238 HISTORY OF THE EOYAL BUCKHOUNDS AND ASCOT RACES. 



chimneys was blown down, and crushing right through the 

 centre of the mansion levelled all before it, but his lordship 

 providentially escaped uninjured. " This wonderful and almost 

 miraculous deliverance did doubtless happen to him for his 

 great piety, and unconstrained generosity, in paying, as fast as 

 he could, his son's debts, which came to 30,000/. or 40,000/,, 

 the most of which, had he died, being left as yet unpaid, would 

 have been the undoing of multitudes. A noble and Christian 

 example for other great men to imitate ! " 



On the death of his grandfather, " aged about a hundred," 

 on July 16, 1703, George, third Earl of Cardigan, succeeded 

 to the family honours and estates. He married Lady Elizabeth 

 Bruce, eldest daughter of Thomas, second Earl of Ailesbury, 

 by whom he had four sons and two daughters. He was 

 brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, which he abjured 

 when he came of age on January 11, 1708, "and received 

 the Sacrament in St. James's Church ; and on the following 

 day took his seat in the House of Peers, introduced by 

 the Lord Chancellor." About this time he and his wife 

 appeared to have hankered after the then new and novel sport 

 of fox-hunting in Oxfordshire. Adle, Countess of Shrewsbury, 

 writing from Heythorp, November 8, 1707, to the Viscountess 

 Longueville, Easton, Northamptonshire, says : "... My 

 Lord and Lady Cardigan are at present here, and we dis- 

 course of nothing but fox-hunting, but," — on her own part the 

 Countess modestly adds, — " I have not yet arrived to the 

 perfection of fox-hunting." In the meantime Lord Cardigan 

 became a great favourite with Queen Anne, by whom he was 

 appointed Custos Rotulorum of the county Northampton, on 

 A])ril 11, 1711. His appointment to the Mastership of the 

 Buckhounds followed on June 28, 1712, as above shown, when 

 he at once entered upon the duties of his office. In con- 

 nection with this post everything seems to have been in a 

 thoroughly efficient state, except an occasional hitch, now 

 and then, with regard to the quarry. It is evident that the 

 ancient predilection of making free with the Royal deer, 

 which were deemed the lawful spoil of the predecessors and 



