28 THE HISTORY OF THE EOYAL BUCKHOUNDS. 



CHAPTER II. 

 HOUSEHOLD BRANCH— HENRY VIII. 



General Introduction. — Social State of England temi). Richard II. — Henry VII. 

 — Accession of Henry VIII. — The Household Branch of the Royal Buck- 

 hounds instituted. — George Boleyne, Viscount Rochester, First Master. — 

 The Hunt Servants : theii" Salaries and Allowances. — Sir Richard Long, 

 Second Master. — Lord Darcy, of Chiche, Third Master. 



The rural history of England during the fifteenth century is 

 almost unknown. From the deposition of Richard II., in 1899, 

 until a few years before the accession of Henry VIII., in 

 1509, we find a sanguinary era, one of the saddest to be found 

 in the annals of any civilised country. Yet in those rare and 

 short intervals of peace and prosperity that intervened, the 

 rural sports so characteristic of our country are occasionally 

 mentioned incidentally by contemporary chroniclers.* We 

 may, therefore, deduce that the innate love for field sports, 



* It is recorded by Holinshed that Richard II., his Queen, John, Duke of 

 Lancaster, the Duke of York, Thomas Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the 

 Archbishop of York, the Earl of Arundel, the Earl of Huntingdon, " with 

 other bishops, lords and ladies a great many," assembled at Leicester, about the 

 Feast of St. Peter and Vincent, 1389, to hunt in the forest and all the parks 

 appertaining to the said Duke of Lancaster. Holinshed also attests that 

 Edward IV. indulged in the pleasures of the chase whenever a favourable 

 opportunity presented ; and he fiirther specifically mentions that " in the 

 summer the last he ever saw [A.D. 1483], his highnesse, being at Windsors in 

 hunting, sent for the maior and aldermen of London to him, for none other 

 errand but to have them hunt and be merry with him ; when he made them 

 not so stately, but so friendly and so familliar cheare, and sent venison from 

 thence so freely into the city, that no one thing in many dayes before gat 

 him either more hearts or more hearty favor among the common people, which 

 ofentimes more esteeme and take for the greater kindness a little courtesie than 

 a great benefit." 



