LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL 



interest in agriculture. Consequently, those who 

 had promoted his election to the Presidency 

 were reproached by some for putting forward so 

 young a man, and one without much distinctive 

 claim. But they reckoned without a knowledge 

 of that painstaking determination to master 

 whatever subject he took in hand, which, through- 

 out his career, was Lord Randolph's distinguish- 

 ing characteristic, and, in after years, enabled 

 him to speak with so much authority upon so 

 many different questions. 



In those days, it' was customary to have a big 

 dinner in connection with the Annual Show of the 

 County Society, when the county and any neigh- 

 bouring borough members were expected to attend 

 and give an account of their stewardship. The 

 speeches were supposed to be more agricultural 

 than political, but orators sailed uncommonly 

 near the wind with respect to the latter, and a 

 speaker had a patient hearing so long as he wasn't 

 a bore, or too lengthy. If he suffered from either 

 complaint, his hearers had a remedy, i.e., a general 

 shuffling of feet and clattering of plates, which 

 even the best pair of lungs was not proof against 

 in the long run, as the storm gathered force. At 

 such a dinner Lord Randolph took the chair, amid 

 considerable misgivings on the part of others as 

 to how he would acquit himself. To the gratified 

 astonishment of the meeting, he made an admir- 

 able speech, in responding to the toast of the Society, 

 and showed a mastery of agricultural problems 

 which took even those who knew him best by 

 surprise. The Marlborough farm-tenants were par- 

 ticularly pleased, because some of the sentiments 



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