RETIREMENT OF THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8775, 23 April 1894, Page 2

RETIREMENT OF THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT.

[" The Duke of Beaufort's racing career which is to he brought to tin immediate close, extends over exactly forty years." —■ •'.Man ok tub "Would," Fob. 21.J

For thirty of the forty yearn mentioned in the above extract we have been aware of the identity of the Duke of Beaufort. We must have seen him even enrlier. as we backed his beautiful mave, Tue Roe, for the Cambridgeshire of ISSI, and when we back a horse- we geuerally like to have a ; look at the owner. The Koc, who had run second for the October Handicap, was pl-teed fourth for the Cambridgeshire, for which Count de li Grange ran flr*t and ; second with Palentro and G.tbrit-Ue fVE-»ree«. The Roe had already started a fnirlv good favourite for the bt. Li'Ker,and perhaps she was the first good animal His Givce owned. Still, our first distinct recollect , iou of him dales from an afternoon iv Oc-ober, «f;»*.r the Marquis of Hasting-* had won a biirrace, and we. think , it must have been the afternoon or i he day after Ackworth had wou the Cambridgeshire. It is the privilege und gr .ntlcation of those who "go rnciug" to t>ft«su sco an unusual number of very beautiful women. One especially so was the young Marchioness of"Hastings. A century ago she would have been the reigning toast. At the time of which we speak, she had only just married that dashing Plantaaer.et. who was the la*t Marquis of Hastings. There vrae. with her beauty an acLuaHty entwined with and her marriage under somewhat sensational circumstances caused her to be the heroine of iho day. She wn» on horseback. ne>tr the old Stand, talkiug to a uotnewhat robust gentleman who slightly stoojjeil. Hβ was booted and spurred, and was evidently waiting for his horse. The lady remarked that " Harry "—we r.hink it was Harry she said—had won £30,00 >. The gentleman congratulated her, and said, •' You must make him turn some of it up." Gathering up her reins to ride away, she said, with a pretty laugh and a curious little screw of the mouth which we rcmeraember full well, "I will" in as sprightly a manner as when a.t. the altar three or four months before she had uttered those same preguanfc words on which oftcu so much lias depended. The lady we knew, was the Marchioness of Hastings, and the gentleman we afterwards discovered was tho Duke of Beaufort. For ten years at least before this tho Duke's figure must have been familiar to ordinary racegoers; but possibly the reason why his person was not known to us may be found in the fact that about IS3O, wheu he was senior steward of the Jockey Club, Admiral Sous conveyed a message to the club announcing, on behalf of His Grace, his resignation of the stewardship on the score of ill-health. He had, we believe, met with an accident., from the effects of which he was A long time in recovering. Hia place as steward was tilled by Lord Coventry, who wae one of the youngest stewards ever known, aud it. fell to his lor to prosecute Mr Willes, of the Morning Post, for trespass on Newmarket Heath, on which occasion the powers of the club were subjected to the severest legal scrutiny. The admirable manner in which Lord Coventry acquitted himself in this matter does not come within the scope of this article. It wan in 1853 that the seventh Duke of Beaufort died, aud if we are to believe the " Racing Calendar," he remained a member of the Jockey Club after his death, as in the volume for 1854 it is stated that of the members of thac august body " the late Duke of Beaufort" was one. The eighth Dukeof Beaufort, who is the subject of this sketch, was for some time a soldier and aide-de-camp to the great Duke of "Wellington. His style and titles read so well that we give them in full :— " Henry Charles Fitzroy Somerset, Duke of BeiMtfort, Marquis and Bad of Worcester, Earl of Glamorgan, Viscount Grosmont, Bnron of Bottetourt, and Baron Herbert both by writ, Baron Herbert of Ragland, Chepstovr, and Gower, and Baron Beaufort of Cnldeot Castle in the Peerage of England, K.G., P.C., late Master of the Horse, retired LieutenantCtlonel in the Army, Lord Lieutenant of county Monmouth, and Hon. Colonel Royal Gloucestershire Yeomanry Hussars, boru Kebrusrv 15t,1824, succeeded November 17ch, 1853, married July 3rd, 1845, Lady Georgina Charlotte Curzon, eldest daughter of Richard, first Earl Howe. "Creations: Baron of Bottetourt, by writ 1308; Baron Herbert, by writ 1461; and Baron Herbert of Ragland, Chepstow aiui Gower, 1506; ISarl of Worceeter, 1514; Marquis of Worcester, 1642; Earl of Glamorgan, Viscount Grosmout, and Baron Beaufort, 1644; Duke of Beaufort, IGS2. Motto; ' I scorn to change or fear,'" The Duke of Beaufort, immediately on acceding to the title, registered hia racing jacket, and was made a member of the Jockey Club. His colours were, in the first place, light blue and white hoops, blue cap, but they were altered in 1861 to hie present well-known ones. His father's colours were white with blue cap, but he did not run many borso3. Oar recollection of the earlier career of His Grace is of a fugitive character, but we know that he was omo of those unfortunates who paid £50 for a filly to run against Bliuk Bouny for the Oaks of 1857, when she won so easily that the whole of the seventeen starters were placed by the judge. Taking office as steward at an early period, he had to investigate the mistake the. judge, made in connection with the Derby of 1859, when he placed Ticket of Leave second instead of Marionette. We recollect the circumstance well, as we had drawn Ticket of Leave in a sweep, and drew the second money. Strange as it may seem, the error was not rectified until after the Oaks. It was while the Duke of Beaufort was senior steward of the Jockey Club that that body presented their famous petition to the House of Lords against Lord Redesdale's Light Weight Bill. Ib was presented by the.Earl of Derby, who was Prime Minister at the time. The first horse the Duke of Beaufort ran lor the Derby was Gemse in 1862;. The flrstautmal he had any real luck with,however, woB, I Birdhill, who won the Stewards'Oup. This colt, who was 'half bred, , won him many races. The Duke, who all this time had been looked upon as somewhat unlucky with hia horaes, made what may be termed his first great splash when, fn 1865, he bought the big, overgrown Rustic from Mr R. Sutton, who retained Lord Lyon. Mr Sutton had the Marquis fif Anglesey's book of 10,000 to 100 about both. Rustic fined down so much, and won so many races, that most people thought Mr Sutton did not really know what he had parted with nnd that Rustic was the better of the two. The original estimate, however, woe confirmed when they ran first and third for the Derby, Lord Lyon winning. The Duke would have had a good favourite for the same race in Ceylon, who had won the Newmarket and Bath Biennials, but he was kept in reserve for (he Grand Prize of ! Parie which he won,' Many fairy stories were told of the congratulations the Duke of Beaufort received from the Emperor and how honoured the Duke was, but, as a matter of fact, being a Bourbon and quartering the Bourbon lilies on his shield, he avoided the Emperor, looking upon him as a usurper. The year 1866 was by far the bett the Duke ever had. He never at any time won a big stake on a race, and the biggest he ever won was £20,000 on Lecturer in the Cesarewitch. The year* 1865. 1866, and 1867 were great one* for Danebury, and never were seen two grander studs than those belonging to the Duke of Beaufort and the Marquis of Hastings at that period. Vauban, in 1867, had a tremendous career, and there are some who tbfnk that if less nse had been made of him he would have won the St. Leger. The Duke of Beaufort certainly did not spare him, nor has he ever spared any of his horses, but if he had not run Vauban during the summer the probability is that the horse that defeated him in the Derby would have beaten him again, and he would have missed the many splendid stakes he won in the meantime. Vauban could, not come down the hill at Epsom, and if the Derby had been run at Ascot he would have won it to a certainty. Vauban won the Prince of Wales' Stakes, as Rustic had done in the previous year, and as Pepper and Salt did a few years later. Gomera at the «ame time won some good races, end among others she carried 9st to victory in the Goodwood Stakes, winning so easily thac John Day wanted to run her over the three miles and five furlongs for the Queen's Plate. •'Yee, John," said the Duke, who was lunching under the trees, "but on condition that you ride her yourself." Both Stakes and Cup at this meeting fell to the Duke, and as in addition to the Cup, Vauban won a stake of £1100, and another £300, and Redcap and Athena Won good races, the Danebury stable had a fine time of it. Lord Ronald, whose marvellous career we recently traced, was also a frequent scorer in the ducal heaps. Siberia a year or two earlier won the One Thousand Guineas, and Koenlg "trumpeted "well on several occasions, These were rosy times, and it was a pity thac they were so soon to come to an end. Lord Eastings' stud was brought to the hammer on Stockbridge racecourse in November, 1867. At that time we were writing In "another place," and at the Lincoln Meeting, ran on February 18th

nnd lUtli, 18(W, Steal told \m with n « r *at nil- of inyvery nn ituin of exclusive" character. We published it, and & rare sensation it caused us it was na unexpected. It. was to the effeeb that the i'uke of Beaufort, wan about to sell the whole of 'iln; <itud with which he had been mo successful. It proved torn true. lul>Y<B»'.irt Duko's eldest son came" of age, and with Ui it c.mic h re-settlement of \iw prop.riy or some, other important financial matter. The salt* took pluco on A»co [ - racecourse, on Saturday, Murch 15th, and «rs were A* limes wnnt It was ii tii;ii-v..]lous snle. h->rd llounld fetched lo~ii> pcuinea*, Gumcr.i 10L>U Kuinc«a, ViridU ■JOL'U p;niii-<»n, Vuui».m ;t203 RilineuM, X ropi 1000 iruinea.", nnd Ilia lt»e colt l0.';0 uuiiif.iH. with full- prices for about twi-tiv mor->. l> ilcniil, then th cc years old, who woi such an enor* mous number of rnc-s afleriv.-irds, and was ft veritable, enst-iron horse, wa» secured for 200 gulnens. Ho was not, h-'w«>ver, the lMri:ain of th« -<ale, an Mr Hodiituati got i lie colt i>y GlenmasKon out of Figt»e>' for DO guineas. Ho naur d hlni Ve-luiiusler auit won th« C»mhridgt'-hlrQ with him. John Deinnait, who had a <>7h>

tent, gave (100 uuin»;.-ii fi>r the colt by Trumpeter out of Palm, ami named liiiu Duke of Bi'iiufvu't. The. system fa.leO, aud he sol : him to Mr Urayley, who tried him tolw a «ood hor>«\ and backed him Iα win £100,000 fur the Derby.

The Dalitf t>f Beaufort was not away from thi , . turf" long. Ou b ginning igniu, a ter scoring in the Or.c Tnou-and with Scottish Queen, ho had bad luele, and attributed it to ihe 10-m ot tho Muscovite blood, whloh he was always trying- to replace. He scored a Two Thousand. GuinuAS, thank-* to Petronel, and he would huvo had an Asuot Gap with F&ugh-n* Bullajrh had not Archer called oat to Murrinto stnp. There was. too, aCeaaro ,

wilsli victory in ■store with llanimuude, on whom only n small sum yvaa won, and and one or two Great Metropolitans, likewise, and. best of all, n One Thousand, City and Suburban, aud Oaks with Rev* ti'Or. On the whole, however, his luck was crueJ, and whenever the stable "wont "for a large sum o[ money something was sure to happen. What, tor instance, ought to have been won on the double event which ought, to have come off ou Cob for the Cesarowitch and Carlton for the Cambridgeshire? Aud however did Carlton get beaten in tlio City and Suburban? AU these things, however, are of too recent occurreuce for us to dwell upon them now.

One great reason for the immense popularity of the Duke ot: Beaufort is that being a Duke he is a Dike, ami nor, a glorified House aud Estate Agent, lie m a Duke of tho manners niul something of the time of Louis XIV". Badminton is on« of the great houses of the country, aud there aro no people more welcome to it than the farmers and others of the neighbourhood. Wheu they are entertained and an old lady of comparatively humble circumstances enters the room, it is not a plushcovered flunkey who superciliously showa her to her sent, it h ihe Duke hiinaelf, when it ia not the Duchess, and ho treats her a<) respectfully aud with as much attention as he would the greatest lady ia the land. These thtupa are remembered and dwelt upon and talked about. Of the Sporting Worid he is nbsolutely king. Wβ have never heard of him in connection with coddain, pud aud dart, Qr knurr and spoil, but, should a chapter or two be devoted to these games in the next volume of the Badminton Library, wo have no doubt that we shall discover he knows all about them. Why not* Wo know there wa« a timo when it took a good luaa to bmt him at Aunt Sally. It is, however, where the great games are being played that we aro most sure of finding him holding a hand. Of coaching he is not only the great authority of tho day, but he is the leader. The Badminton Hunt and the lawn meet at Badminton are topics that have excited the enthusiasm of fox-hunters, and have inspired brilliant pens. Equally at home with tho flailing* rod, if there in a salmon to be killed, he is the man to kill it, or with hU flat", in his time if there was a blackguard to be knocked down, that blackguard was best away from his rench. Apart from his great sporting qualities, he is a gifted writer, and the set. of books that bear hie name ls'tnonumental. Though not a erent public speaker, he is an admirable chairman and a worker, and no man was «"rei more ready to preside over meetings where tho public good could bo advanced, or gentle courtesy and Rood feeling b« expressed. Of all men of his rank he is the most accessible, and whilst almost anyone may enter into conversation with him without foar of being repelled by hauteur, he Iβ absolutely the last>mau in the world that anyone would dream of taking a liberty with,—Sporting Times, February 21th.