SIR RUSTIN VILLENOVE, INTERVENIENT MASTER. 17 



Bernard to London, where he was beheaded on Tower Hill in 

 January 1400." 



During the four years in which the second Hereditary- 

 Master of the Royal Buckhounds officiated, he received from 

 491. 19s. Ohd. to oOl. and IQd. per annum from the Sheriff 

 of the county Sussex by right of his office towards the cost of 

 the pack. John Napper was the huntsman; and the other 

 two hunt servants were William and Richard Hunte. 



The allegiance of this Sir Bernard Brocas to Richard II. 

 not only cost him his life, but likewise imperilled the con- 

 tinuancy of the office of custodian or mastership of the Buck- 

 hounds in the family of his heirs and successors. Immediately 

 after his execution, "jauncing Bolingbroke" appointed Sir 

 Rustin Villenove Master of the Buckhounds, and Sir Rustin 

 received the emoluments of the office, amounting to 41 L 9s. S^d., 

 from the Sheriff of Sussex in the 1st year of the reign of 

 Henry IV., at which time John Napper was still the hunts- 

 man, and John Backhous and John Hunt were the two yeomen 

 berners. And, it is a singular circumstance that Sir Rustin 

 Villenove is specifically styled Master {Magistro canu Regis) 

 — the earliest instance on record where the term Master 

 {per se) occurs in any official document relating to this subject. 

 Down to this time the two preceding Brocas were styled 

 custodian. In some instances their office was not even 

 mentioned; the abbreviation "cap" (= taking) certain sums 

 of money, only being used. Who this Sir Rustin Villenove 

 may have been we are unable to say. His appointment must 

 have been a temporary one, as we hear no more of him after 

 this year. It is evident he had no interest in or connection 

 with the Manor of Little Weldon, to which the office of 

 custodian of the Royal Buckhounds appertained, consequently 

 the inference that the office of Master of this pack was created, 

 and did not exist prior to the year 1362 (when the counties of 

 Surrey and Sussex were first obliged to defray the annual 

 cost of the Master, the hunt-servants, and the hounds), is 

 thereby reduced to a moral certainty. 



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