Ch. I. SINCE THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 



ig 



aforesaid times ; and this notice they shall cause to be given to them six 

 days before the aforesaid day. In witness whereof each to the others 

 writing hath put to his seal. 



' And it is to be observed, that the time of buck season (tempus 

 pinguedinis), ' here is computed between the Feast of S. Peter 

 ad Vincula (August i) and the Exaltation of Holy Cross, (Sept. 

 14), and the time of doe season (tempus firmatiOnis)^ between the 

 Feast of S. Martin (Nov. 11) and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin 

 (Feb. 2).' 3^ 



The above is, as I suppose, one of the earliest and most curious instances 

 which can be adduced of a Hunting Agreement, and evinces the minute 

 care and attention with which such agreements were carried out. No 

 doubt there are others extant, but this will be sufficient for our present 

 purpose, the illustration of the deer-hunting of our ancestors. Hunting, 

 indeed, during the Middle Ages appears to have been carried on with much 

 deliberation, not to say solemnity. Deeds were engrossed and sealed, and 

 the most searching and exact enquiries made as to the state of the game 

 in every forest and chase, as appears by the wardmotes, some of which 

 are still preserved. Warrants for the due delivery of venison were written 

 and signed with legal accuracy, and letters, at a period when letter-writing 

 was a rare accomplishment and confined to the clergy, were despatched 



' Tempus pinguedinis, translated grease time, the lawful seasons of the chase, they did not 



or the fat season. Richard II. granted to the always observe them. Thus, we find in the 



abbess of Wherwell, in Hampshire, two bucks household roll of Eleanor Countess of Leicester, 



'degrees, 'and two does 'defirmeson,"annuatim, A.D. 1265, under date of the loth of May, the 



a forest^ de Chuyte ' (Chute), in the seventh, following entry : ' pro expensis canum, per 



year of his reign. — Patent Rolls. Michaelem de Kemes (inge) , in capiendo i cervum 



^ Firmatiq, the doe season ; a, supplying with vi^.' This proves that venison was used in the 



foo(j Leg. Inse. c. 34. spring as well as at theproper periods. — Man- 



^ Potter's ' Charnwood Forest,' 4to. 1842, ners and Homehold Expenses of England in the 



p. 117, and Blount's 'Tenures,' Ed. Beckwith, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Roxburghe 



p. 426. Club, 1841. ' ' 



' Although our ancestors defined very clearly 



