4 8 THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



Assize of Woodstock (1184), the keeping of greyhounds in the 

 forest was forbidden. In the cases of venison trespass through- 

 out the forests of England, the illicit hunting of deer with 

 greyhounds, with or without bows and arrows, is the com- 

 monest charge. The last chapter of the Regard of 13 

 Henry III. directed inquiry to be made as to who had 

 braches or greyhounds or anything else for doing harm to the 

 king's deer. Lists of those keeping greyhounds are some- 

 times found amongst the extant eyre rolls. Greyhounds found 

 in a forest, or straying in pursuit of deer, were sent forthwith to 

 the particular justice of that forest. Thus a number of grey- 

 hounds in the charge of poachers, found in Rockingham forest 

 in 1246, were sent by the foresters and verderers to Sir Robert 

 Passclew, then justice of that forest. It is thought that the 

 old greyhound was a larger and more powerful dog than that 

 which we know by that name, and more nearly resembled our 

 deerhound. Dr. Caius (English Dogges, 1576) applies the 

 word to various breeds. He describes the greyhound as 



"A spare and bare kinde of dogge (of fleshe but not of bone) ; 

 some are of a greater sorte, and some of a lesser ; some are smooth 

 skynned, and some are curled ; the bigger thereof are appoynted to 

 hunt the big"ger beasts, and the smaller serve to hunt the smaller 

 accordingly." 



Brache (brachettus) was the general term for hounds that 

 hunted by scent (odore sequentes), and the bercelet (bercelettus} 

 was a smaller hound of the same kind. The limehound 

 (limarius) also hunted by scent, and the name may have been 

 but an alias for a bercelet. The limehound, or lymer, as it is 

 termed by Twici and Caius, took its name from the line or 

 thong by which it was held. Caius says this dog is in smelling 

 irregular and in swiftness incomparable, and that it taketh the 

 prey " with a jolly quickness." 



The mastiff (inastivus) is of fairly frequent occurrence in 

 forest proceedings of the thirteenth and subsequent centuries ; 

 it seems to have corresponded to our dog of the same name. 

 It was large and strong, and evidently employed chiefly for the 

 protection of property and person. It was used for the destruc- 

 tion of wolves, and was capable of hunting and pulling down 

 both red and fallow deer. 



