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CHAPTER X. 



THE HEREDITARY BRANCH: CHARLES I.—ANNE. 



Sir Lewis Watson, First Baron Eockingham, Fourteenth Master. — Edward 

 Watson, Second Baron Eockingham, Fifteenth Master. — Lewis Watson, 

 First Earl of Eockingham, Sixteenth and Last " Hereditary " Master. 



SiE Lewis Watson, Bart., first Baron Rockingham, fourteenth 

 Manorial or " Hereditary " Master of the Royal Buckhounds, 

 temp. Charles I. (from June G, 1633, to 1652), was the eldest son 

 of Sir Edward Watson, Knight, of Rockingham Castle, county 

 Northampton, and Anne, daughter of Kenelm Digby, Esq., of 

 Stoke, county Rutland. The date of the birth of this Master 

 of the Buckhounds is not recorded ; indeed, there is hardly 

 any information to be found in print of his life or pursuits; 

 we are therefore obliged to plod through a mass of State 

 papers, and cognate contemporary documents, to obtain some 

 few facts relating to his career. Of his early years very little 

 information can be gleaned, but there is little doubt that he 

 freely intermixed with the courtiers of the time of James I. 

 That sporting monarch, like many of his predecessors, was 

 very partial to hunting in Rockingham Forest. When in the 

 vicinity James rarely missed paying a venatic visit to those 

 happy hunting grounds. Thus, in August 1604, we find the 

 King was hunting in this forest " for the space of two days," 

 a " dyning-house " having been erected for his accommodation 

 by the Court apparellers, at Sir Edward Watson's lodge in 

 Rockingham Park, at a cost of 395. ^c/. It is consequently 

 safe to assume that Sir Edward's youthful son and heir — who 



