^bc iSarls Spencer 373 



President of the Royal Institution, of which he was 

 one of the original founders, and, before he died in 1834, 

 he realised the unfulfilled ambition of the third Earl 

 of Sunderland, by making the Althorp Library famous 

 throughout the whole world of letters. 



His son John Charles, the third Earl, best known in 

 history as Lord Althorp, eclipsed the fame of his sire both 

 in sport and politics. In 1808 he purchased the Pytchley 

 hounds from that great ' Father of Foxhunting,' John 

 Warde, for ;^iooo, and hunted the country himself. The 

 Pytchley Club, which had been abolished by John Warde, 

 was revived in all its glory, and rare scenes of conviviality 

 the Old Hall witnessed. It was a peculiar custom of 

 the club that any member after dinner, on depositing 

 half-a-crown in a wine-glass, might name and put up to 

 auction the horse of any other member, the owner being 

 entitled to one bid on his own behalf. It was on one of 

 these occasions, Mr Nethercote tells us, that his grand- 

 father sold his famous hunter ' Lancet ' to Mr John Cook 

 of Hothorp, for the then unprecedented sum of 620 

 guineas. The vendor, who was an old college chum of 

 the purchaser, not wishing to take advantage of his 

 friend's post-prandial rashness, offered the next morning 

 to let him off his bargain. But Mr Cook indignantly 

 refused, and was often heard to say afterwards that 

 it was one of the best bargains he ever made in his 

 life. A similar custom, by the way, prevailed in the 

 Chumleigh Club in Devonshire, of which ' Jack ' Russell 

 was a member. 



Lord Althorp is described by those who knew him in 

 the hunting-field as a bold and determined, but very 

 slovenly rider. His seat was loose, yet he was 

 thoroughly at home in the saddle, and frequently rode 



