54 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



his utmost to prevent them meeting in the peace-making 

 circmnstances of hunting, the Duke of Cumberland and 

 the Prince of Wales were often out on the king's hunting 

 days, not, however, to amuse themselves, but to annoy him. 

 Neither of them ever spoke to him, and they made fun of his 

 slow ways, slower horses, and homely clothes. 



About this time the Due de Chartres (afterwards Philippe 

 Egalite) and several French gentlemen of high degree 

 came over frequently and hunted and made love in this 

 country. It was a period of Anglomania in France, and the 

 Due de Chartres took all his men out of the Louis XV. 

 liveries and jack-boots, and put them into long skirted 

 scarlets, top-boots and hunting caps.' There was a con- 

 stant interchange of hunting civilities between the great 

 hunting folk on either side of the Channel. The Marquis 

 d'Argenson arranged with the Duke of Grafton for long 

 hunting visits, and actually built kennels at Les Ormes 

 — these arrangements, which earned the difficult approval 

 o£ Arthur Young, being interrupted by the Revolution. 

 Mr. Meynell got so tired of the visitors out hunting that 

 upon one occasion he was heard to say that he wished we 

 were comfortably at war again. 



Horses of all kinds, even during his last illness, were 

 always in George IV.'s thoughts, and he saw most of Rat- 

 ford, his stud-groom, who came to him on the Duke of 

 Queensberry's (' Old Q.') death. There was no lack of con- 

 stancy wherever they were concerned. In the middle of a 

 great State function he turned to Mr. Greville, who was taking 

 an official part in the proceedings, with a ' Which do you 

 fancy — the horse or the mare ? ' in an audible aside, and 



' When the Due de Chartres first came over in 1783, Lady Clermont arranged 

 a great dinner for him. According to Horace Walpole, he came dirty and in a 

 ' frock ' with metal buttons enamelled over with hounds and horses. Sir Joshua 

 Keynolds painted him the same year, being commissioned to do so by the Prince 

 of Wales. The picture was burned in the fire at Carlton House. 



