THE EARLS OF LONSDALE. 



Cedant arma iogce might well stand as the motto of the 

 Lowthers, for, unlike most of the great feudal houses of 

 England, they owe their wealth and power entirely to suc- 

 cess in civil life. They have produced some eminent 

 lawyers, and some useful State servants, but no illus- 

 trious soldier or sailor. In fact, they belong to the 

 nobility of the robe, not of the sword. 



There have been Lowthers in Westmoreland, to use the 

 old legal phrase, ' from time whereof the memory of man 

 runneth not to the contrary.' As far back as the reign 

 of Henry the Second, within a hundred years of the 

 Conquest, the name of William de Lowther appears as 

 head of the gentry of the shire. But the real founder of 

 the fame and fortunes of the family was a lawyer, — Sir 

 Hugh de Lowther, Attorney-General under Edward the 

 First. He represented his county in the Parliament 

 which met in 1299, and from that time to this, a period 

 of 600 years, there has never sat a Parliament without a 

 Lowther or a Lowther's nominee amongst its members. 

 The grandson of the Attorney-General followed Harr}- 

 the Fifth to the wars, under the banner of his over-lord, 

 the Earl of Westmorland, and was one of ' the few, the 

 happy few, the band of brothers,' whose valour won the 



