CHAPTER V 



THE COMING OF THE RIDING COUNTESS OF YARBOROUGH INTO 



NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE 



It is by no means overstating the case, and I am sure every- 

 one of her old friends, and young ones too, who have known 

 this fact from their cradle upwards, and who read this book, 

 will agree with me, that the coming of Lady Worsley, now 

 Victoria Countess of Yarborough, into North Lincolnshire, 

 caused a revolution of the most joyous kind over the whole 

 country-side. 



Before her advent there had been a vein of marked dullness 

 in and around the old Pelham stronghold, as the family rarely 

 visited Brocklesby, and if they did, the visit was of very short 

 duration, the flag, always flying when the family were in 

 residence at the Hall, and which was so anxiously looked for 

 by the residents for miles around, being seldom hoisted. Most 

 unfortunately, the then reigning Earl of Yarborough, grand- 

 father of the present Earl, was a confirmed invalid, and the 

 Countess, his wife, being no special lover of outdoor sports of 

 any kind herself, and disliking the dullness of the country, 

 naturally preferred life in town. 



The famous Brocklesby pack of foxhounds was kept up, 

 however, in the fine old style of former years, the huntsman, 

 Tom Smith, one of the celebrated Smith succession of hunts- 

 men to the Pelham family, showing thoroughly good sport, and 



42 



