PREFACE 



of harmony with his character. On the other 

 hand Charles I. does appear quite Hkely to have 

 caused purposely informal or irregular patents to 

 be issued. This according to his favourite method 

 would have left him free to keep or repudiate 

 his promises to the second Marquis of Wor- 

 cester and his father at his pleasure, or accord- 

 ing to the real or fancied necessities of the case. 



It did not seem to come within the province ot 

 this book to discuss the matter at length, so with 

 sincere acknowledgments to Mr. Round I leave 

 it to professed solvers of historical puzzles. 



To Sir Richard Green- Price, so well known as 

 a writer on sport, I am indebted for some letters 

 of the late Duke, as also to Mr. Townsend of 

 Cirencester. 



Mr. Baird-Carter, of 6i Jermyn Street, allowed 

 me to copy the admirable portrait of Petronel 

 in his possession, and Messrs. Dickinson, of Bond 

 Street, kindly supplied me with the portrait of the 

 present Duke. 



The majority of the illustrations are from the 



pictures at Badminton, but the frontispiece is 



reproduced by the kind permission of Messrs. 



Vinton & Co., the proprietors of Bailys Maga- 



xi 



