Eecords of the Old Charlton Hunt 



hunting. He was sufficiently intimate with IVIonmouth 

 to be obliged to leave the country on the unfortunate 

 termination of Monmouth's attempt to seize the throne, 

 taking refuge in France, where he made acquaintance with 

 the celebrated St. Victor, and enjoyed in the forests of 

 Chantilly the sport he was debarred from pursuing at home. 

 On the accession of William III., Mr. Roper returned, and 

 resumed the management of the hounds, which appear to 

 have become the property of the Duke of Bolton and 

 himself, and had soon the satisfaction of seeing a noble 

 party of lovers of the chase around him. Among the 

 earliest names mentioned were the Marquis of Hartington 

 (afterwards Duke of Devonshire), whose daring exploit of 

 riding down Leven Down, one of the steepest hills near, 

 and leaping a five-barred gate at the foot, was long 

 remembered ; Earl of Halifax, General Compton, Dukes of 

 Bolton and Grafton, Duke of Montrose, Lord Nassau 

 Powlett, Lord William and Harry Beauclerc, Lords 

 Forester, Hervey, Harcourt, and others. How these 

 noblemen were accommodated with lodgings is a wonder to 

 tlie present generation. Some of them had (probably) built 

 houses of their own, — the Dukes of Devonshire and 

 St. Alban's and Lord Harcourt amongst them ; and every 

 cottager, both in Charlton and the adjacent villages, had a 

 lodger in the hunting season : a golden harvest for them. 

 To add to the importance of the Hunt, the Earl of 

 Burlington, the Vitruvius of his day, designed them a 

 banqueting-room, where these votaries of Diana feasted 

 after the fatigues of the chase, and talked over the feats 

 of the day. This building was popularly known by 

 the name of Foxhall, from the gilt figure of a fox 



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