ir.r.8.] RETRENCH MEXT. 263 



which was committed to the charge of one of the family, who 

 held the office of Housekeeper and Keeper of the Wardrobe, 

 with a salary ; and this arrangement continued till 1701, when 

 the house and park were conveyed to Henry Howard, fifth 

 Earl of Suffolk, upon condition of relinquishing all claim to 

 the iJ"20,000 which had remained on mortgage from the year 

 1668 ; nor is it clear that any interest had been ever paid upon 

 it. The principal was, indeed, secured upon the Duties on 

 Hearths and Stones in Ireland ; but the Parliament thought 

 proper to abolish that tax, which probably induced Lord 

 Suffolk to release the crown from the debt, and to re-establish 

 himself in the seat of his ancestors. It has always been 

 asserted that William III., previously to this arrangement, 

 took away many valuables from the house, for which the 

 family never received any remuneration ; and especially the 

 tapestry, which had been valued at ^^4500, and was sent to 

 the Palace of Loo, in Holland, if Lady Falkland's tradition 

 was correct. Horace Walpole, however, states that it went to 

 Windsor Castle ; and that Lord Onslow purchased the marble 

 pillars, formerly in the chapel. To these particulars may be 

 added, that the fine old chimney-piece of oak, in the Master's 

 Lodge of St. John's College, Cambridge, is still pointed out as 

 having come from Audley End. This ci devant palace is now 

 the property of Lord Braybrook, to whose father, Richard, 

 third Lord Braybrook, we are indebted for a great deal of the 

 information relating to this palatial seat in the seventeenth 

 century. 



At a court held at Whitehall, under the presidency 

 of the king and all the chief ministers, on March 18, 

 1668, it was ordered to reduce the expenses 

 attending the royal hawks by discontinuing 

 the branches, hitherto maintained, known as "the 

 heron and the crow." The cost of the " brook " and 

 the "field" hawks, then amounting to ^3151 2s. ^d., 

 was ordered to be reduced to ^1594 i yjr. 6d. per 



