THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



over the downs, six good miles and more. There 

 was just one momentary check as they went on to 

 Alton Priors, and a minute after they pulled the 

 good fox down as he tried to jump the rails out 

 of a road. Twenty-two minutes from find to finish. 

 Of those who essayed to ride the line the hounds 

 ran, Mr. Sloper (a local farmer) had the best of 

 it, with Bob (the first whip), on the thorough-bred 

 Shadow, in close attendance, and these two were, 

 in fact, alone after the first mile or two. Lord 

 Worcester, Lord Arthur Somerset, Walter, and 

 many others, managed to keep the hounds in view 

 and to be with them at the finish, by aid of the 

 friendly Wansdyke, which runs along the ridge 

 overlooking the indented slopes where hounds pur- 

 sued their more arduous course." 



It was about this time that the Duke of Beaufort 

 and Lord Worcester imported some Norwegian 

 foxes. These were ear marked and turned down, 

 and gave very fairly satisfactory results. 



Even in the Badminton Hunt everything did not 

 always go smoothly. The railways and other causes 

 brought ever larger and larger fields, and there 

 were some cases of fox-killino- which the Duke 

 himself, in a strong letter written to the newspapers 

 at the time, puts down to the criminal carelessness 

 of farmers' interests shown by some hunting men. 

 But, on the whole, this was a great and brilliant 

 period in the history of the hunt. 



A visitor to Badminton in or about 1887 notes 



274 



