IN FAVOUR WITH THE FAIR SEX. 259 



horseback coming from hunting. He adds, " to eat Westphalia 

 ham in a mornincj, ride over hedo^es and ditches on borrowed 

 hacks, come home in the heat of the day with a fever, and 

 (what is worse a hundred times) with a red mark in the fore- 

 head from an uneasy hat ! all this may qualify them to make 

 excellent wives for foxhunters and bear abundance of ruddy- 

 complexioned children." Thus we learn that the fair sex con- 

 tinued to follow the royal hounds as they were wont in past 

 and future times.* 



1718. — August 28. The King went from Hampton Court to 

 Windsor to hunt. October 3 : " Stormy weather prevents the 

 King hunting and shooting as he frequently do's at other times." 

 In September the Prince of Wales and his children were at 

 Richmond. On bad terms with his father. Rival courts very 

 factious. Servants of the Prince's children not allowed to 

 wear scarlet liveries ; only yellow ones permitted, " according to 

 precedent." — 1719. The King absent in Hanover during the 

 buckhunting season. Prince of Wales and family at Rich- 

 mond. Not a word about hunting.— 1720. The King absent 

 in Hanover. July : the Pi'ince at Richmond. His court, 

 attended by great numbers of the nobility and gentry, " which 

 brings prodigious profit to the country people thereabouts." 

 No hunting intelligence, nor, for that matter, of anything 

 except the South Sea Bubble, which was now in full cry. 

 Every one gambled in this specious swindle. Folks begged, 

 borrowed and stole to dabble in the myth. Everything upon 

 which the wind could be raised was pawned to invest in the 



* " Yesterday-Night, the Prince diverted himself with Hunting about 

 Hampton Court, where he kill'd a Buck. He was accompanied by several 

 Ladies on Horseback, who took part in the Diversion." — The Weekly Journal 

 or Uritish Gazetteer, Saturday, August 31, 1717. 



"On Monday the King diverted himself with Hunting in Bushy Park near 

 Hampton- Court, after which His Majesty, alighting from his Horse, walked 

 above three Miles, with a Fowling- Piece in his Hand, and kill'd several Braces 

 of Partridges flying." — Ibid., September 14. 



" On Saturday the Prince hunted a Buck in Windsor Forest. The Buck run 

 as far as Staines, where he was killed. On Sunday the Earl of Roseberry 

 carried the Sword of State before his Majesty to the Chapel Royal at Hampton 

 Court, where Dr. Holland preached." — Ibid., September 14. 



