THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



famous Badminton Library. The Duke, when once 

 he had undertaken, in 1882, to edit the series, had 

 no idea of being a mere figure head. To the task, 

 unwonted and novel though it was, he brought all 

 the thoroughness of his nature and his priceless 

 gift of charm. No doubt he was fortunate in his 

 publishers ; fortunate, too, in the fact that his 

 assistant editor was Mr. Alfred Watson, who com- 

 bined with a careful literary taste the practical 

 power of guiding his enterprises to success. But 

 still, it is no partiality of the biographer for his 

 subject that causes me to rate the Duke's services 

 to the Badminton Library very highly. In these 

 books the Duke himself wrote much and wrote well. 



He was not a young man when he undertook 

 the task, but I think every one who has the 

 series on his shelves will agree that the Duke's 

 writing showed a rapid improvement in style and 

 force as the work went on. The chapters on driving 

 and on riding in the Riding and Polo volume are 

 not only most excellent practically, but they are the 

 most readable matter on sporting subjects since 

 the Duke's friend, Whyte Melville, laid down his 

 pen. The Duke's share in the volume on Hunting 

 is particularly excellent, but is not, in many respects, 

 equal to his treatment of the other two subjects. 



There is surely nothing better in the whole range 

 of sporting literature or history than the remini- 

 scences of coaching and posting in the volume on 

 driving. But it is not only in the late Duke of Beau- 



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