PREDECESSORS 233 



this time he purchased Levens, in Westmoreland, of Mr. 

 BelHngham, described as ' an ingenious but unfortunate young 

 gentleman,' who had run through all his money at a very 

 early age. Fortunately, the gardens which this Master of 

 the Buckhounds laid out have been preserved to us by the 

 piety of successive owners of Levens. ' They remain,' says 

 Lord Stanhope, ' a stately remnant of the old promenoirs 

 such as the Frenchmen taught our fathers rather, I would 

 say, to build than plant.' But although Colonel Graham 

 lived much in the North, pruning the perspective of his 

 terraces, mystifying his maze, putting annual touches to his 

 own glossy green silhouette, he also lived up to the very edge 

 of the ticklish times in which he played a dexterous part. 

 As well as being Master of the Buckhounds to James II. he 

 was also Privy Purse. He accompanied the king in his 

 flight to Kochester, and as one of his most trusted and 

 confidential agents he stayed on in England, watching and 

 reporting events. James II. wrote a long letter to the 

 versatile Chiffinch from Rochester. The letter is not remark- 

 able for orthography, but it is characteristic of the careful- 

 ness for trifles which seems to beset the average individual in 

 a great crisis. The King had not quite lost his crown when 

 he wrote to Chiffinch ; he had thrown the great seal into the 

 Thames, with the object of gaining time and delaying the 

 elections. The army was encamped at Salisbury, and so far 

 had not declared itself ; ' Lillibullero ' had not yet caught on. 

 There was still a chance. But his letter is all about trifles. 

 ' Those things which you were a-putting up when I came 

 away ' ; his ' antickes ' watch ; his devotional books ; his 

 shares in the East India and Guinea Company, and his 

 cash balances. All these were to be handed over to Colonel 

 Graham, and he ends up his letter by telling Chiffinch 

 to bid Graham not to forget to send him the usual returns 

 of ' the stablishment of my horse ' and ail the stable 



