One of the ancient feudal rights was that of obtaining bran from the vassals for the hounds' bread, known as the right of brennage, from bren, bran.
Although bread was the staple food given to hounds, yet they were also provided with meat. At the end of a day's hunting they received a portion of the game killed (see Curée), and if this was not sufficient or it was not the hunting season game was expressly killed for them. In a decree from King John to William Pratell and the Bailiffs of Falke de Breaut of the Isle of Ely, the latter are commanded to find bread and paste for the hounds as they may require, "and to let them hunt sometimes in the Bishops chase for the flesh upon which they are fed" (Close Roll, 17 John). In an extract from the Wardrobe Accounts of 6 Edward I. we find a payment was made of 40s. by the King to one Bernard King for his quarry for two years past on which the King's dogs had been fed (MS. Phillipps, 8676).
We find also that "Pantryes, Chippinges and broken bread" were given to the hounds, Chippings being frequently mentioned in the royal accounts as well as meat for the hounds (Liber Niger Domus Ed. IV.; Collection of Ordinances of the Royal Households; Jesse, ii. 125; Privy Purse Expenses Henry VIII. 1529-1532).
The cost of the keep of some of the King's hounds were paid for out of the exchequer, others were paid from the revenues and outgoings of various counties, and an immense number were kept by subjects who held land from the crown by serjeantry or in capite of keeping a stated number of running hounds, greyhounds, and brachets, &c., for the King's use (Blount's Ancient Tenures, Plac. Chron. 12, 13 Ed. I.; Issue Roll 25 Henry VI.; Domesday, tom. i. fol. 57 v).
We see by the early records of our kings that a pack of hounds did not always remain stationary and hunt within easy reach of their kennels, but were sent from one part of the kingdom to another to hunt where game was most plentiful or where there was most vermin to be destroyed. As early as Edward I.'s reign we find conveyances were sometimes provided for hounds when they went on long journeys. Thomas de Candore or Candovere and Robert le Sanser (also called Salsar), huntsmen of the stag and buckhounds (Close Rolls 49 Henry III.; 6, 8 Ed. I.), were paid for a horse-litter for fifty-nine days for the use of their sixty-six hounds and five limers (Ward. Acc. 14, 15 Ed. I.). And as late as Henry VIII.'s time the hounds seemed to travel about considerable distances, as in the Privy Purse expenses of that King the cart covered with canvas for the use of his hounds is a frequently recurring item.
O. F. eschantillon, Mid. Eng. Scantilon, Mod. Eng. scantling, mason's rule, a measure; the huntsman is continually told to take a scantilon, that is, a measure, of the slot or footprint of the deer, so as to be able to show it at the meet, that with this measure and the examination of the droppings which the huntsman was also to bring with him the Master of the Game could judge if the man had harboured a warrantable deer (see Appendix: Slot and Trace).
In mediæval times the consideration for the larder played a far more important part in fixing the seasons for hunting wild beasts than it did in later times, the object being to kill the game when in the primest condition. Beginning with the—
Red deer stag: according to Dryden's Twici, p. 24 (source not given), the season began at the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 24), and ended Holyrood Day (September 14). Our text of the "Master of Game" nowhere expressly states when the stag-hunting begins or terminates, but as he speaks of how to judge a hart from its fumes in the month of April and May (p. 30), and further says that harts run best from the "entry of May into St. John's tide" (p. 35), we might infer that they were hunted from May on. He also says that the season for hind-hunting begins when the season of the hart ends and lasteth till Lent. But as this part of the book was a mere translation from G. de F. it is no certain guide to the hunting seasons in England. The Stag-hunting season in France, the cervaison, as it was called, began at the Sainte Croix de Mai (May 3rd) and lasted to la Sainte Croix de Septembre (Holyrood Day, Sept. 14), the old French saying being: "Mi Mai, mi teste, mi Juin, mi graisse; à la Magdeleine venaison pleine" (July 22) (Menagier de Paris, ii.). And although the stag was probably chiefly hunted in England between Midsummer and the middle of September, when they are in the best condition, and it was considered the best time to kill them, they were probably hunted from May on in the early days in England as they were in France. Had this not been customary we imagine the Duke of York would have inserted one of his little interpolations in the text he was translating, and stated that although the season began in May beyond the sea, it only began later in England.
In Twety and Gyfford we read that the "tyme of grece, begynnyth alle way atte the fest of the Nativyte of Saynt Johan baptist." Later on, according to Dryden, the season of the stag began two weeks after Midsummer (July 8).
Red deer hind, Holyrood Day (Sept. 14) to Candlemas (Feb. 2) (Twici, p. 24; Man., p. 181). According to others the hind and the doe season ends on Twelfth-day or Epiphany (Jan. 6).