THE BADMINTON HUNT. j 



force about the year 1730, and subse- 

 quently we arrive at a period when it 

 is known that foxhunting was intro- 

 duced. Charles Noel, the fourth Duke, — 

 who is represented In the pictures as Lord 

 Charles Noel Somerset, having succeeded 

 to the titles on the death of his brother, — 

 dying in 1756, left a son Henry, fifth Duke, 

 who being born in 1 744, was consequently 

 a minor. The staghounds, nevertheless, 

 were continued, and kept steady to their 

 game, till returning one day without any 

 sport, somewhere about the year 1762, 

 passing Sllkwood, the hounds were thrown 

 in, found a fox, and had a capital run. So 

 delighted was the young Duke, that stag- 

 hunting was forthwith abandoned, fox- 

 hunting again substituted, and maintained 

 under his directions some forty years, 

 when, departing this life at the age of fifty- 

 nine, his son Henry Charles, sixth Duke 

 of Beaufort, came Into possession of the 



