ZTbc (Tofees of Ibolfebam 201 



able soil of Holkham, fit only to produce scanty crops 

 of rye, could ever repay the cost of scientific cultivation 

 would have seemed to him a thing as reasonable to 

 expect as the extraction of sunbeams out of cucumbers. 

 And he would doubtless have regarded as a lunatic the 

 prophet who should have foretold that his own grand- 

 nephew should, within fifty years of his death, turn these 

 barren acres into the richest arable land in Norfolk, 

 transform Holkham Park from open warren into one of 

 the most beautifully wooded demesnes in England, and 

 raise the rental of the estate from 2,000 to upwards of 

 20,000. 



Yet all this and more was accomplished in the life- 

 time and by the indomitable energy of one man, 

 Thomas William Coke, known far and wide among 

 his contemporaries as " Coke of Norfolk," the Father of 

 modern Agriculture. 



But great as Thomas William Coke was as an 

 agriculturist, he was hardly less great as a sportsman 

 to him Holkham owes that sporting renown which 

 has been so splendidly maintained by his son, a renown 

 which I may almost call world-wide, for the vast game- 

 preserves have few rivals in the three kingdoms, and the 

 Holkham annals contain some of the most notable 

 shooting feats on record. In this gallery of " Kings of the 

 Gun," therefore, " Coke of Norfolk " must be assigned a 

 foremost place. And now let me sketch his career. 



When Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, the builder of 

 Holkham House, died on April 2Oth, 1759, all his 

 honours became extinct, and the Countess, his widow, 

 had a life interest in his estate. On her death all the 



