426 



HUNTING. 



heiress of Sir John de Roche, of Roche Court, 

 Fareham, Hants, Master of the Buck-hounds to 

 the King. From him it descended, through four 

 generations, to Sir W. Brocas, who was mas- 

 ter in the reign of Henry VI. He died without 

 male issue, and the office passed to Sir Richard 

 Pecksall, in right of his wife Edith, daughter of 

 Sir William Brocas. On the death of his son, Sir 

 Ralph, who died without male issue, it again re- 

 turned into the family of Brocas, by the marriage 

 of Sir Thomas Brocas with Ann, daughter of Sir 

 Ralph Pecksall, by his second wife. The office con- 

 tinued in the family of Brocas till the year 1630, 

 when the office seems to have become extinct. At 

 the Restoration, the Royal establishment was re- 

 established, and soon flourished exceedingly." 



" Since the year 1782, the office of Master of the 

 Buck-hounds has been successively held by Lord 

 Bateman, the Earl of Jersey, Lord Hinchinbroke, 

 afterwards Earl of Sandwich, Earl of Albemarle, 

 Marquis Cornwallis, Lord Maryborough, Earl 

 Litchfield, Earl of Chesterfield, the Earl of Errol, 

 Lord Kinnaird, and, at the present time, by the 

 Earl of Rosslyn. 



" Of the changes,'' says Mr. Davis, " that the 

 hound has undergone from its primitive state up 

 to the present style of fox-hound, we have but little 

 record. Up to the reign of Elizabeth, the gre- 

 hunde, or a style of dogs somewhat resembling the 

 deer-hound that is still found occasionally in the 

 halls of the Scottish nobility, was principally used 

 in hunting deer At the end of the seven- 



