1619.] VISCOUNT DONCASTER. 221 



CASTER, July 5, 1 61 8, preparatory to his proceeding upon 

 an embassy to Germany. In 1622 he was again employed as 

 ambassador in France, and was advanced on September 13 

 in that year to the Earldom of Carlisle. Besides all these 

 high honours and trusts, he was Master of the Great Ward- 

 robe, Gentleman of the Robes to James I., and Knight of the 

 most noble order of the Garter. He was also first Gentleman 

 of the Bedchamber to Charles I. "The extravagancy of his 

 voluptuousness," says Lodge, "hath probably preserved his 

 character from oblivion, particularly in the invention of what 

 are called Ante Suppers ; the manner of which, saieth Osborne, 

 in his ' Memoirs,' was to have the board covered, at the first 

 entrance of his guests, with dishes as high as a tall man could 

 well reach, filled with the choicest cold viands that could be 

 procured, which, as soon as the company was seated, were 

 instantly removed to make room for an equally numerous 

 service of hot meats. Notwithstanding these expensive ab- 

 surdities, he left a very large fortune, partly derived from 

 his marriage with the heiress of the Lord Denny, but more 

 from the king's unlimited bounty." After the decease of his 

 first wife, he married, secondly, the Lady Lucy Percy, youngest 

 daughter of Henry, Earl of Northumberland. He died, wallow- 

 ing in wealth, April 25, 1636, and was succeeded by his only 

 surviving son, James Hay, 2nd Earl of Carlisle, who married 

 Lady Margaret Russell, daughter of Francis, Earl of Bedford, 

 but died s. p. in 1660, when all his honours became extinct. 



^ " Lord Gray." There being so many noblemen to whom 

 this title applies, it is safer not to conjecture, in the absence 

 of positive knowledge, his lordship's identity. 



To John Cosnolde gentleman Vsher daily wayter to his 

 Ma*'® for ryding wayting and attending in his Ma'* servyce 

 from Whitehall to Theobalds Roiston and Newmarkett, and 



so backe to Greenwich by the space of iiijix'^'^ dayes in the 

 moneths of February March Aprill and May 1618 and 1619 

 Cxiiij^' iiij^ iiij'^ (m. 100) . . . To Thomas Footes gentleman 

 Vsher and daily waiter to his Ma"® for the allowaunce of him- 



