138 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book IH. 



pounds, that minister, foreseeing the inabihty of the Exchequer 

 to answer demands so enormous, contrived to place the sum 

 ordered on the floor of an apartment through which the king 

 would pass. James, surprised at the sight of such a quantity 

 of gold, inquired of the treasurer whose money it was. Cecil 

 answered, " Your Majesty's, before you gave it away." Where- 

 upon the king fell into a violent passion, complaining bitterly 

 that he had been abused, and throwing himself on the heap, 

 hastily snatched up two or three hundred pounds, and swore 

 that Somerset should have no more. The treasurer, however, 

 prudently judging it necessary for him to steer an even course 

 between the king and the favourite, interceded in favour of 

 the latter ; and with some difficulty obtained for him half the 

 original sum. 



^^ Gilbert Primrosse, who was appointed to the office of his 

 Majesty's Chief Chirurgion and also to the office of Serjeant 

 of the Surgeons, with fees, for the former office, of ^40 yearly, 

 and for the latter, of 40 marks per annum (as formerly 

 granted to William Gooderowse, his predecessor in those 

 posts), by Privy Seal, dated June, 1603. In September, 1606, 

 he had a free gift of 100 marks in regard of his service and 

 daily attendance upon James I., during his Majesty's sporting 

 journeys. Nichols' says that "in 1617 Dr, Gilbert Primrose 

 had a yearly salary of £26 i^s. A^d. as Serjeant Surgeon to 

 the King, £a,o as Ordinary Surgeon to the King, and ^33 

 6j-. ^d. as Surgeon to Charles, Prince of Wales." He was 

 ancestor of the Earls of Rosebery. 



^ The Hon. Sir Robert Carey, fourth son of Henry, ist 

 Lord Hunsdon, whose memoirs, written by himself, were pub- 

 lished by John, Earl of Cork and Orrery, in 1759, was born 

 ci7ra 1560. At the age of seventeen he accompanied Sir 

 Thomas Leighton in his embassies to the States-General and 

 to Don John of Austria ; and he soon afterwards went with 

 Secretary Walsingham into Scotland, where he appears to 

 have entered into an arrangement with James VI. for the 

 purpose of giving the king the earliest possible news of the 



