EGBERT TYRWHITT, ESQ., ELEVENTH MASTER. 135 



by Lord Suffolk to the service of Charles, Prince of Wales, and 

 remained in it thirty-two years. He was a dashing horseman, 

 and seems to have inherited all the predilection for the chase 

 for which his ancestors were so notorious in ancient times. 

 As to his early prowess in horsemanship, Sir John Finett 

 records that when the Princess Henrietta Maria landed at 

 Dover, he rode thence with the news of her safe arrival, 

 " within half an hour and six minutes," to the King at Canter- 

 bury, a distance of fifteen miles. Considering the state of the 

 roads in those days this was considered to be a remarkably 

 expeditious journey. On the accession of Charles I. Robert 

 Tyrwhitt was appointed Eldest Esquire of the Horse, or what 

 we would now term Senior Equerry to the King, from whom 

 he received a pension of 100?. a year for life, by writ of Privy 

 Seal dated November 25, 1625. In conjunction with Sir 

 Francis Clarke, he was appointed joint Lieutenant of the 

 Forests of Aylesholt and Wolmer, county Hants, for life, by a 

 similar writ, dated June 19, 1629. About this time he became 

 one of the largest butter-merchants in England ; probably in 

 this line he had no equal in the whole world. As we have 

 already seen, some of the Masters of the Buckhounds largely 

 participated in the monopolies of the era. This growing evil 

 assumed great dimensions in the reign of Charles I., by whom 

 monopolies were granted indiscriminately to court favourites, 

 and eventually led to flagrant abuses, which soon became a 

 potent factor in the dissensions that culminated in the Civil 

 War. In the case in point Robert Tyrwhitt, Esquire, " His 

 Majesty's servant," on November 25, 1625, obtained a grant 

 for twenty-one years for the yearly transporting five thousand 

 barrels of butter out of England, for which he had to pay the 

 King 100/. per annum, over and above all commissions and 

 duties payable on the same.* In the following year (Septem- 

 ber 1629) this grant was amended and renewed to him for a 



* This grant is also entered under date of July 1628 — "by order of the Earl 

 of Marlborough, late Lord High Treasurer of England, subscribed by Mr. 

 Attorney-General and procured by Mr. Gary of the Bedchamber." The last 

 mentioned became Mr. Tyrwhitt's successor in 1660. 



