THE CHACE. 
The following testimony to the character of the late 
Duke of Beaufort, and his fox-hounds, appeared in a 
late number of the New Sporting Magazine, from the 
pen of Nimrod : 
" Yet it is as a master of fox-hounds, that it is within 
my province to speak of the late Duke of Beaufort ; 
and, from the many years' experience I had of his 
Grace in the field, I feel myself in some measure 
competent to the task. I need scarcely say I was 
always an admirer of his hounds, although I could not 
like his country. The gradual improvement I saw in 
the former, in defiance of all the disadvantages of the 
latter, convinced me that there was a system at work 
highly worthy of my consideration a directing hand 
somewhere which must eventually lead to perfection. 
But whence this directing hand I was for a long time 
unable to discover. I doubted it being that of the 
Duke, not from a mistrust of his capacity, but because I 
had reason to believe the numerous avocations of his 
station prevented his attending to the minutiae of a 
kennel ; although I did not consider his Grace a 
sportsman of the very first class, in which his hounds 
certainly stood. I doubted it being that of Philip 
Payne, his huntsman, for, to appearance, a duller bit 
of clay was never moulded by Nature. But we should 
not judge from appearances, and I lived to confess 
my error. There was about Philip a steady observance 
of circumstances, which, increasing with the experience 
of their results, was more useful to him, as a breeder 
