LORD CHESTERFIELD. 13. 



as to the issue of the Parhamentary contest, the old 

 Speaker, Manners-Sutton, representing the Ministry, 

 and Mr. Abercrombie the Whigs. No railway or 

 telegraph was then in existence, and the express as to 

 the issue of the struggle was sent down by post-boy, 

 stage by stage, and the argument was at its height 

 when the clatter of the post-horse was heard in the yard. 

 Well do I remember mine host (I can see him now) 

 taking the sealed despatch up to the Earl in the chair, 

 while wild excitement prevailed, and wagers were 

 shouted across the table. The Earl broke the seals and 

 his countenance fell ; I heard him say, " Gentlemen, it's 

 all over. Abercrombie, 312 ; Sutton, 302 " (I think these 

 were the numbers). " I shall no longer be Master of the 

 Buckhounds." I never saw such an alteration from the 

 extreme of gaiety to that of despondency. The Earl 

 was the most popular sportsman at that time in England, 

 and I think in about six weeks the Ministry resigned. 



These were indeed brilliant times for Aylesbury : 

 never was such a gathering of noble sportsmen as- 

 sembled together as used to meet at the White Hart, 

 when the King's and Mr. De Burgh's staghounds came 

 down for the week in November and in February and 

 hunted alternate days. Nothing had ever been seen 

 before or since like it. The hotel was not only filled, 

 but the proprietor took as many private houses in the 

 town as he could procure. I remembc^r one of these 

 contained Lords Erroll, A. and F. Fitzclarence, and 

 their friend. Poodle Wombwell ; another, Count D'Orsay, 

 H. Baring, Whyte Melville, and Sir Horace Seymour ; a 

 third, the Marquis of Waterford, Lord William Beresford, 



