16 THE HISTORY OF THE EOYAL BUCKHOUNDS. 



Abbey, where the following epitaph remains round the verge 

 of a curious tomb, adorned with his e&.gy, etc. : — 



" Hie jacet Bernardus Brocas, Miles, T. T. quonda' camare 

 Anne Regine Anglie, cuj' aiep. pr'cietur Deus : Amen." 



The back of this tomb was filled in with the following 

 modern inscription, which is inaccurate in some respects : — 



" Here lieth buried Sir Bernard Brocas, third son of Sir John 

 Brocas, who had a considerable command of Archers at the siege of 

 Calais, in 1347, and was a lineal descendant from Sir Bernard 

 Brocas, youngest son of the Earl of Foix, in France, who came into 

 England with the Norman King William ; and in requital for his 

 services, had a grant of lands in Hampshire to the then value of 

 400^. a year, which he chose near Basingstoke, and thereon he built 

 a mansion house and called it Beaurepaire. This Su* Bernard served 

 in the French Wars, and being afterwards sent against the Moors, 

 overcame the King of Morocco in battle, and was allowed to wear, 

 for his crest, a Moor's head crowned with an old Eastern crown. 

 His elder brother, Sir John, being slain in an engagement with the 

 French, near Southampton, and his second son, Sir Oliver (who was 

 Captain Seneschal of Guienne and Aquitaine, and Governor of 

 Bordeaux, under King Edward III.), dying without Lssue, Su- 

 Bernard Brocas succeeded to the parental inheritance both in 

 England and France : and having married Mary, daughter and 

 heiress of Sir John de Roche, had a large estate with her, and the 

 hereditary post of Master of the Buckhounds ; which was con- 

 firmed to him by King Edward III., and held by the family until 

 sold in James I.'s i-eign. He was Chamberlain to Queen Anne, 

 Richard II.'s Queen, and his son, a knight of the same christian 

 name, was carver to his said Majesty. The son was one of the 

 conspirators against King Heniy IV. at Oxford, and was after- 

 wards taken and executed at Cirencester, in Gloucestershire ; and he 

 himself, having raised a considerable force on the same side, advanced 

 to Reading, in Berkshire, which place refusing him admittance, he 

 burnt a part of it, and made the rest his quarters, till on the retreat 

 of the conspirator's forces into Oxfordshire, Sir Bernard's dispersing, 

 he, with many of his adherents, became an easy prey to the towns- 

 men of ReacUng, who executed several upon the spot, but sent Sir 



