The Third Earl Sjpenccr. 
141 
Said : c; Alfchorp has been chiefly on the high-road between 
London and Northampton, flying from hunting to voting and 
from voting to hunting, in his usual way/' 
As the Master of the Pytehley he was very popular, for he 
spared neither time nor money in keeping up the character of 
the Hunt. He usually had about thirty hunters — the best that 
money could purchase ; his men were selected without regard to 
expense, and the whole establishment cost him from 4,000/. to 
5,000£. a year. 1 Though he maintained the reputation he had 
acquired at the University as a hard rider, he had but a loose 
seat, and met with frequent falls, dislocating his shoulder so 
often that he had a whipper-in instructed how to set it — an 
operation which the man had frequently to perform, for the joint 
became so liable to dislocation that it was once put out by 
merely throwing up the arm in leaping a fence. Lord Althorp's 
hunting journals, still preserved, are minutely descriptive of his 
runs with the hounds ; and his shooting records are equally 
precise, giving the result of every shot that he fired, although 
the record is by no means flattering to his skill. 
On his marriage and settlement on the Wiseton estate, 
consisting of some 2,000 acres, his lordship took the home farm 
into his own management, and, while still keeping a large stud, 
and maintaining his character as an eager sportsman, he also 
devoted close attention to agriculture and the breeding of stock. 
He greatly improved the property, spending some 10,000Z. on 
the transformation of the Hall into a delightful home, and 
building not only excellent farm-houses, but also labourers' 
cottages, each of which he restricted to the occupation of a single 
family. As for his domestic happiness, Sir Denis Le Marchant 
says that " a more attached and united couple than Lord and 
Lady Althorp perhaps never existed." Even during the Parlia- 
mentary session he lost no opportunity, however brief, of re- 
turning to Wiseton. The unclouded happiness of his married 
life was, however, destined to be but brief, for in June, 1818, 
to his lasting sorrow, Lady Althorp died in London, after giving 
birth to a stillborn son, their first child. 
It would be beyond the purpose of this narrative to notice in 
detail the steps which gradually led Lord Althorp, in spite of 
himself, to the leadership of the House of Commons, a position 
which he occupied during that most important period from the 
1 The present Earl Spencer writes that he has at Althorp a book in which 
Lord Althorp entered all the horses he bought, and how they were dealt with- 
On the first page of this book is a list of his yearly losses or gains by pur- 
chase and sale from the year 1803 to 1819. * " He only gains," says" Lord 
Spencer, " on the last three years." 
