INTRODUCTION 3 



derivations that they only prove how completely family tra- 

 ditions disappear amid the building of royal palaces and the 

 founding of royal colleges. Sir John de Brocas acquired 

 these lands before Edward III. began to enlarge Windsor 

 Castle. His descendants had ceased to reside on them 

 before the foundation of Eton College, and entirely relin- 

 quished them soon after that event. So long ago ' the knight 

 was dust, and his good sword rust,' that on the spot where 

 he dwelt not even 



a herald who that way doth pass 

 Finds his cracked name at length in the church glass. 



Yet the swords of these Gascon knights, among whom the 

 most illustrious was the first Brocas Master of the Buck- 

 hounds, were kept bright for many years in the service of 

 their adopted country, for we find them at Cre9y, at the 

 siege of Calais, at Poitiers and at Najara, while others of their 

 kin met death in defence of the Enghsh shores. 



It is singularly unfortunate that the painstaking author 

 of a recent ' History of the Eoyal Buckhounds ' ^ was ignorant 

 of the Gascon origin of the hereditary Masters, or ignored 

 the information that might have been obtained on this 

 matter. It is, moreover, much to be regretted that in a 

 history which shows so much research the foolish tradition 

 is repeated that the ancestor of the hereditary Masters w^as 

 Sir Bernard Brocas, who came into England with William 

 the Conqueror, from whom, in reward for his military services, 

 he received permission to select lands to the value of 400/. ; 

 that he chose these lands in Hampshire, and built thereon 

 a mansion styled ' Beaurepaire,' and that the lives of three 

 successors of the same name sufficed, by a starthng assump- 

 tion of longevity, to cover a period of 280 years from the date 

 of the Conquest to the year when Sir John de Brocas served 



' History of the Royal Buckhounds, by .J. V. Hore. 



