THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



stout cob to finish on. Hounds marked the fox to 

 ground in a rabbit hole in a meadow belonging to 

 a brewer near High worth Street. When Heber 

 Long, who had gone well on a Badminton-bred 

 grey — a descendant of the famous old "Lops" — 

 counted over the hounds, but one couple was mis- 

 sing. It was a very small group at the finish — 

 " Colonels Ewart and Dickson, Messrs. Tom Wild 

 and Pitman," says the writer in Baily, " Captain 

 Candy and Mr. Byng, as well as Mr. Jenkins, who 

 went through the run — omitting the first ring — on 

 a horse named Gifford, belonging to Mr. Walter 

 Powell, of Dauntsey. About a quarter of an hour 

 later the Duke, riding Dyrham, a favourite stout- 

 hearted bay, arrived ; so did Lord Arthur and Mr. 

 Granville Somerset." 



The heavy-weights, of course, missed their second 

 horses. 



Hounds and horses went by train from Swindon 

 to Chippenham. They were thirty-five miles from 

 home when they left off. Lord Worcester went on 

 to town to be ready for his regimental work the 

 next day. 



The Duke was by this time so widely known, 

 and his pack was so famous, that he often had in- 

 vitations to meet in other countries ; and on Tues- 

 day, March 17th, 1874, he and Lord Worcester 

 took the hounds to an invitation meet at Stetch- 

 combe, where Mr. Stephen Butler, a well-known 

 welter weight of those days, kept open house. 



268 



