BAILY'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE

OF

SPORTS AND PASTIMES.

MR. HENRY LOWTHER.

AMONG those members of the Jockey Club, who, without coming prominently before the public, have proyed themselves valuable allies in the cause of good government on the Turf, the above gentleman stands very conspicuous. And although never the owner of a large stud of horses, his fondness for the sport, upright character, and high social position, will, we are satisfied, cause his portrait to be regarded as a welcome addition to our Gallery of Illustration. The Lowther family, from whence the subject of our memoir is descended, is one of the oldest and most distinguished in the Border Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland. In the rude times of chivalry and civil war, their feats in arms have furnished as many materials for the minstrel, as their acts of government have done for the historian. The first ancestor of Mr. Lowther, of whose career any authentic record appears, is Sir Richard Lowther, who was High Sheriff of Cumberland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and who succeeded his cousin, Lord Scrope, as Lord Warden of the Marches. He was also one of the Three Commissioners for England and Scotland; and in 1568 had Mary Queen of Scots in custody at Workington. But from his kindness of heart, having admitted the Duke of Norfolk to her presence, he incurred the displeasure of his Sovereign, and was for some time out of favour. Since then the Lowther family have gradually increased their possessions, and three-fourths of the Counties we have mentioned may be said to belong to them; while the high offices attached to them have also been under their control and nomination.

Mr. Henry Lowther, who forms the illustration of our present number, is the eldest son of Mr. Henry Cecil Lowther, M. P. for Westmoreland, and Lady Lucy Lowther, eldest daughter of the Earl of Harborough. Mr. Lowther, whose career we are now entering upon, was born in London in 1818, and was educated at Westminster, where he was contemporary with the present Duke of Richmond and Lord George Paget. Having completed the VOL. VIII.-NO. 54.

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first portion of his studies at that ancient seminary, he proceeded to the University of Cambridge, and as a proof that we have not exag gerated his abilities, we may instance, that in 1838 he took his M.A. degree at Trinity, before he was twenty-one, and was thus enabled to vote for Lord Lyndhurst, as Chancellor of the University, before he could exercise his elective franchise for a Member of Parliament. On quitting Cambridge, Mr. Lowther entered the 1st Life Guards, in which corps he served fourteen years, quitting it as Senior Captain. In 1847 he was elected for the Western Division of Cumberland, and has ever since remained its representative in Parliament, consistently advocating the Conservative views of his family.

The Nephew of a winner of the Derby (for Lord Lowther, now Lord Lonsdale, won the Derby in 1831 with Spaniel by Lapdog might be expected to take naturally to the Turf, and hence he found his way into the Jockey Club at a much earlier age than it was then usual to elect candidates. His University reputation soon began to tell in his favour, and the benefit of his advice and counsel was eagerly sought for in matters of grave doubt and difficulty, for never betting beyond the merest trifle, his opinions were less likely to be biassed than those of a more speculative disposition.

In 1844 and 1845 Mr. Lowther acted as Steward of the Jockey Club in conjunction with General Peel, when The Ban case excited so much sensation; and since that time, although not in office, he has been one of the most sedulous attendants at the Meetings of the Club, and one of the soundest of its advisers. In the discovery of the Ascot frauds Mr. Lowther also took a most prominent part. And to him, in conjunction with his friend Captain Seymour, the racing world is indebted for the peculations in question being brought before Admiral Rous, who, as Steward of the Jockey Club, dealt with the offending party in the manner he deserved, and raised the Ascot Meeting to the high pitch of prosperity which it at present enjoys. Mr. Lowther's racing career as an owner of horses commenced in 1842, with Sir Fretful by Jerry out of Petulance, whom he pur chased of Lord Orford, and with whom, ridden by Mr. Oliver of the Blues, he won the Brigade Stakes at Gorhambury. In 1845 he gave the Hon. Colonel Berkeley his first mount and win on Scarmentado in the same race. In 1848, after he had been "plating" round Newmarket with Lyons, he won the Stewards' Cup at Goodwood with The Admiral, whom he bought as a yearling of Mr. John Smythe, the present M.P. for York. His next useful slave was Chapelgowrie, who made a name for himself in the provinces.

In 1850 Mr. Lowther won the three first Queen's Plates he ever started for, as well as the Gold Cup at Stamford, with The Gent by The Nob out of Corinna. animal who did him any good; but it was only in a small way. Watchdog was the next He was again very quiet until 1851, when we find him winning the Queen's Plate and Stewards' Cup at Stamford with Rackapelt. Since then, Mr. Lowther, who began and finished with Joe Rogers and his son Sam, has had no horses in training, but should he,

when in the natural course of events the Earldom of Lonsdale comes to him, begin afresh, and again take to keeping a stud, we have every reason for thinking he will not desert the family which for the last thirty years has served his family so faithfully, and we only hope fortune has better luck in store for him. Retirement from the service, we should add, has by no means quenched Mr. Lowther's old love for his profession of arms; as, to keep his hand in, he has acted since that time as Major of the Westmoreland and Cumberland Yeomanry Cavalry, and as honorary Colonel of the Cumberland Rifle Volunteers.

In the Hunting World, Mr. Lowther has taken quite as good a position as in the racing circles, having hunted from the age of five with Lord Lonsdale, who had the Cottesmore country for fifty years, without taking a shilling of subscription. Mr. Lowther confines himself to the Cottesmore, the Quorn, and Mr. Tailby, and ninetyfour days' hunting which he enjoyed in so bad a season as that of last year is admitted to be, is a proof that his heart is in the sport, and in the right place. And lest his horses should be misused, after he has done with them, he invariably shoots them. In conclusion, we may observe that Mr. Lowther is one of those model country gentlemen who without obtrusiveness are the safeguards of the society in which they move. Without guile himself, he is loth to suspect it in others; but when called upon to act in authority, he knows full well how to temper justice with mercy. And should he, when he attains the position to which he is born, embark on the troubled sea of Turf Politics, and come forward with a Reform Bill equal to the exigencies of the times, he is certain to find himself at the head of so strong a party as to be enabled to carry all before him. Mr. Lowther, we should add, was married in 1852 to Miss Caulfield, daughter of Mr. St. George Caulfield, by whom he has several children.

ETON AND HARROW; OR, PEARLS BEFORE SWINE.

BY THE GENTLEMAN IN BLACK.

I AM not speaking of my own writing; far from it; but of the subject-matter. When we throw down the Public School System as a bone of contention, although almost every or anybody will assist in gnawing it, how very few are capable of picking it clean! One seldom takes up a book on the most ordinary matter without meeting some crude, undigested, and equally indigestible remarks upon Eton, Harrow, Winchester, or Rugby. These are the offspring of prejudice, or of ignorance; and it is as impossible to enter into the feelings of those who are connected with the great schools of this country, without having participated in the education, as to appreciate the delicacies of apricot jam by a description of onions and bacon. Good sense has nothing to do with it. A man may be

the most rational person alive, and not understand the advantages of Eton, or the peculiar excellencies of an Eton boy. Clever men have tried it, and failed: and so they will fail (unless they have themselves gone through the mill) to appreciate the charms of Byron's tomb (I do not mean at Missolonghi), and the numberless reminiscences of a Harrow life. Men, unconnected with the system, cannot give credit to the exceptional phases of school life, the fagging, the discipline (as by prefects, monitors, or prepositors), the apparent absence of hard work, and the necessity of hard play, the cribbing, the mutual help, and that peculiar code of honour, which goes so far towards making the man, by the exercise of character in a world of boyhood. It would be difficult to conceive the mistakes which able men have made in discussing these points, were it not palpably before us in daily pages of reports, weekly and monthly publications, and in the ludicrous inanities of hundreds of our contemporaries. It is much the same as the inquiries of a foreigner into our Turf system, before the close connection of France and England in this respect; and which must be concluded by a perma nent alliance offensive and defensive, since the flattering imitation of English tactics by M.M. Lagrange and Vaillant, and our own countrymen, Lamplugh and Collins. They know quite enough of our tactics now to be left to themselves, nor can we compliment them upon the modesty with which they have exhibited their learning.

The writers on public school matters have not yet profited so far, nor entered thus into a participation of those mysteries. As yet it remains a Shibboleth. The readers of Baily' know all about it; if not, this is certainly not the place to state why our youths—that is, a certain number of them-are allowed to emerge from an anomalous position, which is asserted to have every disadvantage, with considerably more than an average capability for holding their and own, a most mortifying admiration for its very vices. There seems to be something quite refreshing in the notion, that we public school fellows, old and young, are very like the hot cockles, who were said to be singing while their houses were burning; that we love even flogging, not because we seem to have deserved it, so much as that it is a remnant of a vile and debased system, to which we cling. That we like our boy to be well thrashed occasionally, and especially, if he be a marquis, that he should fetch and carry, lay the cloth for his master, occasionally brush his clothes, boil his coffee and his eggs, do other offices of a clever retriever (such as I once saw in my young days at the house of the Flying Captain in Oxfordshire), and be taken care of, and have his verses done for him in return. "Ah! verses! by the way, that's one of the possible crimes of these seminaries, I believe; and I don't think Baily' will stand a long jobation about longs and shorts, or Greek iambics; he rather goes for the muscular Christianity and physical development part of the business, and he certainly knows what his readers like better than I do. I shall come to that, of course, by-and-by. An article here,

without something about the cricket match, and the shooting at Wimbledon, for the 1st of August, would be as bad as Shakespeare's tercentenary without Hamlet-the part left out by particular desire.

But just to give some notion of a man's impression about fagging, and public school cribbing, and shirking, with two or three other matters of the same kind, I will quote the substance of a most approved and popular writer, the author of 'Breakfast in Bed.' I wish I had the book here, but I have not, nor can I get it, and the printer's devil is in a hurry for this MS.; but you must read it for yourself-perhaps you have. After abusing the unhappy boys brought up under a system which teaches as right, and inculcates and practises a regular education of dishonesty towards masters and schoolfellows, and denouncing the whole business as cordially as we should denounce the murder of Mr. Briggs, or any other horrible atrocity, he falls foul of the fagging and bullying system; and enlightens his readers (and he really has many, and there are some good things in his books too,) by stating his own course of action under such a terrible infliction. Really I'm almost afraid to mention it, for I know Eton and Harrow fellows do read Baily' when they have a spare minute from their aforesaid Greek iambics; and if they should adopt the same view of what we all are used to regard as an innocent amusement! Well, he says (the author I mean) that if anyone had presumed to strike him, or tyrannise over him, who had been bigger or stronger than he, (and I dare say he is but a very moderate hand with his mawleys, by the way he talks,) he would have gone out and bought a pistol, loaded it to the top with bullets, slugs, and other quiet inoffensive matter of the same kind, and shot the tyrant on the spot. I dare say some of you young urchins that were making that disgraceful row at Lord's last Saturday three weeks will laugh I can only assure you of its truth. I've told you the book, and you may look for yourselves, for I can't tell you the page: I have not seen it for months; but this sanguinary determination made a great impression upon me, as it probably will upon you. He would have shot the young tyrant dead upon the spot! He must have been a very nice fellow to go to school with. I wonder where it was; for I should like to avoid that seminary for any of the little Gentlemen in Black' who may want birching. It might have been St. Omers; I'm sure it is a foreign sentiment; and I only introduce it to give you some idea of the warm appreciation and simple comprehension of a pet foible, by an otherwise able man. I have no doubt in my own mind that a man who would make a pun would pick a pocket; but I am not prepared to go the same length with regard to the boy that would crib the last half of a short line. The difference between the two strikes us as material.

'Who steals my purse steals trash.’

Well now! that's a sentiment, a very pretty sentiment; but it depends entirely upon how much the purse has in it. To be sure there are purses which come under that category. Purses which are