132 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



sessed much character, as also Launcelot, Rutland, 

 Boaster, and Dashwood. The hound I liked the least 

 was Duncan. I thought him too short and compact to 

 be a stud hound in a fast, fashionable pack; but, to 

 make amends, he was of a capital good sort, and I see 

 there is some of his blood now going. 



I was never fortunate enough to meet the Duke of 

 Beaufort's hounds on what is called a Lawn day, which 

 is a meeting on Badminton Lawn, when foreign princes 

 and potentates are invited to participate in the glories 

 of the chase, after the custom of English fox-hunters ; 

 when one of the most beautiful packs of hounds 

 is drafted for the occasion; when many of the finest 

 hunters which England can produce are paraded for 

 admiration and are in readiness to perform then- duties ; 

 when vehicles of all kinds, from the aristocratic four- 

 in-hand to the humble sporting dog-cart, are freighted 

 with loads of joyous hearts ; when the hospitalities of 

 the mansion are offered to all classes; and when all 

 orders and degrees of sportsmen, from the peer to the 

 peasant, join, unceremoniously yet courteously in the 

 pleasures 1 of the chase, and representatives of all other 

 orders come to enjoy the scene. The programme of 

 the arrangements for celebrating the coming of age of 

 the present duke included an appointment for the 

 hounds to meet on the Lawn; and I hoped it would 

 have afforded me an opportunity of seeing what has 

 been represented to me as the most perfect thing of 

 the kind that can possibly be conceived. In this I was 

 destined to disappointment. Two days' hard frost had 

 set at defiance all possibility of hunting; and the only 

 out-door amusement consisted in the ' breaking up ' of 

 a huge ox, which was roasted in the ' open.' 



The uniform worn by the members of the Duke of 

 Beaufort's Hunt is blue, lined with a very light buff. 

 It is the only hunt which does not adopt scarlet for 

 field costume. The huntsman, whippers-in, and second- 

 horse men are clad in green plush, as are likewise the 

 men belonging to the Heythrop. This, I apprehend, 



