126 FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



little foot-page to Master Norton, a summons 

 which he could not resist : 



" * Come you hither, my nine good sonnes, 

 Gallant men I trowe you be, 

 How many of you, my children deare, 

 Will stand by that good erle and me.' 



Eight of them did answer make. 



Eight of them spake hastilie, 

 ' Oh father, till the day we dye, 



We'll stand by that good erle and thee.'" 



And so went forth old Richard Norton with 

 his banner bearing the cross and the five wounds 

 of our Lord. His family were entirely ruined 

 and his estates confiscated, though only one of 

 his sons was executed, while he himself escaped 

 to the Low Countries. 



After the attainder of the Nortons, thei 

 estates were forfeited to the Crown, and subse 

 quently Norton Conyers passed by a marriage 

 with the Musgraves to the Grahams, descended 

 through '' John of the Bright Sword '* from 

 the Scottish Earls of Monteith and Strathearn. 

 The first of the Grahams at Norton Conyers 

 was the Royalist Sir Richard Graham '' of the 

 Netherby clan,'' who had married the daughter 

 and heiress of Thomas Musgrave. He was 

 Gentleman of the Horse to James i., was created 

 a Baronet in 1629, ^^^ distinguished himself at 



i 



