THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



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 build- 

 ing, 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 chil- 

 dren of the family were bred with a philosophical 

 care. No inferior servants were permitted to enter- 



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