21 8 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book IV. 



Viscount Fentown, being the first raised to that degree 

 of the nobility in Scotland, May i8, 1606; and advanced to 

 the dignity of Earl of Kellie, at Newmarket, March 12, 1619 ; 

 had charters of Rycroft, July 16, 1622 ; and the barony of 

 Restinsrioth, May 13, 1624 ; was nominated a Knight of the 

 Garter, but was not installed in the order ; and died at 

 London, June 12, 1639, in the seventy-third year of his age. 

 His male line failed in 1829, when the titles went to John 

 Francis Miller Erskine, 7th Earl of Mar. 



At the end of March the court returned to 

 London, where the Council were busily engaged in- 

 vestieatine a terrible charp-e arainst one Matthew 

 Mason, who promulgated a treasonable document 

 concerning the alleged " miraculous appearance at 

 Newmarket of a sword and hand, rising out of the 

 ground and striking at the king, who went to see it, 

 and has kept his bed ever since." * 



Preparatory to the king's visit in December, Sir 



Robert Vernon was empowered to take fifty brace of 



partrido^es and fifty brace of hares, in any 



December. ^ . . . ^ 



part of the realm he chose, without let or 

 hindrance, yearly, and turn them down at Newmarket, 

 or wheresoever the king might appoint, for the preser- 

 vation of the game. Thus, when his Majesty arrived 

 here on December 7, there was doubtless a fair supply 

 of game in the New Warren and its sacred circuit of 

 ten miles to give sport with the land-hawks and the 

 royal harriers. This, however, was not to be, owing 

 to a heavy fall of snow, which drove the king to Theo- 

 balds, where the court sojourned for some weeks.f 



His Excellency Baron von Denow, "sent to us 



* State Papers, Dom., vol. cv., cvi., and cvn., passim. f Ibid., vol. iii. 



