THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



The fields are large, with strong fences, high banks 

 and double ditches, which require a thorough-made 

 hunter to clear cleverly in the on and off style, as 

 the majority of them are too wide to take at one 

 leap. There are also two brooks, which, though 

 not very formidable in appearance, are very awk- 

 ward customers to get over. From the banks being 

 hollow, it is very treacherous ground for horses 

 either to take off or land upon." 



The description of the hounds given by the same 

 writer applies to the period of the mastership of the 

 seventh and eight Dukes, and is therefore of interest 

 here. 



" To affirm that the Badminton are the best 

 pack of hounds in England would be claiming for 

 them an invidious, though I am inclined to think 

 not an unfair, distinction ; but when we consider by 

 whom they have been kept, and by whom hunted, 

 they have a right to stand second to none in the 

 kingdom. Their noble masters have been invari- 

 ably good sportsmen and excellent judges, both of 

 hounds and hunting, and the present Duke having 

 handled the pack himself, now knows how others 

 ought to do it. Of all knowledge, that derived 

 from practical experience is the best ; and his Grace, 

 although accustomed from boyhood to hunting and 

 field sports, has had an opportunity of testing the 

 business part of the profession, with which every 

 master of foxhounds ought, in my opinion, to make 

 himself acquainted at some period of his life, which 



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