Great Badminton, Gloucestershire

Description
Badminton or Great Badminton, a village, a parish, and a ducal seat in Gloucestershire. The village stand.s under the Cotswolds, on the SE verge of the county, 5 miles E by N of Chipping-Sodbury, and 7 E of Yate station on the M.R. It has a post office (S.O. Gloucestershire), a reading-room, and six almshouses. The parish comprises 1794 acres; population of the civil parish, 520; of the ecclesiastical, 625. The property all belongs to the Duke of Beaufort, and most of it is included in his park. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; value, £150. Patron, the Duke of Beaufort. The ancient church belonged to the abbey of Pershore, and the present one was built in 1785. It adjoins the mansion, and is in the Classic style. The chancel contains monuments by Rystrach of former dukes, and one of the first Duke, transferred from the Beaufort Chapel at Windsor Castle; it has been enlarged and choir stalls added. The font is marble. There is a painting by Ghezzi, and a cartoon by Raphael in the Beaufort Tribune, or gallery overlooking the aisle. Field-Marshal Lord Raglan, who died during the siege of Sebastopo], was buried here. The park is about 3 miles long, nearly 2 miles wide, and upwards of 9 miles in circuit, and contains some very fine woods and beautiful drives. Two celebrated oaks, the Fitzherbert and the Duchess, are among the largest trees in England, and there are large herds of red and fallow deer. The mansion was erected in 1682, by the first Duke of Beaufort, and succeeded Raglan Castle, in Monmouthshire, as the principal seat of his family. The edifice is very extensive; consists of centre and wings; is in the Palladian style, with rusticated basement and two surmounting cupolas; and contains many family portraits, downward from John of Gaunt, some rare and curious pictures by the Italian masters, and the remarkable satirical picture by Salvator Rosa which occasioned that artist's expulsion from Rome,