THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



sixth Duke had apparently looked forward to a 

 general overturn of society, for on his deathbed he 

 charged his son to bring up the young Lord 

 Glamorgan, who subsequently became the eighth 

 Duke, to earn his own living, as, brilliant though 

 his prospects were, they might never be fulfilled. 

 These forebodings were exaggerated ; but, from the 

 Duke's point of view, no one can say they were 

 entirely without foundation, for the position of a 

 Duke of Beaufort at the close of the century is not 

 what it was at the beginning. 



As a master of hounds, the sixth Duke and his 

 immediate predecessor had shown sport not only 

 over the Badminton country proper, but in the 

 Oxfordshire territory known as the Heythrop. For 

 a period of eighty years the combined countries 

 were hunted by the Dukes of Beaufort. The 

 Heythrop was only given up by the sixth Duke 

 about a year before his death. During his master- 

 ship he had two kennels, one the well-known Bad- 

 minton buildings, and the other at Heythrop or 

 Heythorpe Hall. This house, which has been re- 

 built by the present owner, Mr. Albert Brassey, was 

 leased by the Duke after he vacated Cornbury, 

 which the then Lord Churchill wished to occupy. 



The favourite coverts in the Heythrop country 

 of that day are still those that raise a feeling of 

 expectation in the minds of Heythrop men — Farm- 

 ington, Bradwell, and Moreton-in- the- Marsh. The 

 following description of the country and its riders 



98 



