ENGLAND UNDEK EDWAED III. 6 



of dogs for the king's " disport." Fifthly, the obligations of the 

 sheriffs of Surrey and Sussex, who were obliged to furnish 

 certain contributions towards the cost of the pack out of the 

 issue of those counties yearly. And sixthly, the somewhat 

 complicated functions and privileges of the Hereditary Masters 

 and the Household Masters of the pack, of whom the latter 

 were nominated by the sovereign when feudal services gradually 

 became obsolete in the sixteenth and eventually lapsed in 

 desuetude early in the eighteenth century. Under each of 

 these distinct sections were many subsidiary ones, as we shall 

 see from time to time; the whole surroundings and the as- 

 sociations of the pack constituting a quaint picture in the 

 history of the chase from the time when the Royal Buckhounds) 

 per se, were first instituted in the reign of Edward III. down 

 to comparatively modern times. 



There is no doubt that buckhunting was a branch of the 

 royal chase long before the time of Edward III. It seems 

 special importance was imparted to the Royal Buckhounds in 

 the reign of Edward III., when the pack is first specifically 

 mentioned : " Canum nostrarum damorum vocatum buck- 

 houndis," with a Master and other ofiicers appointed by the 

 king to manage it, the Mastership being a hereditary oflice, 

 and exercised by the Brocas family through many generations. 

 About this period a manifest change took place in buckhunting. 

 Before this time the sport was a mixture of coursing and stalk- 

 ing the fallow deer with bow and arrow. The change referred 

 to altered from that method to hunting the buck with hound 

 and horn " at force " — that is to say, by rousing the quarry from 

 his lair, laying on the hounds, and riding to them in pursuit, 

 somewhat after the manner followed at the present time. It 

 would be interesting to give a report of such a run with this 

 pack in the days of the third Edward; but, alas! the fraternit}'' 

 of the quill, who so graphically depict such scenes in our days, 

 did not exist until the nineteenth century was out of its teens. 

 And are we not now referring to sporting events occurring more 

 than five hundred years ago, during a period when pen, ink, and 

 parchment gave way to=the sword, blood, and mail armour ? 



