A CHAPTER IX The Eighth Duke FTER the success of the first year it was not to be wondered at that the Duke should enter on the second with high expectations. He began the season with Bill Walker and Charles Long's boy Heber, twelve years old, to whip in to him. Cub-hunting opened on August 21st, hounds meeting at II a.m. as the weather was cold, and the pack had been fed late the day before. Some days later they had a tussle with a badger. "There was a tremendous row and baying. I told Ted Light I was sure it was a badger. Descended into the wood and found the old gentleman. Bill Walker had never seen one before with hounds, and instead of seizing his tail, appeared whip in hand, ready to hit him as he got back into the covert. got I the hounds away. Very luckily only one puppy, Costly, bitten through the foot." The following day the Duke took his hounds to Dyrham Wood, and found "four beautiful cubs in the corner yclept the dining-room; two went away in ten minutes. Killed one dog, and behaved very well, not going back to kill the other." Some time after this, appears a note in the diary that the Duke had to leave his hounds, and “being a steward of Doncaster races, put the hounds in physic, and go to Heath Hall, near Wakefield-Jack Smyth's. Twenty miles; two teams. My coach and one team of mine. One he hired—a good one. Capital racing." Another note shows the Duke felt, that with the various duties and occupations then taking up his time and attention, he needed a man who could hunt hounds occasionally. "Will Stansby joins me as first whipper-in. He was for thirteen seasons first whipper-in to Bill Long, and then hunted the Worcestershire, and for one season Lord Harry Thynne's. He has been thirty years with hounds, and I hope to derive great benefit and assistance from him." On the 25th September in the same year the Duke writes: "I had tried the last two days hunting later, but found, in spite of the wet and cold, that the hot weather was returning, and that at this time of year it does not pay hunting late" (late at 9 a.m. !). Two more foxes were lost by halloaing, a practice from which the Duke suffered terribly. The diary bristles with such sentences as: "Mr. S (confound him) halloaed us on to a fresh one." It is at all times very difficult to know whether any |