ranging from 5s. to £1 for officers, while 1d. was all the privates were called on to pay. The testimonial was presented to the Duke of Richmond at a banquet in Willis's Rooms, with Lord Saltoun in the chair. It was of the following description: "On the summit of a quadrangular pedestal stood an allegorical group, representing the Duke of Richmond directing the attention of Britannia to the merits of her military and naval forces. In the centre stands his Grace, robed in the costume of a Peer, holding in his left hand a memorial to her Majesty, while with his right he points to the figures of Mars and Neptune. In the hand of Britannia is the war medal she is about to distribute." A panel at the base contained the following inscription: "Presented on the thirty-eighth anniversary of the battle of Vittoria, to his Grace the Duke of Richmond, K.G., by the recipients of the war medal, in grateful remembrance of his long and unwearied exertions on their behalf.”

With this crowning and complimentary tribute to a gallant and most estimable nobleman, I now bring this chapter to a close, briefly adding that, for many years before his death, his Grace was subject to frequent attacks of gout and other maladies, which in time undermined a not very robust constitution, somewhat impaired by privations and hardships endured in the Peninsula, in France, and in Belgium, and most of all by reason of the severe wound received at Orthez. At the

Goodwood Meeting in 1860 he was far from well, and unable to attend the races or to welcome his numerous guests with his customary hospitality. On the afternoon of the Cup day he was wheeled in his garden-chair to the lawn in front of the conservatory, and received his friends on their return from the course.

From Goodwood he proceeded to Gordon Castle by easy stages, where for a short time the Highland air produced such a favourable effect upon his debilitated frame that the anxiety of his devoted wife was greatly diminished. Soon, however, a change for the worse ensued, and Sir James Clarke advised an immediate return to London. In a state of deplorable weakness his Grace, attended by Dr Hair, arrived at his town house in Portland Place, where, at a quarter before two P.M. on Sunday, 21st October 1860, he breathed his last, in his seventieth year.

"Only the actions of the just

Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust."

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CHAPTER XVII.

RACING CAREER OF THE LATE RIGHT HON.

SIR WILLIAM H. GREGORY.

By the Editor.

THIS work was about to assume its final "form and pressure," previous to publication, when the death of Sir William H. Gregory, K.C.M.G., on Sunday, March 6, 1892, led me to address myself forthwith to the task-in this instance it is a labour of love of writing down what I know of my old friend's racing career. Sir William was born at Coole Park, County Galway, in 1817, and in 1839 was present at the Epsom Derby for the first time. Although no more than twentytwo years old when he saw his first Derby and bought his first race-horse, he was at once admitted to the best society in the United Kingdom, and soon became a prominent pillar of the English Turf. From about the year 1840 until the autumn of 1846, when Lord George Bentinck sold the whole of his racing stud to Mr

SIR W. H. GREGORY.

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Mostyn, Sir William Gregory was on the most intimate terms of friendship with the noble owner of Crucifix, Miss Elis, and Gaper. It seems, therefore, in the highest degree desirable and opportune that I should avail myself of the permission which on many occasions he accorded to me, authorising me, if I outlived him, to make what use I liked (when he had passed away) of the numerous letters which I had received from him, and of our still more numerous conversations on racing and political subjects. During his lifetime Sir William was averse from printed allusion to the Turf career which he had pursued with so much zeal and energy in his stirring youth. He had followed racing-and to a man who carries it on as he did, it seldom fails to become an all-absorbing and engrossing profession-with more courage than discretion. About that time Irish property had begun to decline so rapidly in value, that Sir William Gregory's Galway estates brought him in next to nothing. Nevertheless he remained on the Turf, always sticking to the same trainer- William Treen of Beckhampton, in Wiltshire-in the hope that another Clermont or another Loupgarou might arise to retrieve his shattered fortunes. It was not destined, however, that such a horse should again be vouchsafed to him, and his subsequent career, first as a member of Parliament from 1857 to 1872, and secondly, as Governor of Ceylon from 1872 to 1877, proved beyond all doubt

that when, in 1855, he broke down financially, and quitted the Turf for ever, it was the most fortunate circumstance that ever happened to him in a long and distinguished life.

A few words are all that I need devote to Sir William's parentage and station in life. Those who desire to read his early political experiences, as revealed by his own hand, have but to turn to the April, 1889, number of 'The Nineteenth Century,' where they will find an article from his pen, headed, "A Few more Words on Daniel O'Connell." In the autumn of the previous year there had appeared a work in two volumes entitled The Correspondence of Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator: edited, with Notices of his Life and Times, by W. J. Fitzpatrick, F.S.A.' There can be little doubt that the two volumes in question constitute the most remarkable work on Irish politics and history that has seen the light since the publication in 1859 of The Correspondence of Charles, First Marquis Cornwallis,' edited by Mr Charles Ross. These two books seem to have had a greater effect than any others upon the sensitive mind of Mr Gladstone, in inducing him to attempt to bestow Home Rule upon Ireland. What Mr Gladstone thought of The Correspondence of Daniel O'Connell' may be gathered from his striking article in the January, 1889, number of 'The Nineteenth Century.' One passage from it I will permit myself to quote: "There cannot but be many," writes Mr Glad