COLONEL FRANCIS NEGUS, THIRTY-SIXTH MASTER. 291 



the Government tended to obscure the lesser Ministers and 

 Court officials when he condescended to appear among them. 

 Nevertheless, Colonel Negus was an intimate and trusted 

 friend of George I. On Christmas eve, 1718, the King " supped 

 with the Commissioner of the office of the Master of the Horse 

 at his house in St. James's Mews " ; and on August 20, 1720, 

 he was summoned to Hanover to consult the King on the im- 

 pending financial crisis in England ; and he usually superin- 

 tended the arrangements when the King departed from, and 

 arrived at Harwich in his journeys to and from Hanover. 

 Colonel Neo;us was likewise a great favourite with George II. 

 and the Hoyal Family ; and during the time he officiated as 

 Master of the Buckhounds the pack was in good fettle, and 

 frequently gave good sport. The "official horn" which had 

 been entrusted to Mr. Lowen, the huntsman, during the reign 

 of George I., appears to have been retained by that able 

 though subordinate officer ; and it seems the " official insignia " 

 of the Master was the well-known golden couples. On July 1 

 1729, Colonel Negus received the sad news that his seat at 

 Dallinghoo, near Wickham Market, county Suffolk, had been 

 burnt to the ground, together with all the furniture, pictures, 

 etc., therein, worth 10,00U^. He was High Bailiff of Harwich, 

 and represented that borough in Parliament. He was also 

 one of the Commissioners of the Lieutenancy of Middlesex 

 and the Liberty of Westminster, and a Director of the Royal 

 African Company. He died in his hunting harness at Swinly 

 Lodge, on September 9, 1732, and was buried "in the New 

 Chapel in the Broadway, Westminster," He left an only son. 

 This is all we have been able to ascertain of the thirty-sixth 

 Master of the Royal Buckhounds. His career was surrounded 

 with a certain amount of mystery and obscurity, which we 

 have been unable to penetrate. Even the erudite Davey, in 

 his exhaustive collection of historical, topographical, and 

 genealogical documents relating to the county Suffolk, hardly 

 mentions his name. Like Lord Cardigan, his predecessor in 

 this office, Colonel Negus; had a few horses on the turf; and, 

 like him, he never won a race except with a bond fide hunter. 



