CHAPTER VI 

 HOUNDS AND HUNTING 



THE sixth article of the Charter of the Forest (1217) dealt 

 with the old custom of the lawing of dogs. The inqui- 

 sition or view of the lawing of dogs in the forest was for 

 the future to be made every third year, and he whose dog was 

 then found to be unlawed was to be fined three shillings. This 

 mutilation of dogs, termed lawing or expeditation, to prevent 

 them chasing the game, is said to be as old as the time of 

 Edward the Confessor. By the forest law of Henry II. it was 

 done to mastiffs. The charter of 1217 laid down that the law- 

 ing was to consist in cutting off the three claws of the forefeet, 

 without the ball. "The mastive," says Manwood, " being 

 brought to set one of his forefeet upon a piece of wood eight 

 inches thick and a foot square, then one with a mallet, setting 

 a chissell two inches broad upon the three clawes of his fore- 

 foot, at one blow doth smite them cleane off." 



This lawing, though originally intended only for mastiffs, 

 was usually applied to all dogs in forest bounds. This was 

 certainly the case in the forests of Rockingham, Pickering, 

 and Essex. The right to have unlawed dogs was not un- 

 frequently granted by the Crown to persons of position and 

 influence. Thus the Canons of Waltham, the Bishop of Lon- 

 don, and the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's had grants 

 exempting their house dogs in Essex forest; whilst the Earl of 

 Arundel and other laymen obtained complete exemption. It 

 'was the custom in some forests, as at Pickering, for outlying 

 townships to pay a composition, termed in that forest " hun- 

 gill " or " houndgeld," for the purpose of securing immunity 

 from lawing. 



The dog of most common occurrence in forest proceedings 

 is the greyhound (leporarius), which hunted by sight. By the 



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