36 FAMOUS EACINa MEN. 



specimens of all kinds and species, whicli they forwarded to him at 

 Knowsley, to be added to his already enormous collection there. But 

 the old sporting instinct, dormant in himself, cropped up again in 

 his son, Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, fourteenth Earl of 

 Derby, known to the present generation as a great orator and states- 

 man, " the Eupert of Debate." The late Lord Derby, the father of 

 the present Earl, was born at Knowsley, near Preston, on the 29th 

 of March, 1799. He was educated at Eton, whence he went to 

 Christ Church, Oxford, where, in 1819, he carried off the Chancellor's 

 Prize for Latin Verse. Great as his abilities were known to be at 

 that time, he left the University without taking a degree, evidently 

 having made up his mind to pursue a political career, for which he 

 was eminently fitted. In the year 1822, two years after he had 

 attained his majority, he was elected member for Stockbridge, as an 

 adherent of those high Whig principles which his family had so long 

 held and maintained. His career in the House of Commons was one 

 unbroken success, and he filled in succession most of the great offices 

 of State. In 1851 he became Earl of Derby by the death of his 

 father, and in the following ^-ear found himself First Lord of the 

 Treasury, through the downfall of Lord John Eussell, a consummation 

 which he had been mainly instrumental in bringing about. Twice 

 afterwards he was Prime Minister of England ; but as it is more 

 with his career as a sportsman than as a statesman that we are 

 concerned here, we will pass on to the consideration of his connection 

 with the turf, of which, during the greater part of his life, he was a 

 warm patron and a distinguished ornament. It was in 1842 that Lord 

 Derby first began to keep horses on his own account, and formed his 

 connection with Mr. John Scott as trainer, which lasted unbroken 

 for one-and-twenty years. Before that period, indeed, he had had 

 something to do with his father's horses, which were trained by Bloss, 

 at Delamere Forest, but this was merely because the then earl did 

 not care to look after his thoroughljreds, and deputed his son to do 

 so for him ; the passion for racing, however, was strong in him from 

 his earliest years. Here is a sketch of him in 1833, given by Charles 

 Greville in his " Memoirs " : — " I went to the Oaks on Wednesday, 

 where Lord Stanley kept house for the first and probably (as the 

 house is for sale) the last time. It is a very agreeable place, with 

 an odd sort of house, built at different times and by different people ; 

 but the outside is covered with ivy and creepers, which is pretty, 

 and there are two good living rooms in it ; besides this there is an 

 abundance of grass and shade. It has been for thirty or forty years 

 the resort of all our old jockeys, and is now occupied by the sporting 

 portion of the Government. We had Lord Grey and his daughter, 

 Duke and Duchess of Eichmond, Lord and Lady Errol, Althorp, 

 Graham, Uxbridge, Charles Grey, Duke of Grafton, Lichfield, and 

 Stanley's brothers. It passed off very well — racing all the morning, 

 an excellent dinner, and whist and blind hookey in the evening. 

 It was curious to see Stanley. Who would believe they beheld the 



