Zbc jfit^barMuGes 19 



the days of the Plantagenets. But I have seen no satis- 

 factory evidence adduced in support of this tradition. 

 Probably, however, the Earls of Berkeley kept hounds 

 as early as the Dukes of Beaufort or Rutland, and this 

 much at an}' rate is certain, that the pack, known afterwards 

 as the Old Berkeley, was in existence when Frederick 

 Augustus, the fifth earl, came into the title in the last 

 quarter of the eighteenth century. It was a tremendous 

 country which that eccentric nobleman hunted, stretch- 

 ing from Gloucestershire right up to Kensington, from 

 point to point 120 miles, and to enable him to hunt it, 

 he had kennels at Cranford in Middlesex, at Gerard's 

 Cross in Bucks, at Nettlehead in Oxfordshire, and at 

 Berkeley Castle. A few years before his death, which 

 took place in 18 10, the earl gave up his hounds and 

 resigned a large portion of the country to the Old 

 Berkeley Club, which continued to hunt the country by 

 subscription till the year 1842, retaining the old Berkeley 

 livery, orange plush or tawny, for the hunt-servants. 



The fifth earl publicly married his mistress, Mary 

 Cole, the daughter of a Gloucester tradesman, in 1796. 

 She had previoush^ borne him four sons, the eldest of 

 whom, Colonel Berkeley, the hero of many scandals, 

 claimed the title, on the ground that there had been a 

 secret marriage nine years prior to the public ceremony. 

 But he failed to prove to the satisfaction of the House 

 of Lords that he had been born in lawful wedlock. 

 His father, however, left him Berkeley Castle and all the 

 vast family estates, comprising upwards of 20,000 acres 

 in Gloucestershire and other counties, with a rent roll 

 of ;^34,ooo, besides the even more lucrative property 

 in London, on which Berkeley Square, Stratton Street, 

 and Bruton Street now stand. 



