JOHN OF THE HILL 



adopted the name of his maternal grandfather. It was the 

 fourth son of Lord George Manners-Sutton who became 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, and whose eldest son by his mar- 

 riage with Miss Thoroton was the well-known Speaker of the 

 House of Commons in the latter part of the reign of George 

 III., and was in due course raised to the peerage as Viscount 

 Canterbury. Thomas, a younger son of Lord George Man- 

 ners-Sutton, became the first Baron Manners, the present 

 holder of which title is best known to our generation as 

 having steered his horse Seaman to victory in the Grand 

 National, and as having been for one season master of the 

 Quorn. 



The third Duke inherited his grandfather's love for a 

 country life, though he did not stand altogether aloof from 

 the court or politics, as he was Lord Steward of the House- 

 hold and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. His heart, 

 however, was in his hounds and his pictures, for he was a 

 connoisseur of discernment, and began that fine collection of 

 paintings which was so largely added to by his grandson the 

 fourth Duke, and which suffered such irreparable loss at the 

 fire at the castle in 1816. It is said of the Duke that he 

 loved to buy a picture at an auction and carry it home him- 

 self, declaring that " no man deserved to have a good pic- 

 ture who would not carry it home." But the Duke did not 

 only love art, he valued learning for its own sake, and as 

 he grew older he seems to have felt a desire for a fuller and 

 more accurate knowledge of the classics. It may be that 

 his education had been neglected, but certain it is he 

 determined to go to school again. As his tutor he employed 

 Michael Maittaire, a scholar of considerable eminence, who 

 had been tutor to the Earl of Oxford, and was after- 

 wards chosen by Lord Chesterfield to superintend the 

 studies of his son Philip Stanhope. The intercourse between 

 the tutor and pupil was carried on chiefly by letters, and of 

 these some which are quoted later on will serve to show 

 at once the fondness of the Duke for fox-hunting, and to 

 reveal his character and that of his master. It is indeed 

 not a little curious to read the various contemporary criti- 



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