242 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



Lord Granville's stories gained enormously, of course, 

 by the telling restraint of his ' raconteur ' style, which 

 had a certain dryness and bouquet not to be surpassed, 

 so it is perhaps as well that I only remember one of them. 

 Lord Granville had bought a very expensive horse from 

 Anderson. Some little time after he met Anderson and said 

 to him, ' Well, you know the price was quite extravagant, but 

 I am bound to say the horse is worth it.' Anderson made a 

 little bow and said, * I can assm:e you, my lord, your approval 

 is our only profit in the transaction.' 



In a speech which Lord Granville made many years ago 

 at a farmers' dinner at Windsor, he went back to the pleasant 

 days when he hunted the Queen's Hounds, and he told them 

 that Mr. Disraeli had taunted Lord John Kussell with having 

 taken a young riding peer all boot and spur and pitched him 

 into the prosaic office of the Board of Trade. His political 

 services to his generation and to his party are in no danger 

 of being forgotten. Speaking from recollection, I think one 

 of the most persuasive speeches made on our side at the fever 

 point of the first Home Rule crusade and cleavage was made 

 by Lord Granville at Manchester. There he was amongst 

 old friends and brave associations. In 1851, Lord Granville 

 was sworn in as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a 

 rapid promotion. Madame de Lieven wrote ' in transports 

 of joy ' of the appointment. ' Granville,' she writes, 'is very 

 popular at Manchester and with the Free Traders, which 

 is a great thing.' In 1855 he became the Leader of the 

 Liberal Party in the House of Lords, a position which in 

 the face of hopeless odds he felicitously held for thirty-six 

 years without interruption. I can speak from grateful experi- 

 ence of the kindness and encouragement he knew how to 

 bestow upon those who, like myself, succeeded very young, 

 and knew very few people. Addison's Tory fox-hunter was of 

 opinion that being able to talk French was prejudicial to a 



