154 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



hunting field that his godfathers were the Duke of 

 Wellington and Lord Lyndhurst. But it is not my 

 duty to write about his political career, and the 

 services which he rendered to his party. I mention 

 them briefly, because it is the fashion to consider 

 the ancient giants of the hunting field as men, who 

 devoted their physical and intellectual energies solely 

 to sport. Such was not the case, though Lord 

 Macaulay took pains to sneer at them, and to pour 

 upon them both in print and in Parliament those 

 vapourings of the irresponsible satirist, to which the 

 modern counterfoil is the feeble quacking of dis- 

 appointed politicians, who launch their goose-quills 

 against sport in the feathery targets of society papers. 

 On Wednesday, the i6th of November, 1853, the 

 last day with the seventh Duke of Beaufort's hounds 

 took place. The meet was at Yate Turnpike, and 

 after two excellent runs hounds accounted for their 

 quarry, both in the morning and in the afternoon. 

 The day is marked as a red-letter day in the records 

 of the Badminton Hunt. At that time a correspon- 

 dent, writing over the initials " H. M. G.", regularly 

 forwarded accounts of Badminton sport to Bell's 

 Life. After recounting the points of this day's sport 

 he adds these words, which I quote, since they are 

 an epitaph, written by one who knew the late Duke 

 of Beaufort both in and out of the hunting field : 

 " But there is no sunshine without a cloud. While 

 we were enjoying this sport a change for the worse 

 had taken place in the health of His Grace, who had 



