232 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



kindred and some few that had handsome wits in crooked 

 bodies ; she alwaies tooke personages in the way of election, 

 for tlie people hath it to this day, King Henry loved a Man.' 

 As he advanced in years Lord Leicester lost his complexion ; 

 became too high-coloured, and a little dull. Having made 

 away with his first wife, he is described in his latter days 

 as ' doting upon marriage with a strange fondness.' 



In 1684 a Swinley deer led the Duke of York and his suite 

 a tremendous dance through Beaconsfield and Amersham 

 right away into Oxfordshire. Very few besides the Duke and 

 Colonel James Graham got to the end. Somewhere about 

 this time Colonel Graham, or Grahm, was appointed Master 

 of the Buckhounds and Lieutenant of Windsor Forest by 

 Charles 11. There is a tablet in Charlton Church, near 

 Malmesbury, to his memory. He is set forth as ' a faithful 

 servant of King Charles and King James II., who lived and 

 died an unworthy but true member of the Church of England, 

 faithful to both his masters, and a sincere lover of monarchy.' 

 From many points of view Colonel Graham's career attracts 

 me more than any other Master of past days. The every- 

 day facts of his life, collected by Colonel Josceline Bagot in 

 his charming little history of Levens, were worthy of Mr. 

 Stevenson's imagination. He was born in 1649, and married 

 Miss Dorothy Howard, a niece of the Lord Berkshire of the 

 day, after a romance in a slow stage coach . This young lady 

 was maid of honour to Catherine of Braganza. The year 

 1685 finds Colonel and Mrs. Graham living at Bagshot. 

 Evelyn stays with them on his way back from Portsmouth, 

 and describes their housekeeping and the park full of red- 

 deer, and how one of the children had the small-pox and 

 Mrs. Graham kept it with the others, because she thought 

 it better they should all have it at once. 



But Colonel Graham's lasting reputation will rest rather 

 upon his gardens than his stag-hunting. Somewhere about 



