tain them, lest some mean sentiments or foolish notions and fables should steal into them, and nothing was so strongly impressed upon them as a sense of honour. Witness the Lord Arthur, who, being about five years old, was very angry with the judge for hanging men. The judge told him that if they were not hanged they would kill and steal. 'No,' said the little boy, 'you should make them promise upon their honour they will not do so, and then they will not.'" Of the house at Badminton, we know that the modern residence as it is to-day was built by Duke Henry, on the site of an ancient house formerly in the possession of the Boteler family. The old house, as it came into the hands of the Duke, was apparently quite inadequate to the requirements of the large household maintained by him. Chepstow and Raglan were in ruins, and Duke Henry was not slow to perceive the advantages of a family seat built on the lands of his new possession. The church was rebuilt in 1685, and was included within the boundary walls of Badminton House. The park lands were of vast extent, and were ten miles in circumference. As the builder of Badminton and the restorer of the family fortunes, Duke Henry has a claim on the gratitude of his successors. From his time to the present day Badminton, round which the family life has revolved, has been a centre of that sturdy Tory ism to be found in so many of the country homes of England. What the old Tory families lost in political power they gained in local influence. Their long residence made their homes centres of local politics; and in the case of the Somersets the institution of the hunt extended their influence far and wide, and made the name of Badminton famous. Of the hunt I shall have much to say later. The only fact to be noted here is that its world-wide fame was made possible by the action of Duke Henry, who was the first to devote himself to the home sphere of influence his successors have cultivated ever since. He recognised the possibility of Badminton being to a modern nobleman what the castles of Chepstow and Raglan had been to his ancestors. In the fulness of time the Duke passed away (January 21st, 1699), leaving to his successors the task of establishing the family he had founded anew. That this was done we know. The building up of the fortunes of the Somersets was, however, a quiet work, and leaves little for the pen of the historian to narrate. When we come to the time of the seventh and eighth Dukes, who again stand out as men of mark, they claim a more detailed notice than do their immediate prede cessors. |