 separate elements. In the first place, there are the Buckhounds 

 and the officers of the hunt, as officially recognised by the Lord 

 High Chamberlain's department, the annual cost of which was 

 defrayed by the Treasurer of the Chamber of the Royal House- 

 hold. Secondly, the royal prerogative in the chase continually 

 occurred by which the sovereign frequently augments the pack 

 by seizing any hounds he liked belonging to his subjects, conse- 

 quently we find the royal kennels " well replenished " from time 

 to time with drafts obtained from this source. Thii'dly, when a 

 bishop or an abbot departed this world for other happy hunting- 

 grounds, the contents of the ecclesiastical kennel immediately 

 reverted to the reigning sovereign. Fourthly, the sergeanties, 

 that is, those estates held of the Crown by tenure of providing 

 and keeping a certain number of Buckhounds and other sorts 



