tfoon. Grautles jf. 36crfceleg 449 



of whom he tells many stories in his " Recollections," 

 which are amusing, if not much to the credit ot 

 "The First Gentleman of Europe." Grantley's early 

 life was passed at Cranford, the family seat in 

 Middlesex, with occasional visits to Berkeley Castle. 

 He was brought up on sport all his surroundings 

 were sporting ; and the tastes of his elder brothers 

 in this respect were catholic nothing came amiss 

 to them ; prize-fighting, dog-fighting, ratting, and 

 all the lower phases of " The Fancy " were things 

 they revelled in, and they tried to make their younger 

 brother do the same, though, to do him justice, his 

 sympathies were always with the higher kinds of sport. 



The immense preserves round Berkeley Castle swarmed 

 with game, which necessitated the employment of no 

 less than fifty-eight keepers and underkeepers. Cran- 

 ford, too, afforded splendid shooting. 



" What quantities of game we then had ! " writes 

 Grantley, in his " Recollections." " When the Duke of 

 York shot with us, which he did one day, after Mr. 

 Greville had kept His Royal Highness waiting for an 

 hour and an half, he bagged in the same space of time 

 more than he had ever killed anywhere else. He had 

 three guns and two loaders, and yet more than once 

 I handed him my gun because the others were not 

 ready. I saw him kill three hares at one shot. My 

 brother Moreton was not a good courtier, but, wishing 

 to please our Royal guest, of course it was my duty 

 to be so. A pheasant was flying over the boughs 

 of an ash tree ; his Royal Highness shot at it, and 

 probably one shot struck the beak. The pheasant spun 



VOL. II. 8 



