THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



January 20th was a miserable day. There was 

 thick fog and occasional snowstorms, and the Duke 

 would not have hunted, but ** John Bayly and Dr. 

 Simmons of Oxford coming out, and the latter being 

 a keen sportsman and getting but few days' hunting, 

 I went to Withymore and found, and went fast to 

 Lower woods." The Duke's kind-heartedness was 

 not rewarded, for he was left in the wood, and 

 " after an ineffectual search of an hour came home 

 by myself" 



A few days later the Duke mounted Major 

 " Charley " Hall on Time, one of his own stud, and 

 recorded that the pair went like a bird. The Duke, 

 like his father before him, was always ready to 

 mount his friends, and he writes that on February 

 loth, after a long frost, " I mounted seven people 

 besides myself and men." 



Hunting was not so popular with women in those 

 days as it is now, but there were some good riders, 

 and they are noted in the diary, for on February 14th 

 " Lady Adelaide [Curzon, afterwards married to the 

 twelfth Earl of Westmorland] rode Evangeline and 

 the Viscount, and as usual went splendidly on both." 

 A charming valentine for the lady. 



On February i6th a well-known character suc- 

 cumbed to fate. The Duke killed the old stump- 

 tailed vixen, whose end is thus recorded : " Found at 

 the back of the old Hare and Hounds our dear old 

 friend the stump-tailed vixen ; ran her into timber 

 yard. Took away the hounds — Garland caught her 



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