280 HISTORY OF THE ROYAL BUCKHOUNDS AND ASCOT RACES. 



Lady Sutfolk, in a familiar letter to Mr. Gay (the poet) 

 dated Jul}^ .31, 1730, tells him that the ladies of the Court 

 " hunt with great noise and violence, and have every day a 

 very tolerable chance to have a neck brok." Lord Chester- 

 field, writing to her Ladyship, August 17, 1733, pays an 

 unintentional compliment to the popularity of the hunt, which 

 the pompous cynic says, " give the lie to those who complain 

 of the uncertainty and instability of courts, since the same 

 joyous recreations have, for these sixteen revolving years, been 

 steadily pursued without interruption." 



173L — About the middle of July the King and the Royal 

 Family arrived at Hampton Court Palace, where great pre- 

 parations were being made for the projected Royal progress 

 to York. This journey was soon after abandoned, to the great 

 disappointment of the good folks in those parts, who had made 

 elaborate preparations to give the Royal Family a welcome 

 worthy of the occasion. The first meet of the Royal Buck- 

 hounds was announced to take place on July 28 in Windsor 

 Forest, " weather permitting "•; and on August 4 and 7 Bushy 

 Park was the fixture. Beyond these bare announcements no- 

 thing further transpires. In the meantime, the hunting horses, 

 used by the Royal Family in the chase, were being exercised 

 and got into proper fettle ; * the deer well looked after, and 

 poachers, when taken, were punished with extreme severity.f 



* " Last Thursday (July 29) one James Varo, a helper to his Majesty's grooms, 

 was riding a grey horse, called Walker, in Bushy-park, which his Majesty 

 generally used to ride a hunting : the horse started, and ran full speed against 

 the pallisades before the Lord Hallifax's house, with such force, that he dash'd 

 his brains out, and died immediately, and threw the rider on the spikes, where 

 he hung a considerable time, but received little damage. A swan in the 

 L. Hallifax's canal flew out of the water at the horse, who thereupon took 

 flight. The same swan some time before flew at his Royal Highness, but did 

 his Eoyal Highness no hurt." 



•(■ " On Sunday last John Nun and Baptist Nun, his brother, keepers of 

 Windsor great and little parks, went with a complaint to Hampton Court, 

 viz., That the two men condemned at the late Assizes for the county of Berks, 

 for Deer stealing, had threaten'd their lives in case they should obtain a pardon, 

 which they were in hopes of procuring, through the intercession of a Nobleman. 

 The said Malafactors have since been ordered for Execution.'' — Grvh-street 

 Journal, August 19. 1731. [They were executed at Reading on the evening 

 of Friday, October 7, following.] 



