Forty Years of 'Spy'

One of the principal consolations of convalescence I found, as soon as I was well enough to receive them, lay in the visits of my friends. It was with particular pleasure—for we had not met for a long time—that I saw Sir Willoughby Maycock by my bedside at the Empire Hospital. I was also much honoured and gratified by receiving a visit from the Duchess of Argyll, who, on learning of my illness, expressed a wish to see me.

During convalescence I made up my mind to write an additional chapter of this book, and indeed I went so far as to cause search to be made for the notes upon which the chapter was to be based, and for the material which I had prepared before my illness. Unfortunately, however, notes and material alike had disappeared—irretrievably; and I am forced to conclude without the chapter I had planned. I should like to append here a note which really bears upon the pages dealing with my school-days at Eton, and which to my mind has considerable historical interest. It refers to the Brocas at Eton.

"Sir John de Brocas was a Gascon Knight who became an officer of Edward the Second's Household, and settled in England. His third son, Sir Bernard Brocas, was a great favourite with the Black Prince, and Master of the Horse to his father Edward the Third. He was also a friend of William of Wykeham, sat in ten parliaments for Hampshire, and chamberlain to Richard the Second's queen. By his second marriage (in 1361) with Mary, widow of Sir John de Borhunte, he became hereditary Master of the Royal Buckhounds, a post which his descendants held until 1633, when they sold it. He owned a lot of property in and about Windsor and Clewer, whence comes the name the Brocas Clump, etc., but his chief estate was at Beaurepaire, near Basingstoke. He died in 1395, and was buried in St. Edmund's Chapel, Westminster Abbey."

Finally, I see that in telling the story of Craigie at the Beefsteak Club on pages 175-176 I have omitted to mention some members who almost invariably accompanied him and helped greatly to make the Beefsteak meetings so agreeable. I should not like to appear forgetful of Lord Hothfield, Sir George Chetwynd, Mr. 'Johnny' Morgan, Colonel Walter Dally Jones, and Sir J. K. Fowler, of all of whom I have such pleasant memories.

I must now conclude with thanking my friend Charles Jerningham, 'The Linkman,' for his introduction (after persuading me to write my reminiscences) to Mr. Spalding of Messrs. Chatto & Windus. From him and others in this old firm of publishers I have received every help and courtesy. I now say farewell, and hope that the good public will forgive what shortcoming there may be in "Forty Years of 'Spy.'"