Note 416 — CANES VENATICI. Class III.
William Dansey translation
The Saxons used racha, and our oldest writers rache and brache. Thomas the Rhymer, the earliest of Scottish poets, has raches in the retinue of his elfin queen—Prophesia Thomæ de Erseldoun.“and raches cowpled by her ran”—and again in Sir Tristrem (Fytte 3rd.). “Raches with hem thai lede.” See Scott’s Glossary, in loco.
The old metrical charter, granted by the Confessor to Cholmer and Dancing in Essex, reads—
Four greyhounds, and six braches For hare, fox, and wild cattes.
And the words rache and brache are of frequent occurrence in the Mayster of Game, the Book of St. Alban’s, and our early poets. See Blount’s Ancient Tenures, pp. 2. 26. and 104.