“The deceased nobleman was the third Earl of the second creation of the
title. He was born on the 27th of March, 1818, and was consequently
fifty-eight years of age when he died. He was educated at Westminster
and Trinity College, Cambridge, taking the degree of M.A. in 1838. In
1841, he entered the Life Guards as Cornet, and retired as Captain in
1854. From 1847 to 1872 he represented West Cumberland in Parliament in
the Conservative interest, and succeeded to the title of Earl of
Lonsdale upon the death of his uncle in 1872. He was Lord-Lieutenant
and Custos Rotulorum of Cumberland and Westmoreland, Hon. Colonel of
the Royal Cumberland Militia, and of Cumberland Rifle Volunteers, and
Lieutenant-Colonel of Westmoreland and Cumberland Yeomanry Cavalry.
“The Earl was patron of more than forty church livings in this diocese.
The following, forty-three in number, were, for the most part, wholly
at his disposal, and of course descend to his successor:—Aikton,
Armathwaite, Bootle, Bolton, Bowness, Brigham, Buttermere, Cockermouth,
Cleator, Corney, Distington, Embleton, Gosforth, Hensingham, Haile,
Kirkandrews-upon-Eden, Kirkbride, Lorton, Loweswater, Morseby, Mosser,
St. Bees, Threlkeld, Whicham, Whitbeck; St. James, Christ Church, St.
Nicholas, and Holy Trinity, Whitehaven; Askham, Bampton, Barton, Kirkby
Stephen, Lowther, Patterdale, Clifton, Ravenstondale, Shap, Startforth
(Yorkshire), Bampton Kirk, Orton, St. John’s-in-the-Vale, and
Crosthwaite.
“The late Lord Lonsdale never took a prominent public part in political
life, although he had a seat in the House of Commons for twenty-five
years; but he had won much personal popularity as a country gentleman.
In agriculture he was naturally interested, the rental of his landed
estates in Cumberland alone being over £40,000 a year, and in
Westmoreland nearly as much more; but it was that department concerning
the breeding of horses to which he turned most attention. In the
development of this taste he became an active member of the Turf. His
horse ‘King Lud’ won the Cesarewitch Stakes in 1873, and it was its
noble owner’s ambition to win the Cumberland Plate with it the
following year. An unfortunate accident, however, lost him the race,
and as in the previous year the breakdown of ‘The Preacher’ had also
proved a disappointment, he did not try again. But horse-racing was not
the only kind of sport with which the late Earl was closely connected.
In the hunting-field he was a popular M.F.H., but only the other day it
was announced that failing health had compelled him to say that he
could not after next season hunt the Cottesmore hounds, of which he has
held the mastership for six years.
“The remains of the deceased peer were removed to Lowther Castle on
Tuesday evening, and several members of the Town and Harbour Board
accompanied them from Whitehaven Castle to the railway station. The
hearse was followed by two mourning coaches, containing the Viscount
Lowther and Colonel Williams; Mr. R. A. Robinson, Mr. Mawson, and Mr.
Borthwick. After these followed servants in the employ of the late
lord, the trustees, and other inhabitants.
“The funeral will probably take place to-morrow or on Monday, at the
family mausoleum at Lowther.
“The flags on the public buildings of Whitehaven and Carlisle have
since Tuesday been displayed half-mast high.”—Carlisle Journal, August
18th, 1876.
The ‘Sportsman’ contains the following memoir of the late Lord Lonsdale
as a patron of the Turf:—“When he succeeded his uncle to the title of
Earl of Lonsdale in 1872, he relinquished his Parliamentary duties. It
was then that the observance of a very ancient custom devolved upon
him—that of giving a cup to be raced for on Burgh Marsh, the contest to
be confined to horses bred in the barony. The only occasions of race
meetings being held on the Marsh, or foreshores of the Solway, are when
there is a new Lord-Lieutenant of Cumberland, and from having assisted
at the meeting—the management of which was entrusted to Mr. Lawley—I
can well remember with what zeal his lordship entered into the rural
sports, and the graceful speech he made when he presented the cup to
Major Browne, who won with ‘The Crow,’ a son of ‘Grand Secret,’ that
had been travelling the county. It was the especial delight of Lord
Lonsdale that the winner was ridden by Jem Snowdon—a native of
Carlisle; and he presented the jockey with a handsome whip, and
complimented the Cumberland horseman on his riding. There were not less
than sixty thousand people present, and within almost a stone’s throw
of the Grand Stand was the monument put up to mark the spot where died
King Edward, who was on his way to Scotland when death overtook him.
Lord Lonsdale acted as steward of Carlisle Races for years, and he took
a great deal of interest in the meeting, as he also did in the local
gathering on Harras Moor, close to Whitehaven.”
IV. I am very grateful for the following piece of letter, (as for all
other kindness from the Companion to whom I owe it;) and really I think
it is “enough to make one give up wearing Valenciennes.”
“August 9th, 1876.
“My dear Master,—I have tried in vain to resist those words in the
August Fors,—‘some one tell me,’ but at last resolve to say my say,
trusting to your indulgence if it is in vain.
“Some years ago, a friend of mine visiting Brussels went over the Royal
Lace Manufactory, and seeing a woman busily at work on a very fine,
and, according to the then fashion, large, collar, went up to her, and
inquired how long she had been over this one piece. The woman answered,
four years; and handed the work for my friend to examine more closely,
but without changing her position, or lifting her eyes from the spot on
which they were fixed; and on being asked the reason of this, said it
would take too long time to have again to fix her eyes, so she kept
them to the one spot through all the working hours. This is quite true.
But the women were working in a large, light room—I doubt the
correctness of the dark cellar, and do not see the reason for it—but
all who have ever done any fine work can understand the loss of time in
moving the eyes. But, after all, is lace-making worse for women than
the ceaseless treadle movement of the sewing-machine? Lace-making hurts
eyes only; the machine injures the whole woman—so I am told.”
V. A letter from a Methodist minister, though written on the 14th, only
reaches me here at Venice on the 28th. It will appear in next Fors. The
gist of it is contradiction of Mr. Sillar’s statement that the
Wesleyans altered John Wesley’s rules. “The alterations, whether good
or bad,” (says my new correspondent,) “were made by himself.” I am not
surprised to hear this; for had Wesley been a wise Christian, there
would no more, now, have been Wesleyan than Apollosian ministers.