A RAKE'S PROGRESS.
Lord St. Leonard's case excites little surprise. Since he succeeded to n seat in the House of Peer;) his time has been occupied in finding means to gratify the tastes of a millionaire on the income of a crossing sweeper. His family allowed him £4O a-year, and though his skill as a billiard player and pigeon shot added something to this sum, yet everybody foresaw that his path lay straight for the Old Bailey dock, which no peer has occupied for many years, The title won him a wife. His family plumed themselves on arranging a match with Miss Dashwood, who had £IOO,OOO in her own right. But with the sudden accession of wealth the new peer began to indulge eccentrb tastes, His favorite companions were jockeys and pigeon fanciers; his favorite resort was the shady villas of St. John's Wood. Elected a member of the Carlton Club, he lent the weight of his presence to a tew decates, then subsided into orgies which landed him first in the Divorce Court, and lastly in bankruptcy. Thenceforth his decadence was complete. Shunned by his friends he engaged a small lodging at Richmond, where the billiard tables are many and the skill of the players slight. For a short time the rustics were proud to lose money to a peer of the realm. Then ugly rumors about him ran round the town, Hotels and bars closed their doors against him, Barmaids ran away at his approach, He had not absolutely a penny in the world when chance threw him in the path of Mr Samuel Crawford, of Twickenham, who had been a miner in California, and a sheepfarmer in Australia, and, being a genial person, he invited tho bankrupt peer into his house, and plied him with liquor and hospitality. Lord St. Leonards drank the liquors and repaid the hospitality by seducing a maid. On February 3, last year, was heard the divorce case of St. Leonards v. St Leonards. The President of the Court decreed a judicial separation, and gave Lady St, Leonards the custody of their child.
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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1745, 25 July 1884, Page 2
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350A RAKE'S PROGRESS. Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1745, 25 July 1884, Page 2
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