BEAUFORT HUNT: PAST AND PRESENT. 47 



but both farmers and versed in farming. Mr. Jones was ver}- fond of 

 a talk about anything, and at one time was eloquent about and almost 

 obsessed by the charm of Small Holdings. He was piicked with 

 the idea that the most was not being got out of the soil under the 

 existing conditions of our system of land tenure. Mr. Jones could 

 express himself remarkably well, but I imagine the views he so ably 

 advocated were largely conversational. Certainly no man would 

 have been more upset by any changes which would have interfered 

 with the proprietors of Estcourt or Charlton or Badminton. Two 

 or three of the hunting tenant farmers were businesslike and racy 

 speakers, and I remember especially a Fat Stock Show dinner at the 

 " King's Arms," when the speaking was quite capital. Whilst I 

 was Master of the Buckhounds several of my farmer friends from 

 your part of the world came out with me on two occasions. Who 

 runs may read. Cold print records their stirring exploits, especially 

 Jim Rich's, in " The Queen's Hounds." Their presence gave me the 

 greatest pleasure, and I often regret now the long railway miles which 

 intervene between your cheerful and serene hunting grounds and 

 my own in Craven. Distance alone has imposed a separation upon 

 many long standing and amusing friendships with the farmers of 

 the Duke of Beaufort's Hunt. 



Believe me, 



Yours sincerely, 



RiBBLESDALE. 



Gisburne, Yorkshire, 



28th April, 1914. 



By an Old Blue Coat. 



Nothing could be more to my mind than to be asked to write a 

 very short appreciation of the 8tli Duke of Beaufort. It could be 

 done far better by another, but I have so grateful a recollection of 

 the man that I gladly offer such as I can. In the various duties 

 which fell to him to perform he was, in my view, a Duke of Dukes, 

 a Country Squire of Country Squires, a Neighbour of Neighbours, 

 a Friend of Friends, and moreover the grandest of sportsmen. He 

 had the great gift of a delightful personality, which was never away 

 from him, in business — political or other — or sport, and both the 

 older and the younger generations, to the latter of which I belonged, 

 when I had the good fortune first to go to live in his country, had 

 reason to revere him and consult him in everything, and never in 

 vain. As for his Duchess, need one say more than that she was a 

 high minded, charming lady. Everyone looked up to her, and with 

 reason. He reigned over our country for many a year, and we all 

 look back to him with gratitude. 



