3o6 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book V. 



August, 1609 ; and in May, 16 10, he went in the same employ- 

 ment to the court of France, where he continued many years. 

 His long experience and important services gave him a just 

 claim to the post of Secretary of State ; but he was not able 

 to procure it, for reasons, perhaps, which did him honour under 

 so weak and corrupt an administration as that of James I.'s 

 favourites. But in December, 1616, he was made comptroller 

 of the household to the king, and in January, 161 8 (N.S.), 

 advanced to the treasurership of the household, which post 

 he held till his death, which took place on the 9th of Sep- 

 tember, 1639. He was frequently elected M.P., but his 

 absence from England on diplomatic affairs precluded him 

 from regularly attending to his Parliamentary duties, which, 

 as a courtier, he did not appreciate, except so far as they 

 might have related to the enforcing of the king's unconsti- 

 tutional behests. He took great interest in breeding thorough- 

 bred horses ; and his official duties on the Continent doubtless 

 afforded him rare opportunities of obtaining the best strains 

 of Arabian blood. 



Retrenchment being the order of the day, the 

 king, heavy in debt, and, as usual, prodigal to his 

 favourites, it w^as proposed " to bring a reformation 

 into the stables ; " and every v^ay but the right one 

 was devised to settle his Majesty's pecuniary affairs.* 



About this time the King of Denmark sent his 

 daughter, Queen Anne, a present of twelve mares, 



* Rev. Thos. Lorkin to Sir Thos. Puckering, Bart., Greenwich, June 

 30, 1618. 



"By Order dated xxiiij''' July, 1618. To Mons"' St. Anthony, John 

 de Banclier and Julian Bourden his Ma" Esquires the some of l.xv" ^'cell 

 of their yearlie allowaunce of two hundred and threescore pounds in lieu 

 of a diett of iiij" dishes of meat form'ly allowed them in his Ma" 

 household w'''' is converted into an allowance of monie payable quarterly 

 during pleasure and Due for the quarter ended at the Feast of the birth 

 of o' Lorde god last 1617 ^er b're datxx" Maij 1616."— Pells, Order Book, 

 1617-1618, No. 17, p. \M. 



