THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 231 



occupied the chair, the Earl of Charlemont, the Earl 

 of Pembroke, James Gandon (6) a member of com- 

 mittees, and a very regular attendant, Lord Cloncurry 

 (7), Mr. Benjamin Lee Guinness (8), and Dr. John 

 Anster. 



1. "Coke of Norfolk," the son of Robert Wenman, 

 was born in 1752 ; on succeeding to the estates of his 

 maternal uncle, Thomas, Earl of Leicester, he assumed the 

 name of Coke. He was elected member of Parliament for 

 Norfolk in 1776, a seat which he held almost continuously 

 up to 1833. Coke was created Earl of Leicester in 1837. 

 When he became owner of the estates they were unen- 

 closed, and the system of cultivation on them was wretched. 

 On taking up farming, he collected round him a number of 

 practical men, who advised with him, and within the years 

 1778-1787, the land had so much improved that he might 

 be said to have converted West Norfolk into a wheat-grow- 

 ing country. He became a noted breeder of stock, and is 

 believed to have raised his rental from a little over 2000 

 to .20,000 a year. Over ^100,000 were laid out in farm- 

 houses and buildings. Coke's portrait, by Gainsborough, in 

 his broad-brimmed hat, shooting jacket and long boots, in 

 which costume he is said to have presented an address to 

 King George the Third, is well known. Lord Leicester 

 died in 1842. 



2. Sir Benjamin Bloomfield was born in 1768, and, 

 entering the army, became a lieutenant-general and A. B.C. 

 to King George the Fourth, whose private secretary he was 

 for some time up to the year 1822, when he was sent as 

 minister plenipotentiary to Stockholm. In 1825 Bloom- 

 field was created Baron Bloomfield. In 1884 Georgina, 

 Lady Bloomfield, published a memoir of Lord Bloomfield, 

 her husband's father, who had died in 1846. He was 

 owner of estates near Newport, co. Tipperary. 



3. William Downes was born at Donnybrook, near 

 Dublin, in 1752. He became member of Parliament for 

 Donegal, and in 1792 was appointed a Justice of the King's 



