258 HISTOEY OF THE EOYAL BUCKHOUNDS AND ASCOT EACES. 



At this time the Prince of Wales occupied Hampton Court 

 Palace, where he principally held his court during his father's 

 absence in the autumn of the year 1716. Although the season 

 for buck hunting opened on Midsummer Day, the first inkling 

 of it did not appear until the 21st of August, when it was 

 announced that his Royal Highness and several of the nobility 

 and gentry were then enjoying the chase in the vicinity of 

 Windsor Forest. The following week the meets were held in 

 Richmond Park, and in the ensuing one the Prince was hard 

 again hunting at Windsor, where " a great concourse of nobility 

 attend him." About the same time the King was reported to 

 be hunting at Gohrde, Hanover. 



During the buck hunting season of 1717 the King was in 

 England. On July 9 it was publicly announced that " Richard 

 Barker, Esq., was made Master of his Majesty's Buckhounds," * 

 but, if true, it was not ratified nor ever ofiicially confirmed. 

 On the 19th the King went to Hampton Court, where he 

 continued on and off the premises till towards the middle of 

 September. While the court remained there a post went twice 

 a day from London. Open house was kept for those who had 

 business to transact, and something akin to regal state un- 

 expectedly broke out. It is not our province to pursue the 

 diurnal of this royal visit, except on occasions when it was 

 associated with hunting. Unfortunately no news of the chase 

 occurs until September 9, when the King " hunted in Windsor 

 Forest and killed a brace of bucks, and afterwards dined at 

 Cranborn Lodge, belonging to the late Earl of Ranelagh." At 

 the end of the month the King and Court " departed hence " 

 for Newmarket. 



Turning from the King's Court to its rival held by the Prince 

 of Wales, it is somewhat satisfactory to notice that, although the 

 King and the Prince were at daggers drawn on political issues, 

 they were on good terms in the hunting field. Alexander Pope, 

 in a letter to Miss Martha Blount, dated September 13, 1717, 

 tells his fair correspondent that he had recently encountered 

 at Hampton Court the Prince with all the maids of honour on 

 * " The Historical Register," vol. ii. [iv.],- Chrou. Table, p. 30. 



