arl of Stamford 597 



Warrington, and immediately afterwards went up to 

 Trinity College, Cambridge. There he distinguished 

 himself as a cricketer, athlete, and boxer. Above the 

 middle height, with well-knit, powerful frame and a 

 singularly handsome face, every feature of which wore 

 the stamp of aristocratic birth and breeding, Ix>rd 

 Stamford was one of the most attractive and remarkable 

 figures among the undergraduates of his time. His 

 career at Cambridge was short, but it was unfortunately 

 long enough to affect very seriously his after life. For 

 he formed an attachment there to the daughter of a 

 " g v P " at Trinity, a man who had been a shoemaker by 

 trade, and he married her soon after he came of age 

 a mesalliance which, fortunately for his happiness, was 

 terminated by the death of his wife six years after 

 the marriage. 



He was not the first nor the last of his race whose 

 marriage was unfortunate. Nearly two hundred years 

 before, his ancestor, the second Earl, narrowly escaped 

 a tragic death at the hands of his justly infuriated 

 spouse. This Lady Stamford was a famous beauty 

 whose charms have been immortalised by the brush of 

 Lely. In a MS. satire in verse, entitled "The Ladies' 

 Mask," which bears date February isth, 1681, some of 

 her peculiarities are thus hit off by the satirist : 



Stamford's Countess led the van, 

 Tallest of the caravan 

 She who nere wants white or red, 

 Nor just pretence to keep her bed. 



The Countess, however, was not to blame for the 

 differences between herself and her husband. He 



