1895] ESCAPE OF LORD NORTH. 295 



get out of the way. Tins caused him to sto]) and look, 

 and he suddenly hecame aware that a long, heavy, eighty- 

 foot ladder, which had been lashed to the balustrade, had 

 given way, and had been forced back by the falling 

 masonry, and was just reaching the falling over angle. 

 He saw at once that his only chance was to keep his wits 

 about him, and see which way it was coming. He saw it 

 was coming straight over, and so jumped to the right, 

 knocking his own hat oft' against one of the pillars which 

 stand on each side of the club door. The ladder fell 

 behind him ; it was not long enough to hitch against the 

 top of the portico, but fell right into it, and was broken 

 in one or two places by the force of the fall He had to 

 ask the hall porter to get his hat out of the area. Lord 

 North thought the ladder missed him l)y five or six feet, 

 but those who saw it think that it was by not more than 

 three feet. Lord North's son-in-law, Mr. Frank Fitz- 

 gerald, was, oddly enough, going into the ]\Lirlborough 

 Club, and only just escajjed the falling bricks and mortar. 

 He was the first to run over to him, and express his 

 thankfulness at his escape, wdiich he cordially reciprocated.* 



On July 3rd, the annals of the Warwickshire Hunt 

 nearly came to an untimely end. I was on my way to 

 London, having with me the greater part <»f the book, as 

 well as nearly all the glass negatives of the portraits carefully 

 packed. These were put on the top of my luggage which 

 was wheeled in a truck across the line at Blisworth 

 Station. Not long after reaching the up platform the 

 porter upset the truck on to the main line onlji a unnnle 

 after the express had passed, and so all that it contained 

 had a narrow escape of being reduced to pulp. — C. INT. 



The heat during the greater part of the month of 

 September was phenomenal, and on the 10th the thermo- 

 meter registered 105 degrees. 



* Lord North came into the world amidst a foxhunting storm. The Wroxtoii 

 coverts had been drawn blank, and the agent, the bailiif , the keeper, the waggoner, aud 

 the knife-boy were all in danger oi losing their places ; but, fortunatel.v for them, at 

 this crisis Lady Xorth presented Colonel North with a fine bjy. Tiie gallant jificer's 

 wrath was appeased, and they were reinstated in their situations. (Fact.) 



