Memoir of Mr. Sotheron Estcourt. 341 



for the Home Department: which office he retained until the change 

 of Ministry in June following. He retired from Parliament in 1865. 



Though belonging, as most men of position do, to a party, he was 

 not a blind partizan : neither obstinately opposed to all changes, nor 

 wishing to adopt them unless well-considered. For political life 

 however he had less affection than for quiet service to the county of 

 Wilts, in which, both North and South, by persevering work and 

 unvarying kindness and courtesy of manner, he became, certainly 

 one of its most popular men to the day of his death. 



Besides, as a magistrate, taking a leading part in arranging 

 financial affairs, the settlement of the County Rate, the Constabulary 

 and other matters requiring close and continual personal exertion, 

 he succeeded, after much difficulty, in establishing — his greatest 

 glory — the Wiltshire Friendly Society. With this, his name it is 

 hoped may long continue to be associated : for not until the working- 

 people of Wiltshire shall cease to feel the benefits to themselves and 

 their families, of habits of prudence and self-reliance, can they look 

 with indifference upon the Society's Medal, which bears the effigy 

 of the amiable gentleman who laboured so long and so earnestly for 

 the improvement of cottage homes and lives. 



• With respect to our own Society, it is recollected with pleasure 

 that he was our President at the Annual Meeting at Swindon, in 

 August, 1860, and again at Shaftesbury, in August, 1861. At 

 Malmesbury, in 1863, he was unable to attend from ill-health. It 

 was not his habit to render literary assistance, but of his desire to 

 preserve from neglect the Antiquities for which the county is so 

 famous, he gave substantial proof, as mentioned in the Report 

 for 1876. Hearing that part of the ground on which stands 

 the mutilated remains of Avebuey was for sale, he immediately 

 sent to one of the Secretaries of the Society an unlimited order to 

 secure it for him : but in this laudable attempt to save one of the most 

 curious monuments in the world from injury by future barbarians 

 he had been anticipated by our present President, Sir John Lubbock. 



Mr. Sotheron Estcourt was an excellent scholar and delighted in 

 literature, but though for amusement among his various occupations, 

 he would now and then exercise his pencil, ?is for instance in the 



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