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We need scarcely remind our readers that Lord Aveland is also a good coachman, for his face is one that is constantly seen at the meets of the Four-in-Hand Club. He generally drives roans, and his team is as perfect as any to be seen at the Magazine.

VOL. XXVII.-No. 187.

S 2

BAILY'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE

OF

SPORTS AND PASTIMES.

LORD AVELAND.

GILBERT HENRY HEATHCOTE-DRUMMOND-WILLOUGHBY, second Baron Aveland, is descended on his father's side from the good old family of Heathcote, a name which has long been known in Lincolnshire. The racing colours of his grandfather, Sir Gilbert Heathcote, were very familiar to the men of his generation. His father was raised to the peerage in 1856, as Baron Aveland, after having served in the House of Commons for thirty-six years as M.P. for South Lincolnshire, and afterwards for Rutland. He married the eldest daughter and, after the death of her brother in 1871, the heiress of the 20th Baron Willoughby D'Eresby. The present peer was born in 1830, and after going through the usual educational cursus' at Harrow and Cambridge, entered Parliament as Member for Boston in 1852. He sat for that borough for four years, and then, in the next Parliament, was returned for Rutland, which county he continued to represent until called to the Upper House by his father's death in 1867.

Lord Aveland has not inherited the racing tastes of his grandfather, but there are few keener sportsmen in other ways. As soon as the deer-stalking season commences his Lordship is certain to be found with his rifle ready in the forest of Glenartney, the property of his mother, Baroness Willoughby D'Eresby. Here, amidst the picturesque scenery of strath, moor, and mountain, he renders a good account of the red deer. With the enjoyment he takes, not only in deer-stalking, but in other kinds of sport, Lord Aveland joins the more interesting and profitable occupation of farming, both in Scotland and on his estate in England.

We need scarcely remind our readers that Lord Aveland is also a good coachman, for his face is one that is constantly seen at the meets of the Four-in-Hand Club. He generally drives roans, and his team is as perfect as any to be seen at the Magazine.

VOL. XXVII.—No. 187.

S 2

In 1871 Lord Aveland was appointed to exercise the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England, as deputy for his mother, the Baroness Willoughby D'Eresby, and in 1872 he assumed, by royal licence, the additional surnames of Willoughby and Drummond-a blood quartering such as few noble families can boast. He is Chairman of Quarter Sessions for the division of Kesteven, South Lincolnshire, having succeeded the late Lord Kesteven in that post.

In 1863 his Lordship married Lady Evelyn Elizabeth Gordon, a sister of the present Marquis of Huntly, by whom he has a young family.

In a sketch like this it were invidious to mention the many sterling qualities which have made Lord Aveland beloved by all who know him. It is at Normanton Park, his residence near Stamford, where he is to be seen in that capacity which, after all, best becomes an English gentleman-endeavouring to fulfil the duties of his position with earnestness and ability.

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ANXIOUS to renew our acquaintance with the Nestor of British stud worthies, King Tom; to pay our respects to Macaroni in his new home; and to mark how it had fared with Favonius, since we looked him over before he took silk' for his last race in '73, we readily availed ourselves of the firman granting concession to revisit the Palace of the Vale once again, and to inspect the treasures of the animal kingdom collected under Markham's charge at Crafton. Swarthy mowers bent to their sweeping scythe strokes 'down Harrow way,' where the aftermath was drying in rich swathes; or the machine,' with the clatter as from a chorus of corncrakes, laid out the grass decently, like an Irish corpse, to be duly waked' in the rejoicings of harvest home. Further on the wood-pigeons held high revels among the stooks of corn, and the partridge led her precocious covey a-field, minding us of the Greek poet's ancient taunt against the kid cropping the vine, which should yet yield grapes sufficient to yield wine for the libation at his sacrifice. So that brown-shaded family might grow plump on the fallen grain, but enough should be garnered in to make bread sauce for their dainty limbs. A 'summer crisp with shining woods' lay on the leafy slopes of Ashridge, with the boundary column rising like a sentinel in their midst, and emerging at last from the hidden bases of the hills penetrated by the smoky tunnel, the Vale' in all its autumn glory lies before us; and yonder, 'bosom'd high in tufted trees' the airy towers and fantastic pinnacles of Mentmore rising clear cut against the blue sky from the laurel-shaded slopes at their feet. April appeared to have usurped the reign of August, storm and sunshine chasing one another in mad career over the chequered landscape; and though no full-fed

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' river' wound silently through emerald pastures and amber breadths of grain, we could realise the poet's description of

'The ragged rims of thunder brooding loud,
With shadow streaks of rain.'

Time has flown quickly enough since the merry days of the ' Baron's year,' when Hayhoe was well-nigh tired of leading winners of the great races back to scale, and the tidings of one brilliant success after another were carried from down and heath to the juvenile repository at Crafton. Since that golden era a dark shadow has fallen upon the Vale, and we miss one well-known form from the morning parade at Newmarket, the well-known box at Ascot, and the sylvan shades of Goodwood's saddling paddock. Men who were readiest with ill-natured taunts against the in-and-out running of more than one of the Rothschild cracks, are ready to turn their faces to the wall in these days of actual and not imputed grievances; when pariahs of the betting ring take up their parable against the riding of horses which do not suit their books; and when high-minded and straightforward invalids hand over their horses to professional layers to do as they please with.

But subjects such as these disappear, like morning headaches, under the sweet influence of fresh country air, and with the prospect of a day to be spent among the heroes and heroines of races past,' the mention of whose names calls up many a stirring incident over which the light of other days sheds a glamour not its own. Talk of the Elysian fields and happy pastures! there is a transition state between the cares of active racing life and those fabled post obitum habitations; and what Derby conqueror or maid of the Oaks could not find contentment and peace in these happy blossoming plains,' where the bee wanders from one succulent stem to another, and each hedgerow is redolent of flowers and prodigal in song? But the white gate springs back behind us, and our guide strides jauntily along, with an anecdote at every turn, and legends galore of the racing fortunes of the family during the score of years of his service among them.

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Fetlock deep in clover ranged the mothers of the flock, most of them bearing historical names in racing or stud annals, and carrying us back to the golden prime of good Harem Alraschid,' when dark blue and yellow cap bore its part in every contest of note, and the cry rang through the land from Danum to Sussex strongholds of sport that the Baron wins.' Maid Marian ruminates beneath the greenwood tree,' and close beside her relative the slashing Mahonia, who brought Kingcraft to such almighty grief up the Ascot hill, and woke the fielders to ecstasies when Mentmore came to the rescue on its favourite vantage ground. The foals of both are of the true Favonius stamp, combining substance with quality, and showing the well-laid shoulders, short back, well-arched ribs, and massive quarters of the chestnut Derby hero of 1870. Yonder comes trippingly along the bay heroine of that annus mirabilis, looking quite a

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