218 BECORBS AND REMINISCENCES OF GOODWOOD 



We have now to record the death of the old Squire, Mr. Roper, 

 who so long had had the management of the Charlton Pack, and 

 had brought it to such perfection. Sportsman to the last, he 

 had ridden with the hounds to Findon, but just at the find 

 dropped down lifeless on the field at the advanced age of eighty- 

 fom'. By his death the hounds became the sole property of 

 the Duke of Bolton, who for a short time devoted himself to 

 Charlton ; but the attractions of his second Duchess, Lavinia 

 Fenton (the original Polly of the Beggar's Opera), eventually 

 drew him away from Charlton altogether, and on his retirement 

 he gave the hounds to the second Duke of Eichmond, who 

 assumed the entire management, assisted by Lord Delawarr, and 

 having for huntsman the redoubted Tom Johnson, so well known 

 with the Pack. The Hunt in his hands assumed an importance 

 and regularity scarce before known : every morning a hundred 

 horses were led out, each with his attendant groom in the Ciiarlton 

 livery in blue with gold cord and tassels to their caps. Lords 

 and ladies continued to flock to Charlton in the hunting season, 

 and the new master, the Duke of Richmond, in 1732 built the 

 house, still remaining, where he and the Duchess slept, to be 

 ready for the early meet (eight o'clock in the morning). The walls 

 of the principal room are ornamented with paintings relative to 

 the chase, and stand almost the sole relic of the " Charlton Hunt." 



About this time occurred that famous fox-chase even now 

 remembered in the county of Sussex, and recorded in the end 

 of these pages (lasting ten hours), an event of sufficient importance 

 to cause an account of it to be written and hung up in many 

 of the houses near, where the names of both huntsman and 

 hounds are carefully preserved. The Hunt continued to flourish 

 dm-ing the life of the second Duke of Richmond, but at his 

 death, in 1750, his successor, the third Duke, though a sports- 

 man, was probably not so devoted to this chase as his forefathers. 

 He indeed caused splendid kennels to be built for the hounds 

 at Goodwood ; but it is probable that the removal of the pack 

 from Charlton detracted somewhat from its general popularity, 

 and accordingly we are not surprised to find in a list of the 



