371 
THE  LATE  EARL  SPENCER. 
Born  October  27,  1835.  Died  August  13,  1910. 
The  House  of  Spencer  has  been  so  prominently  associated 
with  the  affairs  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  of  England 
since  its  first  inception  in  1838,  that  it  is  only  fitting  that  a 
brief  notice  should  appear  in  these  pages  of  John  Poyntz 
Spencer,  the  fifth  earl,  a nephew  of  the  third  earl,  who  was  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  Society  and  its  first  President. 
The  late  Lord  Spencer’s  estates  comprised  some  26,000 
acres,  situated  in  the  counties  of  Northampton,  Leicester, 
Warwick,  Buckingham,  Hertford,  Norfolk,  and  Flint,  some  of 
which  were  purchased  by  the  celebrated  Sarah,  Duchess  of 
Marlborough,  for  her  favourite  grandson,  the  Hon.  John 
Spencer,  whose  son  was  created  Earl  Spencer  and  Viscount 
Althorp  in  1765. 
When  the  bad  times  and  wet  cycle  of  years  began  in  1879, 
the  late  Earl  made  considerable  reductions  in  his  rents,  and 
expended  large  sums  of  money  in  drainage,  charging  no  interest 
on  the  outlay  to  his  tenants. 
The  estates  have  always  been  maintained  in  an  efficient 
state  of  repair,  even  in  the  bad  times.  An  interesting  account 
by  his  agent,  Mr.  A.  L.  Y.  Morley,  showing  how  Great 
Brington  and  Little  Brington — of  which  villages  the  late  Earl 
was  the  principal  landowner — were  supplied  with  water  raised 
by  wind  power,  appeared  in  the  Society’s  Journal  for  the  year 
1897.1 
An  address,  presented  to  Earl  Spencer  in  1907,  when  he 
had  completed  fifty  years’  ownership  of  the  family  estates, 
gave  expression  to  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  his 
tenants.  This  address — which  was  accompanied  by  a handsome 
silver  cup — contained  the  following  paragraph  : — 
“We  consider  ourselves  fortunate  in  being  your  tenants,  and  are  fully 
conscious  of  the  generous,  just,  and  efficient  manner  in  which  you  have 
always  carried  out  the  management  of  your  large  estates.  During 
your  ownership  of  them,  agriculture  has  experienced  very  considerable 
prosperity  and  the  greatest  depression  of  modern  times,  but  whether  in 
prosperity  or  adversity  you  have  always  acted  up  to  the  best  traditions 
of  your  family  by  showing  a strong  and  generous  sympathy  with  your 
tenantry,  which  not  even  the  severe  strain  of  the  great  agricultural 
depression  of  the  last  twenty-nine  years  could  affect.” 
1 “The  Use  of  Wind  Power  in  Village  Water  Supply,”  Vol.  58,  page  233 
R.A.S.E.  Journal. 
b b 2 
