222 ifcfnss of tfoe 1Ro&, IRffle, anfc 6un 



the death of Coke's first wife, and was seven years 

 younger than her husband's granddaughter the Countess 

 of Rosebery. The reasons for this strange marriage 

 were as follows. 



By his first wife, who died in 1800, Mr. Coke had 

 no male issue only three daughters. Consequently 

 the heir-presumptive to his estates was his nephew 

 William Coke, whose exploits as a sportsman I have 

 recounted in my sketches of Captain Ross and Lord 

 Kennedy. For reasons which were never made public, 

 Mr. Coke and his nephew had a serious quarrel, and 

 the uncle, in his wrath, resolved to marry again and 

 provide himself with an heir in the direct line. His 

 hopes were realised the second Mrs. Coke bore her 

 venerable but vigorous husband five sons and a 

 daughter. The eldest of those sons is the present 

 Earl of Leicester. For " Coke of Norfolk," after thrice 

 refusing a peerage and priding himself, like James Fox 

 Lane, on being the First Commoner in England, 

 yielded at last, in his eighty-third year, to the 

 seductive voice of Lord Melbourne, and consented to 

 accept a title, providing it was that borne by his 

 grand-uncle namely, Earl of Leicester and Viscount 

 Coke of Holkham. His wishes were complied with, 

 and Thomas William Coke was the first commoner 

 on whom Queen Victoria conferred a patent of nobility. 



But it was as " Coke of Norfolk " that he was known 

 till his death, and it is as "Coke of Norfolk" that 

 his fame will go down to posterity. To the very end 

 of his long life Lord Leicester retained his physical 

 vigour and his love of shooting. One of the last 



