sixth Duke had apparently looked forward to a general overturn of society, for on his deathbed he charged his son to bring up the young Lord Glamorgan, who subsequently became the eighth Duke, to earn his own living, as, brilliant though his prospects were, they might never be fulfilled. These forebodings were exaggerated; but, from the Duke's point of view, no one can say they were entirely without foundation, for the position of a Duke of Beaufort at the close of the century is not what it was at the beginning. As a master of hounds, the sixth Duke and his immediate predecessor had shown sport not only over the Badminton country proper, but in the Oxfordshire territory known as the Heythrop. For a period of eighty years the combined countries were hunted by the Dukes of Beaufort. The Heythrop was only given up by the sixth Duke about a year before his death. During his mastership he had two kennels, one the well-known Badminton buildings, and the other at Heythrop or Heythorpe Hall. This house, which has been rebuilt by the present owner, Mr. Albert Brassey, was leased by the Duke after he vacated Cornbury, which the then Lord Churchill wished to occupy. The favourite coverts in the Heythrop country of that day are still those that raise a feeling of expectation in the minds of Heythrop men-Farmington, Bradwell, and Moreton-in-the-Marsh. The following description of the country and its riders is given by Nimrod in his Hunting Reminiscences. "The Oxfordshire country embraces a large tract of hill and vale. It joins the Bicester, the Warwickshire, Colonel Berkeley's, Lord Ducie's, Mr. Horlock's, and Sir John Cope's; but does not transgress the boundary of the county, though it verges on the borders of several. Indeed, the four-shire stone-a stone standing in four several counties-is near to one of the favourite covers of the hunt. In better times the towns of Chipping Norton and Woodstock, as well as the inn at Chapel House, contained parties of gentlemen in attendance on the Duke's hounds; but those days are gone by. A few old stagers, however, are still occasionally to be found at the village of Charlbury, and now and then a visitor or two to the other places. "For the conspicuous riders of this part of Oxfordshire, we must look to some of the old ones, who have done the trick in better countries. "Mr. Evans, of Dean, once a Leicestershire man also, and Mr. Webb, of Kiddington, Mr. Lewes, and Mr. Thornhill, ranked high; nor must Mr. Holloway, of Charlbury, be passed over. He was a thorough sportsman, and-like his horses in chase --would go till nature cried Enough.'" The Heythrop is not a good scenting country as a whole, though there are times when hounds can fly over it. On December 2, 1827, there was a run from a gorse of some two acres called Swell Furze, of which one who was present writes: "The hounds were no sooner thrown in than reynard was out," and went off in gallant style across the open country for Sir Charles Cockerell's plantation at Sezincote (crossing the turnpike road leading from Broadway to Stow), and thence, leaving Bourton-onthe-Hill to the left, he went direct for Welford Wood, a covert belonging to the Warwickshire Hunt; but, on coming to a check, the huntsman made an unfortunate cast, and we lost our fox within a short distance of Moreton-in-Marsh ; and although we did not kill him, I never remember a more severe thing in the whole course of my life, the distance from the place of finding to the point where the hounds threw up being nine miles in thirty minutes over a stone wall country. "Out of a well-mounted field of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred horsemen there were only two up at the first check (which was for a moment), and these were that well-known sportsman, the Rev. Mr. Winniatt, of Temple Greeting, on his chestnut mare; and a young gentleman on a dark-brown horse, whom I afterwards understood to be Mr. Woodward, from the neighbourhood of Pershore, in Worcestershire, a first-rate performer across a country." Of this good gallop I give the distance and time as stated, but it might well have been a good run and yet have taken much longer. If there was no mistake as to time, it was a most remarkable performance. The point on the hunt |