THE BRITISH PEERAGE.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 34, 26 January 1884, Page 7

THE BRITISH PEERAGE.

I^^ , . A curious incident has just occurred in connection with the British peerage. Lord Gardner died the other day, at the age of 73. He w.cS mainly remarkable t'oi' Itis feats in the hunting- Held. On one occasion the celebrated Lord Cardigan and he attempted to swim the Whissendine in full Hood in the course of a spirited run. The hero of Balaclava barely escaped with his life, his horse being drowned, lint Lord Gardner got across all right, though he lust his stirrup*, and he i actually rode a long- day in his wet saddle without any stirrup'?, and killed, alone in hi.s glory, at Croxton. He was a mighty hunter to the end, but was not otherwise famous. Now, it happened that Lord t Gardner was an only son, and that he novor had a son. He succeeded his father when he was five years old, find that father had succeeded his father only six }*cars before. Thus for more than "half a contmy this peerage has belonged in expectancy to distant relatives of its holder, one aftei another, sailors or soldiers all of them, for the Gardners are a fighting race, seeking their fortunes as best they might lin "nrinus parts of the world. One pecu-in-ity L try had. wlndi furnishes the point !ni onr n inative. Thrv preferred coloured '.idies lv white. Allan Gardner, nephew • f t.'ic h'i>t Lord Gardner, married an j indiin |.ri i';e«.s, aud hud a daughter ua*.i"d Ilviiu >i»z ••' Uf^iini. liiduecour-ie, Stewart Wi li.vii ( r-iidiicr. a fire-'ah'ng liidim ofKc -r, miii of Admiral G.'rdiuer, who w i.s inele of th" late Lord Gardner, ami asM in irried to a native lady. mairu'd tlii- half-ca-te cuiiMn of his. Hjimoozee died maii^ yeai ago, bill not till she had bonie four du>l<y m-us aud a daughter. All these fom- yon-, m.tt lied native ladies, t vn of them princesses of the royal House of D« lln. By the death of the old fu\Im nter, this St«-\vart \\ .Ilium Gardner has become Lord Gai Iner, and the peerage which Put created 66 year*, ago to reward his grundfather'b services under Lord Howe on the "glorious Fir^t of June," has pu&sed into u lino of Eura&iau.s, who in the next generation at all events, will be much more black than white. The ancient Earldom of Stamford recently fell to a poor old schoolmaster at the Cape who married a Kaffir woman, and who, if we mistake m,t, has a promising little nigger son and heir. Jf the obscure scions of the peerage go on this rate, the House of Lonis will come in time to resemble a Christy Minstrel*' Lroupe !— Exchange.