164: COYERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT's HOUNDS. 



Ye vig'rous youths, by smiling Fortune blest 

 With large demesnes, hereditary wealth, 

 Heap'd copious by your wise forefathers' care. 

 Hear and attend, while I the means reveal 

 T' enjoy those pleasures, for the weak too strong. 

 Too costly for the poor. 



Having taken my readers with me through some of the best 

 grass and plough countries in the middle and North of England, 

 it is now time that I turned westward, in order that they may 

 form some idea of what style of hunting is there to be found ; 

 and I can assure them that, could they transport themselves 

 and a good stud of horses to the countries bordering the 

 Severn, they would have little to regret, even supposing they 

 had left the far-famed Midlands behind them. I can find no 

 better pack to represent the sport that is to be found in this 

 part of the world than the Duke of Beaufort's, and I am sure 

 that, if a foreigner wished to see how fox-hunting was carried to 

 the greatest perfection, there is no place in England which 

 would give him a better idea of it than Badminton, for as- 

 suredly everything is there done in the most princely style. 

 It is now some few years since I hunted in that country ; but, 

 when I did so, the order of the day was something after this 

 favshion : — The first thing to attract a stranger's attention in 

 the morning, would be at least a dozen or fifteen hunters, 

 often more, going forward to the meet, in the care of second 

 horsemen and grooms, for tbe use of the duke, his guests, 



