OEDINAKY HUNT-SEEVANTS — FEUDAL SEKVICES. 5 



the minimum number of hounds in the pack was fifteen 

 couples. These were probabl}' supplemented from other 

 sources when required. The same may b;e said of the hunt 

 servants. Strictly speaking, the Hereditary branch of this 

 pack only comprised the Master, the huntsman, the two 

 "berners," whose duties were probably somewhat similar 

 to the yeomen prickers of after times and the whippers-in 

 of our own period. It is also impossible to give the nominal 

 or the actual yearly cost of the pack. We know nothing 

 of these expenses beyond the fact of the manor of Little 

 Weldon, Northamptonshire, having been held by tenure of 

 keeping the hounds, with a supplementary tax imposed on 

 the counties of Surrey and Sussex, amounting to 63^. 17s. Qd. 

 from the 36th year of the reign of Edward III. (a.d. 1362) ; 

 and afterwards 50/. a year down to the year 1707, when those 

 annual payments terminated. Bearing these circumstances in 

 mind, it is safe to assume a glorious cavalcade assembled at a 

 meet of the Royal Buckhounds in the vicinity of Windsor, 

 when Edward III. and his illustrious Court attended there to' 

 enjoy the pleasures of the chase. 



At the headquarters of this Royal Hunt yclept Windsor 

 Forest, we find Edward III. — Dei gratia Rex Francise, et 

 Anglise, et Domnius Hibernise, et Dux Aquitanise — about this 

 time making considerable extensions to those happy hunting- 

 grounds. Thus we find Sir William Trussel granting to his 

 sovereign lord and master, in exchange of other lands, certain 

 assarts from the soil of the Forest of Windsor, Old Windsor, 

 New Windsor, Wynkefield and Ascot, which appertained to 

 the Castle and Manor of Windsor, in times before the said 

 lands were brought into cultivation, with the obvious intention 

 (sad to say) that they should be re-affbrested for the benefit 

 of the game. In like manner Sir John Brocas gave the 

 King (for a quid pro quo) all his lands in Clewer, Bray, 

 Dyneworth, and Windsor. And so on in various similar 

 cases, which are unnecessary to recapitulate in detail. These 

 transactions are adduced merely to show that Windsor Forest, 

 spacious as it was in those days, was not deemed large 



