carried him right well on the famous " Hillington day," at the close of last season, when the deer was taken near Barnet, after a run of fifteen miles as the crow flies, over a fine grass country, ultra pace throughout. No. 30. SIR GEORGE SEYMOUR has the reputation of being at once a straightforward and a judicious rider. These are the epithets applied to him by my Hampshire correspondent, and if the happy combination were more general, masters of hounds and huntsmen might sing a gaudeamus. Sir George is represented on a horse called "Melton," the property of Lord Chesterfield.

No. 31. THOMAS LEARMOUTH, Esq., called in the hunt, I find, "Little Tommy Learmouth;" if so, provided the nags are well-bred, I presume his place is in the first flight. He hunts regularly with the Queen's hounds; and, as I understand he is a great leather merchant, he perhaps now and then shows them that there is nothing like leather. No. 32. MR. NASH. It has been my lot to see two capital riders to hounds with only one arm ;—the one, the late Captain Harvey, who left his other at Waterloo,* and whose famous grey horse I have alluded to, as having been purchased by Mr. Megpiece; the other, Mr. Healey, brother to that well-known performer in the "Raby hunt," Major Healey, of whom I spoke in my Yorkshire Tour. Mr. Nash, also minus a wing, is, I am told,-independently of sustaining in its true spirit the enviable character of the wealthy British yeoman-a first-flight man amongst the fastest of those who hunt with the royal stag-hounds.

Nos. 33 and 34. R. OLIVER, Esq. and RICHARD VYSE, Esq. These gentlemen are life-guardsmen, and, I am told, can both "do the trick,"-not sauter la coupe-but, in Dick Knight's more classical acceptation of the term: "Now, Contract," said Dick, "by the Lord but we'll show the d-d Quornites the trick!" Of Bob Oliver, as he is familiarly called, I am unable to say more; but Mr. Vyse I remember in his noviciate, and he has well fulfilled his early promise. If I am not in error, it was a brother of Mr. Vyse, whom I also saw when a young one, who followed Colonel Rowley into the Thames, and was nearly lost, owing to his horse being unable to swim; he was saved by a boat being at hand; but, reader, bear this in mind-it is not every horse that can swim, and few swim well when blown.

No. 35. J. BAIN BRIDGE, Esq. This gentleman is a member of the fraternity of merchants-England's pride. I am told he is a very bold horseman, and, although a welter weight, thinks nothing of "a header," as he calls a fall, which is now and then the cause of a broken neck.

* Captain Harvey was operated upon instantly in the rear of the army, and, on leaving the spot, desired the amputated limb to be brought to him. Taking hold of the hand, he gave it a squeeze, saying, "Good bye, old fellow; I did not think we were so soon to part." I had this from his own lips.

No. 36. WILLIAM LEARMOUTH, Esq. Of this gentleman I know nothing, further than that he is the cousin of Mr. Learmouth, noticed under No. 31.

No. 37. SIR SEYMOUR BLANE, Bart. I conceive that no person's portrait appears prominent in this print who has not pretensions, either as "A sportsman sure but rather slow,

Or one that goes straight as the crow,"

and Sir Seymour Blane, it appears, is a combination of both. The character given me of him is this: "Sir Seymour Blane has not for many years missed a day with the stag-hounds, unless by unforeseen accident,-hunting with the two packs generally, and five days in the week, from London; going and returning the longest distances. He is considered a first-rate man across a country, and deservedly so, with undeniable nerve, riding steadily to his hounds, without ever pressing upon them." Since the original painting appeared, Sir Seymour has taken the lease of a mansion in Hertfordshire, within a quarter of a mile of that good sportsman Mr. Dalyell, with whose hounds he gets four days a week, and two with the packs of Mr. Conyers and Mr. Delmé Radcliffe. To use rather an obsolete expression, the worthy baronet will now get a "belly-full of fox-hunting ;" and I hope that when he has digested it, he will tell us which he likes best,—the haunch or the brush.

No. 38. MASTER LIONEL HARVEY. This young Iulus is the son of Lionel Harvey, Esq., who is not in the picture, although, from what I learn of him, well deserving of the distinguished honour. “I have entered him to hare," said Sir Richard Puleston of his son, when he sent him on his pony to a neighbouring pack of harriers, "but hope he will be steady afterwards." Master Harvey, I perceive, is entered " to haunch," and doubtless the "sweet association" of the currant jelly-pot is not unnatural at his early age.

No. 39. JOHN BUSHE, Esq. This gallant son of Erin gets into his saddle plumb sixteen stone, and may, I believe, be backed to cross a country with hounds against any man of his weight. Here we have him mounted on his celebrated horse "Vagrant," for which Mr. Anderson afterwards gave him 300 guineas, and then sold him to Lord Chesterfield for 400 guineas,-subsequently re-purchasing him and Sir Oliver from his lordship for 700 guineas. Mr. Bushe is one of the most agreeable companions in Europe. In my article on the Road, in the Quarterly Review, in illustration of the ordinary speed of travelling in my own country, I mention the fact of a gentleman having hunted on a Monday at Brighton, and dined with his father in Dublin at six o'clock on the following Wednesday evening-distance 400 miles. This gentleman was Mr. Bushe, and I had the fact from his own lips.

66

No. 40. MR. WILLIAM CARROL. In the portrait before us we have a face that speaks, and says, I belong to a native of the Emerald Isle, who is as full of his fun as an egg is full of meat ;" and it is evident that he is here represented in the act of displaying it to the listening circle. The following pleasing character of this worthy gentleman was given to me by one who knows him well. "Mr. Carrol has long since given up hunting, or indeed idle pursuits of any kind, and for the best of reasons, he has an amiable wife and nine daughters; strong claims on his assiduity and industry, in neither of which is he wanting. At the Aylesbury meeting of the royal hunt, he appears in great force, as the wine merchant to the club, and during the two weeks of the year in which it is held, he not only enjoys himself to the utmost, but is a source of the greatest amusement to the whole party assembled. In the morning he goes out as a spectator on his pony, and in the evening keeps the table in a roar by the most extraordinary flow of true, national, wit that I have ever heard from any man's mouth."

No. 41. LORD ALFRED PAGET. I have yet to see this young nobleman, but I am told he is worth seeing and knowing too; particularly so, as he is an enthusiastic lover of fox-hunting, in which field, as there never yet was a Paget wanting pluck, he distinguishes himself as a horseman. "But tell it not in Gath," for though now one of her Majesty's equerries, he is fond of the ribbons, and is now and then to be seen on the box of a certain aristocratic drag on the Brighton road.

No. 42. JAMES FAIRLIE, ESQ. The owner of Zohrab, Abraham Newland, who was second for the last St. Leger, and other good racehorses, and a good man himself, was deservedly popular in this hunt, but I believe his taste for the turf has got the mastery of that for the chase. No. 43. PADDY comes last, though not least; for like his countryman Mr. Carrol, he is a distinguished ornament to the royal hunt, at all events to this print. Compared with the French Count how picturesque does he appear! as the Rev. Sidney Smith says of the curate's horse, when placed by the side of that ridden by his rector. But really this is one of the extraordinary men of the age in his love of hounds; and, like the Cheltenham tailor, he has a sort of intuitive knowledge of the line of country their game takes, which enables him sometimes to see the finish of a long run. Like the sporting sweep, he "unts" with Sir John Cope and Mr. De Burgh, as well as with the Queen, and makes himself useful in picking up the wounded, catching horses at "nasty places" or such as have lost their riders, and in sundry other ways. He bears a good character in his neighbourhood, bringing all his half-crowns home to his familyinstead of spending them in a public-house; and, unlike, perhaps, the majority of his betters, never stands

deep in his shoemaker's books, as his naked toes abundantly testify. Irishman-like, he has an answer for every one. "Our run yesterday, forty minutes over the grass, just suited you, Paddy," said Davis to him, in the Aylesbury country. "In troth and it did, sir," replied Paddy; "but the brooks was wide and dape, and it's glad I am to see your honour and myself here at all to day, sure they were enough to drown an otter, much less a gentleman." The following anecdote of Paddy should not be omitted. By the order of Lord Errol he made his appearance one evening after dinner at the Aylesbury club, for the purpose of drinking a glass of wine and collecting some silver from the company. On counting his receipts he discovered a sovereign, which he requested the landlord to take to Lord Errol, as he conceived some gentleman had given it by mistake for a shilling. It was not so; Mr. De Burgh was the generous donor, in return, as he expressed himself, for the valuable assistance Paddy had afforded him when he kept hounds. On Paddy hearing the hounds were going to hunt in Surrey, he regretted it, saying, the stones in that country are turned the wrong way upwards, and do not suit his frogs, alias, his naked feet.

NIMROD. POSTCRIPT.-There is one incident connected with the subject of this splendid print, which, although it has escaped my notice in the proper place, must not be wholly omitted,-I allude to the farewell dinner given to the Earl of Chesterfield, at the Clarendon Hotel, in London, on his lordship's retirement from the office of master of the royal stag-hounds. The greater part of the noblemen and gentlemen here represented were present, his Grace the Duke of Beaufort in the chair, and Sir Horace Seymour, vice-president. So recherché was this entertainment, under the especial directions of Count D'Orsay, that it was noticed by the Quarterly Review, in an article on "Walker's Original," as a chef d'œuvre of its kind. Happening to be in London at the time, I met with one of the party who entered into some of the details, concluding in these words. "I wish you had been with us, for it was a brilliant fête, and no one contributed more to the pleasure of the evening than Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence, who started the fun by a clever and very humorous speech, which brought forth D'Orsay in his very best form. On Chesterfield's health being drunk, and drunk it was, as it deserved to be, with enthusiasm, his lordship returned thanks with very great ability, saying every thing that could have been said. All went on most prosperously, and fearful were the number of corks drawn on that memorable night."

NO LXXXIII.-VOL. XIV.

2 B

GALLERY OF CELEBRATED SPORTING CHARACTERS.

No. XX.

THE MOST NOBLE HENRY SOMERSET, DUKE OF
BEAUFORT.

THE family of Somerset is descended from "Old John of Gaunt, timehonoured Lancaster," and his second wife, Katherine Swynford, who had previously lived with him as his mistress. The children who were born previous to their mother's marriage were subsequently declared legitimate by an act of Parliament. They and their descendants bore the surname of Beaufort, and were ennobled under the titles of Earl of Somerset, Marquis of Dorset, and Duke of Somerset. The legitimate male line having become extinct in the time of the wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, Charles, a natural son of Henry Beaufort, third Duke of Somerset of this family, assumed the surname of Somerset ; and having married the only child of William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon, he was created Baron Herbert, of Ragland. In 1514 he was advanced to the dignity of Earl of Worcester by Henry VIII., and died in 1526. Henry, the fifth earl, was created Marquis of Worcester in 1642; and in 1682 one of his descendants was further advanced to the dignity of Duke of Beaufort. The present duke, who was born on 5th February, 1792, succeeded to the title on the death of his father on 23rd November, 1835.-So much for pedigree; now for performances.

The Duke of Beaufort-Marquis of Worcester previous to the death of his father-was, unless we be greatly mistaken, placed when a youth under the care of the Rev. Dr. Fletcher, vicar of Dalston, near Carlisle, and his fellow-pupil was Sir James Graham. One of his earliest sporting performances was in the toxophilitic line; when shooting, wide of the mark, he nearly knocked out one of the eyes of Miss Fletcher, the daughter of his tutor. When grown up to manhood, his passion, as a performer, was chiefly the "Road," though, as an amateur, he is said to have occasionally patronized the "Ring." What the Duke of Beaufort may have been with the gloves we cannot say; but we know that, when he drove the Criterion and the Age, he was a capital performer with the ribbons. It was, we believe, a subject of great annoyance to the late Duke of Beaufort that the Marquis of Worcester used to exhibit himself as the driver of a public stage-coach. His Grace still retains a taste for the road, but his performances are private, being chiefly confined to driving his own team, or that of his friend the Earl of Chesterfield. In 1819 he appeared on the Turf as the owner of three racers; and in