came and there expired, except what for plenty or unfitness were sold or disposed of. He had about two hundred persons in his family all provided for, and in his capital house nine original tables covered every day; and for the accommodation of so many a large hall was built with a sort of alcove at one end for distinction, but yet the whole lay in view of him that was chief, and who had power to do what was proper for keeping order among them, and it was his charge to see it done. The tables were properly assigned, as, for example, the chief stewards with the gentlemen and pages, the master of the horse with the coachman and liveries, and under steward with the bailiffs and some husbandmen, the clerk of the kitchen with the bakers, brewers and all together, and other more inferior people under these in places apart. The women had their dining-room also, and were distributed in like manner-my lady's chief woman with the gentlewomen, the housekeeper with the maids and some others. The method of governing the great family was admirable and easy, and such as might have been a pattern for any management whatever. For if the Duke or Duchess-who concerned herself much more than he did, for every day of her life in the morning she took her tour and visited every office in the house, and so was her own superintendent observed anything amiss or suspicious, as a servant riding out or the like, nothing was said to that servant, but his immediate

superior or one of a higher order was sent for, who was to inquire and answer if leave had been given or not. If not, such servant was straight turned away. No fault of order was passed by, for it may be concluded that there are enough of these that pass undiscovered. All the provisions of the family came from foreign parts, as merchandise, soap and candles were made in the house, so likewise the malt was ground there, and all the drink that came to the Duke's table was of malt, sun-dried upon the leads of his house. Those are large, and the lanthorn is in the centre of an asterisk of glades cut through the wood of all the country round, four or five in a quarter almost à perte de vue. Divers of the gentlemen cut their trees and hedges to humour his vistas, and some planted their hills in his lines for compliment at their own charge. All the trees planted in his parks and about were fenced with a dry wall of stone, taken out when the tree was set. And with all this managing and provision, no one that comes or goes for visits or affairs with the Duke, who was lord-lieutenant of four or five counties and Lord President of Wales, that could observe anything more to do than in any other nobleman's house. So little of vain ostentation was to be seen there. At the entrance, where coaches ordinarily came in, the Duke built a neat dwelling-house, but pompous stables which would accommodate forty horses, as well as the best stables he had. This was called

the Inn, and was contrived for the ease of the suitors, as I may call them, for, instead of 2s. 6d. to his servants at taking horse, sixpence then for form served the turn, and no servant of his came near a gentleman's horse, but they were brought by their own servants, except such as lodged, whose equipages were in his own stables.

"As for the Duke and Duchess and their friends, there was no time of the day without diversion. Breakfast in the gallery that opened into the gardens, then perhaps a deer was to be killed, or the gardens or parks with the several sorts of deer to be visited, and if it required mounting, horses of the Duke's were brought for all the company. And so, in the afternoon, when the ladies were disposed to air, and the gentlemen with them, coaches and six came to hold them all. At half an hour after eleven the bell rang to prayers, and at six in the evening, and through a gallery the best company went into an aisle in the church, so near was it, and the Duke and Duchess would see if all the family were there. The ordinary pastime of the ladies was in a gallery on the other side, where she had divers gentlewomen commonly at work upon embroidery and fringe-making, for all the beds of state were made and furnished in the house. The meats were neat, and not gross; no servants in livery attended but those called gentlemen only; and in the several kinds down to the small beer nothing could be more choice than the table was. It was

an oblong, and not an oval, and the Duchess with two daughters only sat at the upper end. If the gentlemen chose a glass of wine, the civil orders were made either to go down into the vaults, which are very large and sumptuous, or servants at a sign given attended with salvers, and many a brisk round went about, but no sitting at table with tobacco and healths, as the too common custom is.

"And this way of entertaining continued a week while we were there, with incomparable variety, for the Duke had always some new project of building or walling or planting, which he would ask his friends their advice about; and nothing was forced or strained, but easy and familiar, as if it was, and really so I thought it to be, the common course and way of living in that family. One thing I must needs relate, which the Duke told us smiling, and it was this. When he was in the midst of his building, his neighbour the L. C. J. Hales made him a visit (L. C. J. lived at Alderley, eight miles from Badminton), and observing the many contrivances the Duke had for the disposing of so great a family, he craved leave to suggest one which he thought would be much for his service, and it was to have but one door to his house, and the window of his study, where he sat most, open upon that. This shows how hard it is for even wise and learned men to consider things without themselves. The children of the family were bred with a philosophical No inferior servants were permitted to enter

care.