184 THE HISTOEY OF THE EOYAL BUCKHOUNDS. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE HOUSEHOLD BRANCH.— WILLIAM III 



1689—1702. 



James de Gastigny, Fourteenth Master : September 9, 1689 to c. July 1698. — 

 Reinhard Vincent, Baron Van Hompesch, Fifteenth Master : July 6, 

 1698, to March 8, 1702. — Annual Cost of the Pack. — Hunting in Holland. 

 — Hunting in England. — Fatal Accident to the King when hunting with 

 the Pack. — Various Accounts of the Spill, and a Poor Record of the Runs 

 towards the End of His Reign. 



With the last regnal year of James II. the accounts of the 

 Treasurer of the Chamber of the Royal Household were sus- 

 pended, consequently we cannot have recourse to the unique 

 facts and figures recorded in that series down to the year 1688 

 until they were again resumed in 1694. 



The Whigs treated William of Orange very shabbily. They 

 brought him over here to champion their cause, placed him on 

 the vacant throne, but only allowed him a civil list from year 

 to year. At first he had no permanent regal establishment, 

 nor any permanent salary or income to sustain his dignity. 

 Subsequently the Parliament settled the customs on him for 

 four years only, and the hereditary excise for life. Apart from 

 the ministerial and political officers of State, William's personal 

 attendants were chiefly foreigners, who had no sympathy and 

 little intercourse with this kingdom. Hence many of the 

 ancient institutions of the Court remained for some years 

 inoperative, if not actually in abeyance. For instance, we 

 hear very little of the Royal Buckhounds during his reign. In 

 the first Establishment Book of Robert, Earl of Sunderland, 



