20 STAG-HUNTIXG RECOLLECTIONS 



coronation, is found one made by hini ' as seised of Little 

 Weldon to be Master of the Buckhounds.' This claim 

 was unsuccessful, as was that made at the coronation of 

 Charles II. by Lord Eockingham, who had by that time 

 acquired the Mastership by purchase. 



The merely nominal character now assumed by the 

 hereditary office, and the serious difficulty, largely increased 

 under Henry VIII. , of obtaining any salary, pointed to an 

 imminent change in the constitution of an establishment 

 that had become unsuitable for modern requirements. That 

 this change had begun under Henry VIII. by the substitu- 

 tion of the Privy Buckhounds as distinct from the hounds 

 kept by the hereditary Masters is clearly shown by an 

 indenture, preserved among the Brocas documents, of great 

 value and interest to the subsequent history of the subject. 

 For it is from this Privy Pack, with its Masters, one of the 

 earliest of whom was George Boleyn, holding office at the 

 King's pleasure, and not from the hereditary and feudal 

 organisation, that the present establishment and the modern 

 tenure of the Mastership directly descends. In this impor- 

 tant and decisive indenture, dated July 13, 1598, whereby 

 Sir Pexall Brocas deputes Sir John Stanhope to discharge 

 the duties of the Mastership, it is recited that Sir Bernard 

 Brocas and his heirs became seised of the Mastership, 

 and ' being so seised, the late King of famous memory, 

 Henry VIII., by the sinister persuasions of divers of the 

 then servants of the said King, seeking their own private 

 gain, did erect, make and establish another office called the 

 Master of his Privy Buckhounds, and the same office, together 

 with divers new fees and wages for exercising the same new 

 office, did give and grant to divers persons to the great 

 damage, prejudice and disinheritance of the said Sir Richard 

 Pexall and of his manor aforesaid, and to the great and 

 extraordinary charge and expense of the said King.' It is 



