BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCH. xlix 



In 1860 he obtained his Colonelcy, and six years later he retired from the army, having 

 exchanged (to sell) from half-pay, on which he remained from April 186B, into the 17th Lancers. 



By the death of his elder brother. Lord GifFord, he became heir to the Marquisate of 

 Tweeddale on 22nd December, 1862; but, in deference to the feelings of his brother's widow, 

 he assumed the second instead of the senior title in the succession, and took the style of 

 Viscount Walden. He might easily have obtained a seat in Parliament, through the family 

 interest, had he desired a political career ; but despite his pronounced opinions on most 

 important questions and his conservative convictions, he had a strong objection to the turmoil 

 of popular assemblages and the bustle and intrigue of party contests, and he would sooner 

 have led a forlorn hope than have tried to make a speech at a public meeting. 



His disgust at the turpitude of party conflict and at the meanness of the public spirit 

 which permitted the overthrow of Denmark in 1864 and the annexation of Hanover in 1866, 

 drove him to work with increased ardour in the pleasant field of natural history. He felt 

 keenly the misfortunes which had befallen the kingdom of Hanover, in which he had many 

 friends and connections ; and he expressed the utmost indignation at the absorption by Prussia 

 of the ancient Electorate, and at the equanimity with which the English people acquiesced in 

 the confiscation of the property and the destruction of the dynasty of a branch of their own 

 reigning House. 



As soon as his father was enabled, by the sad circumstance of Lord Giflford's death, to increase 

 his allowance, and give him the means of maintaining his position as heir to the Marquisate, 

 Lord Walden looked out for a piece of ground to enable him to gratify his taste for country life 

 and study, where he could live in quiet and yet enjoy social pleasures and the society of his friends 

 in the metropolis ; and after a time he succeeded in obtaining the site at Chiselhurst on which he 

 built the charming lodge called Walden Cottage, where he passed some years of great happiness 

 and usefulness. With his own hands he planned the building, and under his own eye every detail 

 was executed till it was completed in all its excellence, as the perfection of what such a dwelling 

 ought to be. He designed and laid out with exquisite taste the garden which afibrded such pleasure 

 to his intimates and constant enjoyment to himself; and as it grew from day to day and year to 

 year, and his care and devotion were rewarded by the admiration of visitors and the wealth of 

 flowers and rare plants, he enjoyed the satisfaction of feeling that he had not laboured in vain, 

 and the contentment which is the best reward of the tranquil pursuits which the " wisest of 

 mankind " (his other epithets may be omitted here) eulogized in one of the most beautiful of his 

 essays. Lord Walden was especially fond of rose-growing, and obtained a high reputation as a 

 successful rosiculturist ; but he never allowed his love of gardening to lead him away from the 

 assiduous study of natural history. He entered into correspondence with the most eminent 



