THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



and what is more remarkable, a good run, which 

 the crowd often makes impossible at such times. 

 A fox from Shipton took a line over a fine grass 

 country to Charlton. The Duke always had a high 

 opinion of the Prince's possibilities as a sportsman, 

 had not other and weightier responsibilities inter- 

 fered. This opinion he has expressed in the well- 

 known dedication to the Badminton library. 



But more important to the fortunes of Badminton 

 was the coming retirement of Tom Clark, who had 

 made up his mind to resign and take an inn in the 

 Sodbury Vale. 



Among the incidents of this year, too, was one 

 for the account of which, and the following letter 

 I am indebted to that good sportsman, Mr. Town- 

 send, so well known in our time as the Secretary 

 of the Cirencester Polo Club. The story runs as 

 follows : — 



Lord Colville, who in 1868 was Master of the 

 Buckhounds, on the invitation of the Duke of 

 Beaufort had taken the hounds into Gloucester- 

 shire. On the first day on which the staghounds 

 were out, Mr. Townsend, who was then a lad of 

 eighteen years of age, was out shooting, and know- 

 ing nothing of the presence of the staghounds in 

 the neighbourhood, had no idea that the stag he 

 came across was a hunted one. The young sports- 

 man consequently shot the intruder, and to continue 

 the history in his own words, " I had brought him 

 a mile and a half on the road towards home when 



228 



