THE ROYAL HOUNDS. 217 



can have been completed without a considerable 

 amount of local assistance. 



The burden of the payment of wages and the 

 provision of food for the men, forage for the horses, 

 and " puture " for the hounds, fell upon the sheriff 

 of the county, as did also in most cases the provision 

 of salt and barrels, and the means of transport to the 

 Royal larder. The Prior of Taunton had to perform 

 this service when the Royal hounds hunted at 

 Petherton. 



In some of the long journeys horse litters were 

 provided for transporting the hounds, and wagons 

 where the roads were sufficiently good. 



Our ancestors were very skilful in curing meat, 

 and had much practice in the art, as we know that 

 the *' beeves " were in most households killed in the 

 autumn for use during the rest of the year. Ginger 

 seems to have been used with the salt. They do 

 not seem, if we may judge from the elaborate direc- 

 tions as to the "unlacing," or cutting up, of a hunted 

 stag and the rewarding of the raches, lime hound, 

 huntsmen, and harbourer, to have made any attempt 

 to preserve any parts except the haunches. In a 

 little sixteenth-century document, " The Craft of 

 Venerie," among the Lansdowne MSS. in the 

 British Museum, we find it laid down as follows : — 



" When the harte is taken you shall give the 

 hallowe to the houndes — that is the necke, the hed, 

 the shoulders, and the syde, and the loin shall dwell 

 to the kitchen." 



