EXPENSES OF THE PACK DURING THE REIGN OF JAMES II. 183 



pack which he was out with in those days, consequently it 

 might be misleading to ascribe to the Royal Buckhounds a 

 run which may have been given by some other pack. The 

 same may be said of his letters to his niece, the Countess of 

 Lichfield. When he ascended the throne the political and 

 polemical affairs of the Kingdom absorbed his time and 

 attention so much as to admit of few opportunities of par- 

 ticipating in the pleasures of the chase. Hence we hear very 

 little of the Eoyal Buckhounds or of hunting during his short 

 and sad reign. He was evidently out with the Buckhounds 

 at Windsor on August 11, 19, and 27, 1685, when three 

 '' hunting dinners " were provided for him at a cost of 

 701. OS. Shd. At any rate, every accessory of the chase at 

 the headquarters of the Royal Hunt was maintained in a 

 state of efficiency, and there was abundance of deer to show 

 sport.* But, the cares of state, disaffection, and the almost 

 overt disloyalty which prevailed in England from this time 

 (when the little rebellion of Monmouth was suppressed) to 

 the time when the great rebellion of 1688 put an end to his 

 reign and dynasty, James II. almost abandoned the pre- 

 dilection which he formerly manifested for the chase. Indeed, 

 the only other instance we have met with was in 1687, 

 when it was officially announced in the London Gazette, 

 September j-v, that His Majesty had left Bath, en route to 

 Winchester, "to take his divertisement of huntinof." This 

 royal venatic expedition was soon over, as the King was back 

 at Windsor on the evening of September 17. 



* John Branch was appointed Circuiteer and Bailiff of Battles Walk in 

 Windsor Forest, with the usual fees and emoluments appertaining to that 

 office, and a further annual allowance of 50^. per annum for provision of 

 hay for the deer within the same. R. Hannington, Senr., and R. Hannington, 

 Junr., and David Tj-ndall, were appointed underkeepers of the three " red 

 deer walks " within the Ijailiwick of Finchamsted, within the forest of Windsor, 

 at 201. a year salary " to every one of them, payable out of the revenue of our 

 honour and Castle of Windsor." 



