BEAUFORT HUNT: PAST AND PRESENT. 51 



Colonel Sir Eobert Nigel Fitzharclinge Kingscote, G.C.V.O., 

 K.C.B., -was born on February 28th, 1830, the eldest son of Colonel 

 Thomas Henry Kingscote, by his wife Lady Isabella Somerset, sixth 

 daughter of the sixth Duke of Beaufort. Educated at home and by 

 private tutors, he obtained a commission in the Scots Guards at the 

 age of 16, and he served throughout the Crimean War, being A.D.C. 

 to his great-uncle, Lord Raglan. He first mariied, in 1851, Caroline 

 Sophia, daughter of Colonel Wyndham, of Petworth, afterwards 

 created Lord Leconfield, but she died in 1852, and in 1856 he married 

 Lady Emily Curzon, daughter of the first Lord Howe, and sister of 

 the late Duchess of Beaufort and the late Lady Westmoreland, and 

 half-sister of the Duchess of Abercorn. By her he had as issue a 

 son and two daughters. The son, Mr. Nigel Richard Fitzhardinge 

 Kingscote, formerly held a commission in the Rifle Brigade, and 

 married, in 1912, Mrs. Aubrey Coventry, sister of Colonel Napier 

 Miles ; the elder daughter married Mr. Arthur Maitland Wilson, of 

 Stowlangtoft Hall, Bury St. Edmunds, and of Didmarton, and the 

 younger daughter married the Marquis of Cholmondelcy. 



Although Sir Nigel had not been able to follow hounds for some 

 years previous to his death on September 22nd, 1908, he is well re- 

 membered by the older generation of hunting men in the Badminton, 

 the Y.W.H. (Cirencester), and Berkeley countries as an especially 

 straight rider, for his hunting career began when he w^as 16. He 

 could well remember Will Long when he was with the Badminton, 

 and during the late Duke of Beaufort's visit to Gibraltar Sir Nigel 

 had the management of the famous pack under Clark the huntsman. 

 An unpleasant experience of his was the breaking of a leg when 

 riding one of the late King's — then the Prince of Wales — horses when 

 the Prince was in Egypt ; he also broke ribs in the hunting field, 

 but nearly up to the last he was fond of riding, and rarely missed 

 that exercise before breakfast. In the grounds of Kingscote Park, 

 899 feet above the sea level, and on the main road between Tetbury 

 and Wotton-under-Edge, is one of the finest racecourses in England, 

 although it has not been used for that purpose since 1825, while in a 

 secluded dell in the Park a place is pointed out where many prize 

 fights were contested in the palmy days of the Ring. The shooting 

 on the Kingscote estate was kept up to a high standard, and the 

 open coursing meetings held there at one time were the best in 

 Gloucestershire. As a patron of all field sports Sir Nigel is greatly 

 missed, and no man in Gloucestershire was more revered and beloved, 

 these sentiments increasing to intensity the closer one got to his old 

 home. 



Sir Nigel Kingscote was a clever, versatile man, who had seen 

 much of the world in Court, camp, and senate, while his personal 

 qualities made him very popular in the many different circles in 

 which he had links, and by his death Gloucestershire and the country 

 generally was deprived of a fine type of English gentleman, one 



