1773 THE SIRS 73 



Third, had there been no obstacle in the way. It is 

 true that Lady Sarah afterwards brought upon him 

 the greatest grief and dishonour which a wife can 

 bring upon a husband, and it is true that there is no 

 accounting for woman's eccentricities in matrimonial 

 matters ; but there is reason to suppose that in this 

 case the chosen husband was really a superior person. 

 Divorce, however, was his fate, as it was that of many 

 another brother-member of the Jockey Club. It was 

 mainly owing to one Lord William Gordon that the 

 divorce (in 1776) took place; and, ' as that was a 

 duelling age ' (to quote the gifted author of * The Gay 

 Cavalier '), surprise has sometimes been expressed 

 that it did not * lead to human gore ' (to borrow the 

 words of the immortal Sim Tappertit). The explana- 

 tion is unique, and worthy of the period. When Sir 

 Charles was about to take the usual steps, it was 

 objected that he was bound to take the known poachers 

 upon his manor in proper alphabetical order, in which 

 case Lord William's turn would not come on for some 

 time, as he stood about tenth on a list so constructed. 

 Strange to say, however, like the filly Misfortune, that 

 was so worthless in her early years and yet became 

 the dam of the great Buzzard, the divorced Lady 

 Sarah became some years afterwards the wife of the 

 Hon. Colonel Napier, and was the mother of the 

 famous Sir Charles and Sir William Napier, duo 

 fulmina belli. Sir Charles Bunbury himself married 

 a second time late in life somebody who was nobody, 



