Note 415 — CANES VENATICI. Class III.

Spelman Gloss. Arch.

Ancient Tenures. pp. 9 and 35.

From the term Veltris or Veltrahus is derived the class of huntsmen denominated Veltrarii of the court of Charles the Great, “qui veltres custodiebant:” of which class, at a later period, were the masters of the leash whom the lords of the manor of Setene, in Kent, furnished as the condition of their tenure to Edward I. and II. to lead three greyhounds when the king went into Gascony; “so long as a pair of shoes of four-pence price should last”—“donec perusus fuit pari solutarum pretii iiij d.” Neither Blount nor Strutt appear to have been aware of the origin of the term Veltrarius.