76 THE HISTORY OF THE EOYAL BUCKHOUNDS. 



Master's annual fee of '331. Qs. 8d. is conspicuous by its 

 absence. In all probability the duties of the Master partly 

 devolved on the Sergeant of the pack for the time being : 

 Henry Harvey, Esq. (06. 1596), James Bond, Esq. (circa 1598), 

 and Francis Joye, Esq., successively. Without going into 

 details it may be noted, en passant, that Walter Dodsworth, 

 one of the grooms to the pack from the time of Henry VIII., 

 died in 1588, and was succeeded by " William Sale alias Dilly." 

 Every particular bearing on the 'personnel of this branch of 

 the Royal Buckhounds is thus circumstantially recorded. The 

 fame acquired by those hounds, at the time now under notice, 

 must have been notorious, as the following incident shows : 

 When Sir Edward Wotton was sent on a special embassy to 

 James VI., King of Scotland, in 1585, his best credentials to 

 that sporting monarch were a draft of buckhounds from the 

 royal kennels, and two race horses and four hunters from the 

 royal stud. Unfortunately they were forgotten by the am- 

 bassador. On his arrival at Edinburgh, James anxiously 

 inquired for the hounds and horses. Wotton was obliged to 

 pretend that they were on the road ; and, to remedy the 

 blunder, he had to despatch a special messenger in hot haste 

 to Sir Francis Walsingham, with a missive directing him to 

 forward the hounds and horses without delay to the King. 

 " Since his mynd doth so runn vpon them & he put in head 

 of some in coming, the want of them might breed conceiptes 

 which the adverse partis would work vpon." Wotton adds 

 that he had also written to the Earl of Leicester as earnestly 

 as he could to send six or seven couples of buckhounds, and 

 urged Sir Francis to take order for their transmission " with 

 all convenient speed." These hounds and horses soon after 

 arrived in Edinburgh, and were formally presented on 

 .lune 12 to the King, who declared them to be "the rediest 

 hounds and horses that ever he had seen." This novel stroke 

 of diplomacy had the desired effect ; the ambassador's object 

 was instantly attained ; and, it is said, the King immediately 

 after left his capital, the cares of State, and his own mother's 

 fate to the tender mercies of her avowed enemies, for the 



