THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



"There are fine woodlands in the Badminton coun- 

 try. The lower woods, on the Sodbury side, perhaps 

 stand first. These often send out a * traveller ' to 

 Colonel Berkeley's covers, whose pack bring him 

 back at a merry pace, — that is, provided he do not 

 give up the ghost on the road, for the country is a 

 chokinof one." 



With hounds and country the Duke inherited 

 a sufficiently annoying dispute. Of this quarrel, 

 which began in 1834 and lingered on till 1845, 

 it would be undesirable and unprofitable to rake 

 up the details, though we may note that, as 

 Bell's Life tells us, it was " amicably settled " at 

 last. The outlines of the matter in dispute were as 

 follows : — Mr. Horlock, who, under the nom de 

 guerre of Scrutator, is still deservedly esteemed as 

 a writer on hunting, had been accustomed to draw 

 some coverts that belonged to the Duke's hunt, but 

 had been by him abandoned. When the Duke gave 

 up Oxfordshire, he wanted these coverts back. But 

 Hr. Horlock, who had formed a pack of hounds and 

 a country at considerable expense and trouble, not 

 unnaturally objected. As usual in such cases, each 

 party held to its own view, and there was division 

 in the country of rather a serious nature. Prob- 

 ably the Duke had not been very exact in his 

 stipulations about the coverts lent to Mr. Horlock, 

 and the latter no doubt now stretched his rights to 

 their full extent. It is evident that Mr. Horlock 

 was sore ; but the following excellent account given 



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