. To face p. 160 168 A HUMILIATING PURSUIT IN THE GROUNDS OF THE ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE AT SANDHURST. Huntsman to the Queen's Hounds, appointed April 1, MORE LIKELY TO SPRAIN YOUR ANKLE THAN SMASH YOUR MR. EDMUND TATTERSALL ON BLACK BESS From the picture by Byron Webb in Mr. Tattersall's LORD CORK AND ORRERY From Baily's Magazine,' June 1870. 176 182 184 M.B.H. 1892 to 1895. From a photograph by Hills & THE WILLOWS PRESENTED A SCENE OF WILD CONFUSION By G. D. Giles. UNKENNELLING THE ROYAL HOUNDS From the picture by Chalon, 1817, in the Queen's collec- By G. D. Giles. THE PRINCE WENT AT THE TOP OF THE HUNT. 206 From an oil-painting in the Queen's collection at Windsor Castle. NEW TERRORS WERE ADDED BY THE HIGHWAYMEN 28 By G. D. Giles. TURNING OUT THE DEER FOR THE ROYAL HUNT ON WINDSOR FOREST 40 From an old print. PAGE 43 THE ACCOMPLISHED SPORTSWOMAN From an old print. MOONSHINE, A CELEBRATED DEER Frequently hunted by His Majesty George III. From an old print. CHART OF THE VARIOUS MEETS OF THE ROYAL HOUNDS, 1841 From the 'Sporting Review,' 1841. RIDING UNFAIRLY By G. H. Jalland. TO RIDE JEALOUS IN A FOREST YOU MUST BE REALLY INTREPID By G. D. Giles. THE HERMIT From the Sporting Review,' 1840. HARRY KING ULTIMATELY STOPPED THEM By G. H. Jalland. THE DEER SHOULD GO RIGHT AWAY OUT OF HIS CART LIKE THE 78 LORD OF THE VALLEY' 96 By G. D. Giles. ROBERT BARTLETT 97 First Whip to the Queen's Hounds, May 1835 to January 1854. From THE COUNTRY FAR AND WIDE IS UP IN ARMS AGAINST US Huntsman to the Queen's Hounds, July 1866 to December 1871. From FRANK GOODALL ON CRUSADER 150 Huntsman to the Queen's Hounds, April 1872 to May 1888. From THE HIDDEN PREHISTORIC RUTS By G. D. Giles. CHARLES HOARE Second Whipper-in to the Queen's Hounds, appointed July 1, 1894. YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE REALLY CARRIED 184 By G. D. Giles. CHARLES STRICKLAND 185 First Whipper-in to the Queen's Hounds, appointed July 1, 1894. THE FIRST WHIP'S HORSE SUBSIDED WITH ONLY HIS HEAD OUT OF WATER 187 By G. D. Giles. CHARLES SAMWAYS 191 Second Groom to the Queen's Hounds, appointed July 1, 1894. From IT WAS ALL I COULD DO TO GET WILLIAM' HOME By G. D. Giles. THE OLD KENNEL AT SWINLEY From an old print. PLAN OF THE KENNELS, ASCOT HEATH 198 201 204 PLAN OF THE KENNELS, ASCOT HEATH 205 JOSIAH MILES 210 Stud Groom to the Queen's Hounds, October 1843 to March 1894. REUBEN MATTHEWS. 212 Stud Groom to the Queen's Hounds, appointed April 1, 1894. From PLAN OF PROPOSED NEW MILE COURSE (1895), Ascoт, BERKS M. DUTECH CLEARING THE GATE AT A LEVEL CROSSING UPON PAPILLON By G. D. Giles. MAP PLACES OF MEETING OF THE ROYAL HUNT (at end of book). 285 THE QUEEN'S HOUNDS AND STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 6 INTRODUCTION BY EDWARD BURROWS Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona 16 FEW of those who share with the writer the memories of an Eton wet-bob,' to whom The Brocas,' Brocas Clump,' Brocas Meadow,' and Brocas Lane' are familiar in their mouths as household words,' know the origin of the strange un-English name which thus lingers on the Eton bank of the Thames just above Windsor Bridge, but has died out on the opposite side where lay the manor, styled, at least until the beginning of the sixteenth century, Brocas in Clewer,' or Clewer-Brocas,' and where the position of the Brocas Chantry, founded by that notable knight Sir Bernard Brocas, may still be traced in Clewer Church. Few of those who ride with her Majesty's Buckhounds are aware that the hereditary Mastership was held by the family Materials for this Introduction are taken from The Family of Brocas of Beaurepaire and Roche Court, by Montagu Burrows, Captain R.N., M.A.,, F.S.A., Chichele Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford a work founded on the collection of original Brocas documents now in the writer's possession. B of Brocas for nearly three hundred years, from the middle of the fourteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century. Fewer still among those who ride or row have ever heard of the connection between this long line of hereditary Masters and the ruined castle of Sault and a church and villages in South-Western France, still bearing the name of Brocas, far from the track of the modern traveller, and buried among the woodlands and sand dunes of ancient Gascony. A brief account of certain of these Masters of old time may form a becoming introduction to modern incidents of stag-hunting, may bring to light picturesque details of sport closely mingled with war, may show that the Mastership can claim an ancient and romantic past, and add proof that in all ages good sportsmen have been staunch fighting-men and loyal subjects. The lands held in Clyware, New Windesore, Old Windesore, Eton, Dauneye, Boveneye, Cokeham and Bray during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by this family of Gascon knights, transplanted into England by Edward II., were important and extensive. Some ten men of this name and blood occupied notable positions as favoured courtiers and trusted servants of the Crown in the brilliant and romantic period of the reigns of the second and third Edward and the second Richard, and in successive generations held such offices as those of Master of the Horse, Master of the Buckhounds, Chief Forester of Windsor, Warden of King's Castles, Gaols, and Parks, Captain of Calais, Controller of Calais, Constable of Aquitaine, Controller of Bordeaux, Royal Ambassador, Chamberlain to the Queen, Chamberlain of the Exchequer, and King's Clerk of the Works. It is, therefore, hard to understand the almost complete oblivion into which has fallen the real origin of the name that still survives under the shadow of Windsor Castle. So fantastic and so far from the truth have been the suggested |