88 THE HISTORY OF THE EOYAL BUCKHOUNDS. 



of Queen Elizabeth's reign Pexsall Brocas continued to be 

 paid 501. a year by the SheriS' of the county Sussex, as above 

 recorded. 



In the meantime Pexsall Brocas married Margaret, daughter 

 of Sir Thomas Sherley, of WistoD, county Sussex ; and was 

 soon after elected M.P. for Steyning. These new responsibilities 

 did not act as a curb on his wayward disposition, as he con- 

 tinued to indulge in excesses, which got him into some serious 

 scrapes. These transactions are related by Professor Burrows, 

 and call for no recapitulation here.* However, some other 

 events in connection with the office of this Hereditary Master 

 of the Buckhounds, which are not given in Professor Burrows' 

 volume, cannot be passed over. Thus, on January 27, 1590, 

 we find he obtained a commission to take up hounds for 

 her Majesty's service, "as heretofoi-e hath been accustomed"; 

 the Sergeant of the Household branch of the pack and their 

 several deputies being included in the commission. Doubtless 

 those gentlemen continued to exercise the authority by which 

 they were invested until the end of Elizabeth's reign, as shortly 

 after the accession of James I. Sir Pexsall Brocas obtained a 

 similar commission from the new King, by whom he was 

 knighted at the Charter House, London, and in all probability 

 the latter commission was given to him on that occasion, as it 

 is dated May 11, 1603, the very day he was dubbed. At any 

 rate. Sir Pexsall Brocas seems to have been on good terms with 

 the King and the court favourites at this time, as his claim of 

 the Hereditary Master of the Buckhounds was unquestioned, 

 although his claim to officiate by virtue of his office at the 

 King's coronation was not allowed.! At any rate, he invari- 



* Professor Burrows, in a letter to the Editor of the Times, dated November 

 8, 1892, says : " When Pexall Brocas came of age in 1584 he entered on the 

 hereditary mastership mthout licence ; but Elizabeth established him in his 

 rights in 1589. In 1698 and 1599 he deputed Sir John Stanhope to do his 

 duties." We can find no official verification or confirmation of these allega- 

 tions. Are we to infer that they are based on the " forged deeds " mentioned 

 on p. 90 ? 



t He received a dole of scarlet cloth, value 51., out of the King's great 

 warbrobe for his livery on the occasion of the state entry of James I. into 

 London. 



