CHAP. III. Till-: ]>ri<K <>F J'.IMlMIKWATKR. 337 



\v 1 1 i( -1 1 sti 11 forms part of the Bridgewater collection. The 

 Duke also purchased works of sculpture at Eome ; but 

 that IK- himself entertained no great enthusiasm for art is 

 evident from the fact related by the late Earl of Elles- 

 mere, that tl iese works remained in their original packing- 

 cases until after his death. 1 



Returned to England, he seems to have led the usual 

 life of a gay young nobleman of the time, with plenty of 

 money at his command. In 1756, when he was only 

 twenty years of age, he appears from the ' Racing Calen- 

 dar ' to have kept race-horses ; and he occasionally rode 

 them himself. Though in after life a very bulky man, 

 lit 1 was so light as a youth, that on one occasion, Lord 

 Ellesmere says a bet was jokingly offered that he would 

 be blown off his horse. Dressed in a livery of blue 

 silk and silver, with a jockey cap, he once rode a race 

 against His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, 

 on the long terrace at the back of the wood in Trentham 

 Park, the seat of his relative, Earl Gower. During His 

 Royal Higlmess's visit, the large old green-house, since 

 taken down, was hastily run up for the playing of skittles ; 

 and prison-bars and other village games were instituted 

 for the recreation of the guests. Those occupations of 

 the Duke were varied by an occasional visit to his racing- 

 stud at Newmarket, where he had a house for some time, 

 and by the usual round of London gaieties during the 

 season. 



A young nobleman of tender age, moving freely in 

 circles where were to be seen some of the finest speci- 

 mens of female beauty in the world, could scarcely be 

 expected to pass heart-whole ; and hence the occurrence 

 of the event in his London life which, singularly enough, 

 is said to have driven him in a great measure from 

 society, and induced him to devote himself to the con- 



1 ' K>xiys iii History, liio^rapliy, I tlir late Karl of Ellesmere. London, 

 Geography, Knuimvniiii/ &c. By | 1858. P. 226. 



VOL. I. Z 



