152 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



places, he seldom had a fall, and never, we believe, 

 a serious one. He seldom, if ever, ' flew ' a fence, 

 but trained his horses to jump the widest ditches, and 

 even the Grafton and Aldersey Brooks, at a stand, to 

 creep through a thick, blind fence with a big ditch 

 on the other side ; then, when he dropped his hand, 

 his horse jumped, and immediately he scuttled away 

 as fast as the horse could gallop. Thus he got over 

 the country amazingly, and has puzzled and sur- 

 prised many a young one who followed him, to see 

 what places his horses carried him through or over, 

 apparently with the greatest ease." 



I do not think that I could conclude this chapter 

 more fitly than by recalling a few reminiscences of 

 the seventh Duke of Beaufort, father of the late 

 Duke. The fame of the late Duke, both as a writer 

 on hunting subjects and as an M.F.H., is so world- 

 wide that modern hunting men may be excused 

 for forgetting the good services which his father 

 rendered to "the sport of kings." These services 

 were rendered at a time when the hereditary 

 autocracy of the hunting field was being sup- 

 planted by the modern system of subscription 

 packs. His reign as an M.F.H. began on the 

 23rd of November, 1835, when he succeeded to 

 the title on the death of his father, and lasted till 

 he died on the 17th of November, 1853, though for 

 three years prior to his decease he had been unable 

 to ride to hounds, owing to rheumatic gout. Yet his 

 science of hunting was so correct that it was said 



