THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



Of Philip Payne's relations to the sixth Duke and 

 the hunt I have spoken elsewhere. But with a 

 master so indulgent as the Duke and an heir-ap- 

 parent so keen as the Marquis of Worcester (seventh 

 Duke), and with whippers-in like Will Todd and 

 Will Long-, Philip Payne had perhaps as fortunate 

 a situation as any huntsman that ever lived. 



Other members of the Somerset family were keen 

 and hard riders. There was Lord Charles, after- 

 wards one of the firmest and most capable Governors 

 of the Cape of Good Hope ; and Lord Fitzroy, who, 

 as Lord Raglan, is still remembered by the present 

 generation as a gallant soldier, and one who was in 

 his youth a keen hunting man. But we have an- 

 ticipated somewhat. 



When by the increase of enclosures and other 

 causes it was considered advisable to confine the 

 deer to the parks, foxes became the beasts of chase. 

 It was then found that there were not enough to 

 satisfy the keenness of the hunt. About 1 770 the fifth 

 Duke took over the Heythrop country, as it is now 

 called, from Lord Foley, and hunted it first from 

 Cornbury, and later from Heythrop House. The 

 hounds and horses used to be sent into Oxford- 

 shire at the close of cub-hunting, and after spending 

 about two months there they returned to Badminton 

 to finish the season. Many of the Gloucestershire 

 and Wiltshire riders followed the Duke, and lived 

 a jovial life at one of the inns, hunting by day and 

 drinking more claret and port than could have been 



