38 THE BADMINTON HUNT. 



it. He was bred and born at Badminton, 

 and began his equestrian experience when 

 a boy, conveying letters to the post. His 

 superior seat on horseback attracted atten- 

 tion, and when the hounds were in the 

 Heythrop country, the late Duke of 

 Beaufort, at that time Marquis of Wor- 

 cester, being at Oxford, and always hunting 

 when the place of meeting was within reach, 

 young Long was entrusted to take his 

 Lordship's hunters to covert. About that 

 period John Wood, one of the whippers-in, 

 met with an accident, when William Long 

 was appointed to supply his place, and he 

 continued with the hounds till 1855. His 

 endurance on horseback was extraordinary. 

 One day, when the hounds were at the 

 Heythrop kennels, after a ten miles' ride 

 to Begbrook, hunting the pack six hours, 

 he went to Badminton, a distance of 

 fifty miles ; and he encountered other per- 

 formances of a similar character. Such 



