194
OF HAWKS AND HOUNDS IN ESSEX
The stagg came out of the wood neere where the Kinge was, and manie with him,
whoe followed the hounds; but Prince George (whoe had maried the Princess Ann),
the Duke of Albemarle, the Earle of Feversham, Lord Dartmouth, and seuerall
others, being on the other side of the wood, heard not the hounds, nor knew not
that the stagg had left the wood vntill late, and so seuerall cast out, and never
reacht the hounds. The stagg made toward the forest, and gott thither and rann
almost as farr as Wansted, where, turninge head, he was at last killed between
Rumford and Brentwood, or neerer Rumford. The King was neere at the death ;
he gott a coach to carrie him to Brentwood (where his owne coach was) and well
pleased that he was in, the Lords throwne out. They, not recovering the hounds,
went all to New Hall [Boreham], whither, after 9 of the clock at night, his
Majestie came to a supper. A table was prepared for his Majestie, and others for
the Lords and gentlemen, but the King would haue his fellow hunters sup with
him, and about a dosen sate downe with him. The next day he hunted a stagg
which lay in New Hall parke, and had been there the most part of the winter.
After a round or two, he leapt the pale, tooke the riuer, and rann thro' Bramfeeld,
Pleshie, and so to the Roothings, and was killed in Hatfield. His Majestie kept
pretie neere the doggs, tho' the ditches were broad and deep, the hedges high, and
the way and feilds dirtie and deepe ; but most of the Lords were cast out again,
and amongst them the Duke of Albermarle. The King was much pleased again
that the Lords were cast out, who yet recovered him ere long, and considering his
coach and guards were quite another way, they were at a loss what to doe. The
Lord Dartmouth aduised to send to Copt Hall,8 to the Earl of Dorset, that the
Kinge would come and dine there, and dispatched away a groome to giue his
Lordship notice, and so rode easily on (it beinge directly in his way to London).
The messenger came, and found the Lady Northampton, and the Lady Dorset, her
daughter, in a coach, goeinge abroad on a visit; the Earle beinge at dinner that
day, with a great manie gentlemen, at Sir W. Hicks's ["Ruckholts" or "Rook-
holts," an ancient manor-house, which stood near the river Lea at Leyton, many
years ago]. The Countess was much surprised. Her cook and butler were gone
to a faire at Waltham; and would haue excused it, her Lord and seruants all from
home; but a second messenger comeing, she turned her coach, and went home,
and sent her coach to meete his Majestie, and by breaking open locks and dores,
and with the help of the maides, &c., by such tyme as his Majestie arriued, had
washt, and viewed the gardens and house, a very handsome collation was gotten
for him. Extreamly well pleased with the treat [he] came toward London, and on
the road met the Earl of Dorset returning home from Rookeholts. The Earl
alighted, and comeinge to the coach side, bemoaninge his ill-fortune that he
should not be in the way to receaue that great honour, and makeinge excuse that
things were not answerable to his desires, the King replyed, 'Make noe excuses,
it was exceedinge well, and very handsome.' And soe his Majestie came safe and
well [to] London, and well pleased with his sport."
A brief memorandum of the same two days' sport may be found in
Sir John Reresby's "Memoirs" above quoted (p. 362):—
"May 2, [1686] I went to New Hall, in Essex, the Duke of Albermarle's
house, the King having promised that duke to go and stay two days there to hunt,
8 There is an engraved view of the old house, which has long since been pulled down, in Fuller's
"History of Waltham Abbey." Charles Lord Buckhurst, created Earl of Middlesex vita putris, in
1674, succeeded to the Earldom of Dorset in 1677. The Earl had inherited Copt or Copped Hall
from his uncle Lionel, Earl of Middlesex, the Lord Treasurer.