408 THE DUKE'S DIFFK'UI/riES 



ceased to maintain a house; I nit when he went there 

 he made an arrangement with one of his friends, 

 who undertook for a stipulated sum to provide a daily 

 dinner for His Grace and a certain number of guests 

 whilst he remained in town. He also made occasional 

 visits to his fine estate of Ashridge, in Buckingham- 

 shire, taking the opportunity of spending a few days, 

 going or coming, with Earl Gower and his Countess, 

 the Duke's only sister, Lady Louisa Egerton. The 

 Countess Gower seems to have borne considerable re- 

 semblance to her brother in force of character as well 

 as in other respects. It is related of her that when her 

 husband was ambassador at the French Court, during 

 the outbreak of the Revolution in 1792, the Countess 

 was courageously kind to the then members of the French 

 King's family who were confined in the Temple, and 

 consequently exposed her lord to the fury of the mob. 

 A Swiss had been the medium of these kindly acts, and 

 the mob sought the Swiss at the Earl's hotel for the 

 purpose of cutting off his head. The authorities offered 

 the ambassador a guard, which he refused, on the high 

 ground of being protected by his character ; but he took 

 care to write in large letters over his door Hotel de VAm- 

 bassadeur & Angleterre. The Countess, describing these 

 alarming circumstances to a friend in England at the 

 time, concluded thus : " Now we have done all we can ; 

 and if the mob attacks us now, it is their concern, not 

 ours." l During his visits at Trentham, the Duke would 

 get ensconced on a sofa in some distant corner of the 

 room in the evenings, and discourse earnestly to those 

 who would listen to him about the extraordinary ad- 

 vantages of canals. There was a good deal of fun made 

 on these occasions about "the Duke's hobby." "But lie 

 was always like a fish out of water until he got back to 



1 See the 'Auckland Journal and j of the late Marl <>!' Kllcsmere and the 

 Correspondence, I860.' The noble late Duke oi Sutherland. 



lady here referred to was grandmother ! 



