XTbe Earl0 ot Xonst>ale 429 



among his schoolmates, and at cricket he was the fastest 

 bowler among his contemporaries. Had his precision 

 been equal to his pace he would have been a very 

 formidable trundler. Long before his Eton days, how- 

 ever, he had been initiated into the delights of hunting. 

 He has been heard to say that he hunted ' on his own 

 hook ' on his pony when he was but five years of age, 

 but he was first really entered to hounds as a young man 

 with the Quorn, of which he has since been Master. In 

 1876, like his subsequent rival the Earl of Shrewsbury, 

 he became a cab proprietor, and his dark blue hansoms, 

 picked out with yellow, built by Forder of Wolver- 

 hampton, were a familiar feature of the London streets. 

 In 1878 he married the Lady Grace Gordon, sister of the 

 present Marquis of Huntly. In the same year he won 

 the ' longest race in England,' the Rutland Welter Drag- 

 hunt Cup at Newmarket, riding his own mare, The 

 Queen. A Hunter'.s Hurdle Race at Carlisle also fell 

 to him that year, but, finding that he was putting on 

 weight, he gave up steeplechasing and devoted his 

 horsemanship entirely to hunting. 



In 1880 he went with his wife on a sporting tour to 

 North America, and roughed it manfully in the Rockies, 

 where his bag of big game included thirty bears, and 

 a rare lot of bison, mountain sheep and deer. 



On his return he offered to hunt the Pytchley wood- 

 land pack. The offer was accepted, and he did the thing 

 in a style of the most lavish magnificence. No expense 

 was spared on the kennels or stables. No hunt servants 

 in the three kingdoms were so splendidly mounted as 

 his, and he himself rode superb horses, more fit for the 

 pastures of Leicestershire than the Pytchley woodlands. 

 A fine, fearless, powerful rider, he frequently put the 



