2 
Sir Nigel Kingscote. 
But I subsequently showed my friend, who, being the 
author of a book was on the Journal Committee, a passage 
which I had quoted from Greville’s Memoirs when writing in 
this Journal, in 1890, 1 a biography of the third Earl Spencer, 
better known in politics as Lord Althorp ; and we were agreed 
that Sir Nigel Kingscote might be regarded in many respects 
as a re-incarnation of Lord Spencer. What Charles Greville 
wrote in his diary within a few days of the death, on October 1, 
1845, of the first President of this Society, may be fitly applied 
to the fortieth President, who died on September 22, 1908, and 
I therefore again quote his words here : — 
“ No man ever died with a fairer character, or more generally regretted. 
In his county he was exceedingly beloved and respected, and his personal 
friends, who were warmly attached to him, highly valued his opinions upon 
public matters, and on all important occasions anxiously sought and placed 
great reliance upon his advice. His career presents few materials to the 
biographer, but he had sterling qualities of mind and character which made 
him one of the most useful and valuable, as he was one of the best and most 
amiable men of his day. He was the very model and type of an English 
gentleman, tilling with propriety the station in which fortune had placed him, 
and making the best use of the abilities which Nature had bestowed upon him. 
“ Modest without diffidence, confident without vanity, ardently desiring 
the good of his country, without the slightest personal ambition, he took that 
part in public affairs which his station and his opinions prompted, with a 
straightforward bravery which was the result of sincerity, singleness of 
purpose, the absence of all selfishness, and a true, genuine, but unpretending 
patriotism. His tastes, habits, and turn of mind were peculiarly and 
essentially English ; he was a high-minded, unaffected, sensible, well-educated 
English gentleman, addicted to all those rural pursuits and amusements which 
are considered national ; a practical farmer, and fond of field sports, but 
enjoying all things in moderation, and making every other occupation 
subordinate to the discharge of those duties to his country, whether general or 
local, the paramount obligation of which was ever uppermost in his mind. 
His friends followed this plain and simple man with enthusiastic devotion, and 
he possessed the faculty of disarming his antagonists of all bitterness and 
animosity towards him.” 2 
In fact, Sir Nigel Kingscote was, like Lord Spencer and 
Philip Pusey, the first Editor of this Journal, an excellent 
type of a fine body of men — the old country gentleman M.P. 
As Lord Welby — a close and attached friend of Sir Nigel — 
says in a letter to me which I am permitted to quote : 
“ They ranged over many shades of character, from men of 
restricted ideas to men who could, like Pusey, hold their 
own in any generation, but they had a common quality of 
upright gentlemen, not swayed by pettifogging interests.” 
Sir Nigel Kingscote was a scion of one of the oldest 
families in the Kingdom — the Kingscotes of Kingscote, who 
trace their pedigree back to a period (985 A.D.) before the 
1 R.A.S.E. Journal for 1890, Part I., pp. 138-153. 
The Greville Memoirs, Yol. V. (Ed. 1888), pp. 301-4. 
