SIK KICHARD LONG AND LORD DARCY. 51 



the King's stable," and was evidently a favourite with 

 Henry VIII., from whom he obtained many valuable grants 

 and offices from time to time, including the custody of Eltham 

 Park, a portion of the Forest of Deane, keeper of the Manor 

 and Pleasaunce of Greenwich, lease to farm the royal Manor of 

 Eltham, with custody thereof, grant of the Priory of Kington 

 with the temporalities thereof in various parts, grant of the 

 Manor of Coggeshall, seneschal of the Manor of Deptford, grant 

 of the Manor of Great Saxham and elsewhere in co. Suffolk, 

 grant of the site of the Hospital of St. Thomas, within the 

 Borough of Southwark, with the endowment of the same ia 

 various counties; annuities to the amount of 120Z. a year, and 

 a house in London ; and Governor of the Channel Islands, 

 which appointment he held at the time of his death. Marillac, 

 the French Ambassador, in a despatch to Francis I., dated 

 London, June 25, 1541, announced to the King, his master, that 

 Sir Richard Long, whom His Excellency designates "a personage 

 of a certain authority and experience in military affairs," had 

 been lately sent to Calais in great haste, for the purpose of 

 inspecting the fortifications of that and other places in France 

 belonging to England, and to report thereon. Sir Richard 

 Long, the second Master of the Household Branch of the Royal 

 Buckhounds, died on September 29, L545. 



Very likely Thomas, Lord Darcy, K,G., succeeded Sir Richard 

 Long, and became the third Master of this portion of the Royal 

 Buckhounds about the year 1546, and probably retained the 

 office until it was conferred upon John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, 

 temp. Edward VI. But, as in the preceding instance, we are 

 equally in the dark as to the particulars relating to this 

 Master's tenure of office. All we can find about him is that 

 he was the only son of Roger Darcy, Esquire of the Body to 

 Henry VII., and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Went worth 

 and widow of John Bourchier, Earl of Bath. He was born in 

 1506. In course of time he became a prominent personage 

 at the Court of Henry VIII. He was knighted at Calais, 

 on November 1, 1532. In 1545 he was constituted Master 

 of Ordinances within the Tower of London, and in the next 



