216 BEGORDS AND REMINISCENCES OF GOODWOOD 



were Mr. Butler, of Amberley, M.P. for Arundel, and Mr. Roper, 

 his brother-in-law, whose connection with Charlton, as subse- 

 quently alluded to, is probably accounted for by this relationship. 

 Two packs of foxhounds appear to have been kept at Charlton 

 at this time, belonging to the Duke of Monmouth and Lord 

 Grey, the master and manager being the Mr. Eoper before 

 mentioned, a Kentish gentleman, a great lover of the chase, and 

 possessing great knowledge of hounds and hunting. He was 

 sufficiently intimate with Monmouth to be obliged to leave the 

 country on the unfortunate termination of Monmouth's attempt 

 to seize the throne, taking refuge in France, where he made 

 acquaintance with the celebrated St. Victor, and enjoyed in the 

 forests of Chantilly the sport he was debarred from pursuing at 

 home. On the accession of William III,, Mr. Roper returned, 

 and resumed the management of the hounds, wliich appear to 

 have become the property of the Duke of Bolton and himself, 

 and he soon had the satisfaction of seeing a noble party of lovers 

 of the chase around him. Among the earliest names mentioned 

 were the Marquis of Hartington (afterwards Duke of Devon- 

 shire, whose daring exploit of riding down Leven Down, one of 

 the steepest hills near, and leaping a five-barred gate at the foot, 

 was long remembered), the Earl of Halifax, General Compton, 

 the Dukes of Bolton and Grafton, Duke of Montrose, Lord 

 Nassau Powlett, Lords WiUiam and Harry Beauclerc, Lords 

 Forester, Hervey, Harcourt, and others. How these noblemen 

 were accommodated with lodgings is a wonder to the present 

 generation. Some of them had probably built houses of their 

 own (the Dukes of Devonshire and St. Alban's and Lord Harcourt 

 amongst them), and every cottager, both in Charlton and the 

 adjacent villages, had a lodger in the hunting season — a golden 

 harvest for them. To add to the importance of the Hunt, the 

 Earl of Burlington, the Vitruvius of his day, designed them a 

 banquettng-room, where these votaries of Diana feasted after the 

 fatigues of the chase, and talked over the feats of the day. This 

 building was popularly known by the name of Foxhall, from the 

 gilt frame of a fox surmounting a tall flagstaff, erected in front 



