THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



might be sought with advantage on a variety of 

 subjects. By the general public he was regarded 

 as a sort of king of the world of sport. His opinion 

 on such matters was even sought by those who were 

 themselves no mean authorities. 



To the events of his life as they followed one 

 another we must turn our attention, for the Duke's 

 is a life of action rather than of thought. He had 

 still twenty-nine years of a busy life before him. 

 In another chapter I have referred to the successful 

 time of racing that began in 1870. His long con- 

 nection with the town of Bristol as High Steward 

 brought him much to fill his time besides that 

 regular county business which is part of the ordinary 

 routine of a great land-owner's life. Of this part of 

 his life I have said but little, for such services, 

 though valuable to the country, deal with petty, 

 though by no means unimportant details, and do not 

 make interesting reading. Moreover, they are 

 given and accepted so much as a matter of course, 

 that they make but little mark. Yet in days to 

 come the historian of the nineteenth century will 

 have to record how the wide gap between imperial 

 and parish affairs was filled up voluntarily by the 

 squires and parsons. County Councils and Parish 

 Councils have now altered methods, but the men 

 who have leisure and good-will, who are trusted and 

 beloved by their neighbours, still continue to earn 

 their meed of influence and consideration by service. 



Circumstances now pointed to a change at the 



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