34 England's oldest hunt. 



still more conspicuous ; and fascinated by the general applause which 

 they procured, I never considered the proper means by which they 

 should be displayed. Hence to procure a smile from a blockhead whom 

 I despised, I have frequently treated the virtuous with disrespect ; 

 and sported with the holy name of Heaven, to obtain a laugh from a 

 parcel of fools ; who were entitled to nothing but contempt. 



Selfishness — the uncurbed untutored self demanding every 

 transient pleasure, no matter what the cost to himself or 

 those around him — was the Alpha and Omega of his life. 

 The very purposelessness of it was answerable in a great 

 measure for this. Here, then, at Kirbymoorside, another 

 centre of his hunting expeditions, and one of the most im- 

 portant hubs, too, of his vast estate, we find him within 

 the echo almost of his own home. He was not, however, 

 conscious he was so near the point of death. His constitu- 

 tion, improved as it no doubt had been by his days in the 

 saddle, had been undermined years before he came to his 

 Castle at Helmsley, and was not one to withstand and battle 

 against an illness such as he had contracted. Lord Arran, 

 afterwards Duke of Hamilton, a kinsman of the Duke's, 

 passing through York heard of His Grace's illness, and 

 hastened to his death-bed. To Dr. Sprat, Bishop of Roches- 

 ter, and formerly chaplain to the Duke, he wrote a com- 

 prehensive account of the last days of Villiers. The epistle 

 is a lengthy one, and full of erudition. He says : — 



Kirby-Moor-Syde, 



April 17th, 1687. 

 My Lord, 



Mere chance having thrown me into these parts by accident, as I 

 was at York in my journey towards Scotland, I heard of the Duke of 

 Buckingham's illness here, which made me take a resolution of waiting 

 upon His Grace, to see what condition he was in. I arrived here on 

 Friday in the afternoon, where I found him in a very low condition ; 

 he had been long ill of an ague, which had made him weak ; but his 

 understanding was as good as ever, and his noble parts were so entire, 

 that though I saw death in his looks at first sight, he would by no means 

 think of it. He told me he was on horseback but two days before, 

 and that he found himself so well at heart that he was sure he could 

 be in no danger of his life. He told me he had a mighty descent fallen 

 upon his abdomen, with an inflammation and a great swelling, and he 

 thought by applying warm medicines the swellings would fall, and then 



