Sl>orting and Rural Records of the Cheveley Estate. fil 



Horse, and in 1 706 one of the Commissioners for the union of 

 Scotland. In December, 1 703, he was sent to Portsmouth to 

 welcome the Archduke Charles as King of Spain, and figured 

 prominently in the magnificent ceremonial devised for the 

 occasion. 



He lent his powerful interest to those who, on the death of 

 Queen Anne, took up the cause of George I. The new King 

 reinstated him in the office of Master of the Horse, from which, 

 however, he was soon after dismissed, and that office remained 

 vacant during the remainder of George I.'s reign. 



Henceforth, the Duke devoted himself to the Turf and rural 

 and family affairs. He became known as "The Proud Duke," 

 and the tradition of his pride is kept alive by the anecdote, 

 that when his second wife kissed him, he remarked : " Madam, 

 my first Duchess was a Percy, and she never took such a 

 liberty. " His domestics obeyed him by signs, and, A\hen he 

 travelled, the country roads were scoured by outriders, whose duty 

 it was to protect him from the gaze of the vulgar, but more 

 probably to clear the wa}' in order to allow his coach and 

 horses (of which the latter were famous roadsters) to proceed 

 with rapidity and without interruption.* 



Many years antecedent to these events the Duke of 

 Somerset became a prominent patron of the Turf, and was hence- 

 forth closely associated with Newmarket, where he subsequently 

 acquired the Cheveley estate and several adjoining manors. 

 His first appearance as an owner of racehorses was at the New- 

 market October meeting of 1698. On this occasion he had an 

 onerous duty to perform. In his capacity of Chancellor of the 

 University of Cambridge it devolved on him to embrace the 

 opportunity of King William's sojourn at Newmarket to present 



* The Duke employed James Seymour, the animal painter, to decorate a room at 

 Petworth with portraits of his racehorses, many of which were engraved by Thomas 

 Barford and Richard Houston. A picture by Seymour of the famous carriage match 

 against time, at Newmarket in 1750, which was at one time in the collection at 

 Hengrave Hall, is now at Cheveley Park. 



Cheveley. 



Master of the 

 Horse. 



The Duke and 

 George I. 



' The Proud 

 Duke." 



The Duke and 

 the Turf. 



With 



William in. at 



Newmarket. 



