38 ENGLAND S OLDEST HUNT. 



my rank, I might have expected affluence to wait upon my life ; from 

 religion and understanding, peace to smile upon my end ; instead of 

 which I am afflicted with poverty, haunted with remorse ; despised by 

 my country, and I fear forsaken by my God ! 



I am forsaken by all my acquaintances ; utterly neglected by the 

 friends of my bosom, and the dependants on my bounty. ... I am 

 of opinion, this is the last visit I shall ever solicit from you ; my distem- 

 per is powerful ; come and pray for the departing spirit of the poor 

 unhappy. 



In the letter written by Lord Arran, it is stated orders 

 were given for the Duke's intestines to be interred at Helm- 

 sley. These orders, however, were either countermanded 

 or disobeyed, for in the parish registers at Kirbyinoorside 

 the entry occurs in the heading of burials : — 



1687. — April 17 : George vilaus, Lord dooke of bookingham. 



As the history of Ryedale points out however : — 



" The entry in the register would appear conclusive that the 

 interment took place here instead, which only appears natural. The 

 body was finally conveyed to London, via York, and deposited in 

 Westminster Abbey, on June 7th ; his widow was interred in the 

 same place October 30th, after surviving him seventeen years, leaving 

 no issue of the marriage." 



Thus ended one of the keenest sportsmen, one of the 

 greatest wits, and, according to Lord Macaulay, " one of 

 the most unprincipled men of his day," said Miss Katherine 

 Duncombe in an interesting article in Badminton, on " the 

 Duke of Buckingham's Hunt." 



A few years after His Grace's death the estates — which 

 at one time brought him in £25,000 annually — were sold 

 for the benefit of his creditors, Helmsley being purchased by 

 Sir Charles Duncombe, Kt., banker and cashier of the 



