THE DUKE OF BEAUFOET, M.F.H. 



WE have chosen this portrait of His Grace the Duke of Beaufort, because we consider 

 Ilis Grace one of the best representatives of Masters of Hounds that can be found. 

 Ifot only is the establishment at iKidniintou one of, if not the largest in the kingdom, 

 as ■well as one of the oldest established, but it is also one of the most perfect. Many 

 other noblemen and gentlemen keep hounds entu-ely at their own expense, but none of 

 them, we believe, hunt six days a week, save the Duke of Beaufort's, with the exception 

 of the Burton, and these, during a part of the season before last, made eight days a 

 week, by having two packs at different fixtiu-es twice diuing the week, Mr. Chaplin 

 himself handling one and C. Hawtin the other. "Whether this was carried out during 

 the last season we cannot say ; but from Earl Fitzwilliam being iuvited to hunt the 

 Wragby "Woodlands this Spring, we imagine it was not. This, it will be seen, is the 

 only pack that rivals the Duke's in number of himting clays ; but Mr. Chaplin, like most 

 other masters, does not, we believe, keep them solely at his own expense. However, 

 it is not simply the fact of such an establishment being kept up at his sole cost that 

 induces us to select the Duke's as the fittest portrait to accompany our huuting sketches. 

 "We look on him as one of the most practical Masters the country can produce, and few 

 are more thoroughlj' grounded in the science of Venerie than His Grace. This he has 

 proved on more than one occasion, when unexpectedly thrown out of a huntsman, by 

 taking the charge of the pack himself, hunting them himself, and superintending all the 

 minutia3 of kennel discipline, without which condition cannot be maintained. An adept at 

 most sports, we haA"e seen His Grace, with horses of his own breeding, gaining a fair share 

 of success on the race-course, and Yauban, Gomera, Siberia, Ceylon, Em-opa, and others 

 won quite enough to pay their way. The horses purchased turned out scarcely so lucky ; 

 for thoiigh Lord Eonald bore the blue and white hoops many a time to victorj-, the high- 

 priced Eustic sadly failed in his Derby mission, and in fact never bore out his two-year- 

 old promise. The neat-looking, half-bred Birdhill also did yeoman's service in his day. 

 Popular, however, as the blue and white became, it is in the buff and blue that the Duke 

 most shines ; and then, when on one of his weight-carriers, watching the dog-pack fly the 

 walls in their stride, or the bitches streaming away over the grass, he is in his element. 

 Hunting his native county, a great portion of it his own property, he not only spends 

 his own income amongst his own people, but does things in such style that large num- 

 bers of visitors are attracted to the neighboiu-ing toA^iis and villages, and every available 

 stable is taken up dm-iug the season. His meets at any favourite fixture are as large as 

 those of the Quorn, Pytchley, or any other fashionable pack, and so full is the coimtry 

 of foxes that a long ili-aw is a thing almost unknown. From the time they changed 

 from stag to fox, far away in the last century, no pains have been spared to make 

 the pack as perfect as possible ; and under Pliillip Payne, who came from Cheshire, the 

 New Forest "Justice" was introduced, and through his descendants has become a kennel 

 celebrity. "With him we believe came in the gray or badger-pied colour that is so 

 common in this pack ; and though the "Belvoir tan" has of late years in a great measure 

 superseded it, as well as the lemon and white, which very probably comes from the 



