BEAUFORT HUNT: PAST AND PRESENT. 63 



of good sport enjoyed with him in the Beaufort and other countries, 

 and in appreciation of his unfailing keenness, courtesy, and kindness." 



Will Dale suitably replied, and feelingly expressed his gratitude 

 to the committee and the subscribers, observing that the 15 years 

 he had spent among them had been extremely happy ones. 



The earthstoppers and keepers of the Beaufort Hunt also pre- 

 sented Dale with a silver coffee service, which bore the following 

 inscription. 



" Presented to Will Dale upon his retirement by the Earthstoppers 

 of the Beaufort Hunt as a small token of the good feeling which 

 existed between them during the 15 years he w-as Huntsman to the 

 Duke of Beaufort. August, 1911." 



The presentation was made at Chippenham by Mr. N. Croker, 

 of Netheravon. 



Key to the 1846 Lawn Meet Picture. 



It may be of interest to reproduce the " Key " to the picture 

 representing the Lawn Meet at Badminton in 1846, by " Craven," 

 after the original picture by Messrs. William and Henry Barraud. 



" Until a very few years ago painting, in reference to sporting 

 subjects, was in almost as primitive a state in this country, as it is, 

 in its general character of one of the fine arts, at the present hour 

 among the Esquimaux. The great masters, both ancient and modern, 

 appear to have regarded it as beneath the dignity of the pencil — 

 unless, indeed, the Sneyders types of Tonbridge ware dogs and 

 horses are to be considered as tributes to the science and poetry of 

 pictorial woodcraft. Comparisons however are proverbially offensive 

 — let bye-gones, therefore, be bye-gones. Let us not inquire how 

 much that was excellent in the equestrian groups of the Parthenon 

 Seymour contrived to overlook, or how much that was execrable 

 BO many of his successors managed to manufacture out of their own 

 evil devices. This we will pass for a more grateful and a more grace- 

 ful office. Banishing, as memories of the nursery night mares, the 

 wooden cavalry common to the artists of our nursery days, let us 

 ' look at this picture ' — a fitting accompaniment for those which we 

 owe to the genius of Francis Grant, and a few other worthies of his 

 school and era. The Beaufort Hunt is essentially characteristic 

 of the ' hour and the man ' it is designed to record. It sets before 

 us a noble representative of the hneage of the olden chivalry about 

 to take his pleasure in a manful and a popular pastime. All around 

 is brave, and boon, and national — a scene that both ' points the 

 moral and adorns the tale ' of the rural life of England. 



" The scene of this goodly masque of ' the silver shafted Queen ' 

 is laid in front of * Badminton Park,' the seat of His Grace the Duke 



