216 Ikings ot tbe Ibiuitino^jfielC) 



a guard to attend her in future. Consequently, on the 

 following Sunday, she paraded in the park with two 

 sergeants of the Footguards in front of her, and twelve 

 privates, with fixed bayonets, behind her. She died 

 early, a victim to her own vanity in the use of poisonous 

 cosmetics — a frivolous, empty-headed creature, with 

 nothing but her good looks to recommend her. The 

 earl was not inconsolable for his loss. Four years later 

 he married again, much more satisfactorily, and lived 

 to the good old age of eighty-seven. 



The Coventrys have ever been a race who have done 

 their duty as English nobles with quiet, unostentatious 

 dignity. They have been keen sportsmen and good 

 landlords. The present earl has well sustained the 

 honourable traditions of his house. As a sportsman 

 he has gained a high position both on the Turf and in 

 the hunting-field. His knowledge of horses is admitted 

 to be great, and he has the credit of having revived 

 steeplechasing, and helped largely to settle that attractive 

 sport on a sound basis. As a steward of the Jockey 

 Club he has obtained the reputation of being something 

 of the type of ' Rhadamanthus and stern Minos,' who, 

 in Lord Brooke's opinion, were ' True types of justice 

 while they lived here.' There is hardly another sport 

 that can be named in which Lord Coventry has not been 

 able in his day to hold his own with distinction. Both 

 as Master of the Worcestershire Hounds and as Master 

 of the Buckhounds, he has shown himself not only a 

 bold rider, but an expert in the ' noble science.' Lady 

 Coventry, too, shares her husband's delight in field 

 sports, and, in her younger days, was admitted to be 

 one of the finest horsewomen in the kingdom. How 

 popular both the Earl and Countess are, was proved 



