LOED BATEMAN RE-SWORN AS MASTER. 373 



appropriately re-sworn into that office on the festival of his 

 national saint— March 17, 1761 * — an office which he con- 

 currently retained for a quarter of a century, which we believe 

 to have been a record of unprecedented duration in the Master- 

 ship in the latter-day annals of the pack. The Princess Amelia 

 having resigned the office of Ranger of Richmond Park, the Earl 

 of Bute was nominated to succeed Her Royal Highness in that 

 turbulent office. This appointment occasioned a full gale of 

 apprehension, it having been assumed that in consequence of 

 the strong convictions which the King and the Royal Family 

 entertained as to their rights and privileges in that park, 

 Lord Bute's long and trusted services at the Court would 

 naturally lead him to second those views to the prejudice of the 

 public. Nevertheless, the apprehension entertained on this 

 point was promptly and emphatically allayed, for the first act 

 of the new Ranger was to conform to the dictates of the law ; 

 and by a stroke of his pen all the objectionable notice-boards 

 and bars were removed for ever, amid the rejoicings of the in- 

 habitants. One result of this policy was the immediate removal 

 of the Royal Fox and Harrier Pack from Richmond — where 

 those hounds had been kennelled at and for some years before 

 his time — to Windsor, where the}^ were located down to the 

 time when they were abolished, pursuant to the provisions of 

 the Act of Parliament of 22 George III., chapter 82, in 1782. 



Soon after the accession of George III. the House of Com- 

 mons granted His Majesty, for the support of his Household 

 and of the honour and dignity of the Crown, a yearly fund of 

 800,000/., out of which the Dowager Princess of Wales was 

 to receive an annuity of 50,000/., the Duke of Cumberland 

 15,000/., and the Princess Amelia 12,000/., each during their 

 lives respectively. Upon the determination of those annuities 

 the clear yearly sum of 800,000/. was to be paid to the King 

 per annum. As this income represented about one and a half 

 million sterling in present currency, there could be no lack of 

 funds to sustain all the departments of the Royal Household 

 in a thorough state of efficiency. Of course we have nothing 

 * Home Office Records. Warrant Book, vol. xxix., p. 99. 



