2 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



of Brocas for nearly three hundred years, from the middle 

 of the fourteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century. 



Fewer still among those who ride or row have ever heard 

 of the connection between this long line of hereditary Masters 

 and the ruined castle of Sault and a church and villages in 

 South- Western France, still bearing the name of Brocas, 

 far from the track of the modern traveller, and buried among 

 the woodlands and sand dunes of ancient Gascony. 



A brief account of certain of these Masters of old time 

 may form a becoming introduction to modern incidents of 

 stag-hunting, may bring to light picturesque details of sport 

 closely mingled with war, may show that the Mastership can 

 claim an ancient and romantic past, and add proof that in 

 all ages good sportsmen have been staunch fighting-men and 

 loyal subjects. 



The lands held in ' Clyware, New Windesore, Old 

 Windesore, Eton, Dauneye, Boveneye, Cokeham and Bray ' 

 during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by this family 

 of Gascon knights, transplanted into England by Edward II., 

 were important and extensive. Some ten men of this 

 name and blood occupied notable positions as favoured 

 courtiers and trusted servants of the Crown in the brilliant 

 and romantic period of the reigns of the second and third 

 Edward and the second Eichard, and in successive genera- 

 tions held such offices as those of Master of the Horse, 

 Master of the Buckhounds, Chief Forester of Windsor, 

 Warden of King's Castles, Gaols, and Parks, Captain of 

 Calais, Controller of Calais, Constable of Aquitaine, Con- 

 troller of Bordeaux, Eoyal Ambassador, Chamberlain to the 

 Queen, Chamberlain of the Exchequer, and King's Clerk of 

 the Works. It is, therefore, hard to understand the almost 

 complete oblivion into which has fallen the real origin of the 

 name that still survives under the shadow of Windsor Castle. 

 So fantastic and so far from the truth have been the suggested 



