The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-07 00:00:00

DEATH OF MR. GEORGE PAYNE.

The death is announced, after a brief illness, of
this well-known patron of the Turf. Early on Satur-
day morning, the 10th ult., he was struck by paralysis
while in bed at his hotel in Brighton, and on the
same day he was removed to his residence in London.
His condition was at once recognised as most
precarious, and though everything that medical skill
and knowledge could suggest was done for him, it all
proved of no avail, and on Monday morning at half.
past eleven o'clock he breathed his last at his
residence, 16,, Queen-street, Mayfair. Mr. Payne, of
Thorp Lubenham, Market Harborough, in the county
of Northampton, who was a deputy-lieutenant for the
county, was the only son of Mr. George Payne, of
Sulby Hall, in the same county, by May Eleanor,
daughter of Mr. R. W. Grey, of Backworth Manor,
Northumberland, and was a descendant of one of the
oldest families in Northamptonshire, a county as re-
nowned for its sportsmen as Yorkshire. He was
born in 1804, and losing his father at an early
age, Mr. George Payne dying in 1810, he had
the benefit of a lengthened minority. He wes edu-
cated at Eton and at Christ Church College, Oxford.
In 1826, the year following the attainment of his
majority, he served the office of High Sheriff. De-
ceased throughout the whole of his long life was
passionately devoted to sport in all its branches; and
though he never achieved any great success as an
owner of racehorses, he was at no time without a few
of them in training, and if his own colours were not
themselves often successful, the stable with which he
was connected has scored many victories of late years.
St. Albans won the Great Metropolitan !Stakes, the
Chester Cup, and Doncaster St. Leger in 1860, and
Aventuribre the Cesarewitch in 1874 and the Goodwood
Cup in 1875 for Lord Ailesbury, while Mr. Stirling-
Crawford has secured half the Two Thousand Guineas
in 1868 with Moslem, the whole of that prize in 1873
with Gang Forward, the St. Leger of 1875 with Crag
Millar, and this year's Derby with Sefton. Mr.
Payne did not appear in the hunting-field of late
years; but as a young man he was one of the
boldest and best performers across country in an
age which knew the present Lord Wilton and the
father of the late Lord Chesterfield in their prime,
and his mastership of the Pytchley formed a brilliant
epoch in the history even of that famous pack. Upon
his retirement from the management of the Pytchley
he received two splendid testimonials, one of which
was a gold epergne representing a pack of hounds
running into a fox at the foot of a tree, and with a
likeness in alto-relievo of himself. Upon the base of
this epergne is the following inscription :—"Pre-
eented to George Payne, Esq., of Sulby Hall, by
upwards of six hundred farmers, tradesmen, and
others, of Northamptonshire, as a testimonial of their
high esteem for him and of their gratitude for his
unceasing efforts to promote the manly and healthy
sports of the count"

The Daily Telegraph has a lengthy article on the death a
Mr. Payne, from which we take the following extract :-
- -

"Sixty-eight years have passed since, upon the
night of Sept. 4, 1810, a whist-party sat down to one
of the green tables in the card-room of White's Club.
They played hour after hour, until the clock struck
five, when it was remarked by one of them that he
could play no longer, as he had some particular busi-
ness to attend to that morning. It was little suspected
by the rest of the party that the speaker, who was
Mr. George Payne's father, had a duel on hand;
but, shortly before six o'clock, three post-chaises
passed over Putney Bridge to Wimbledon, and
at half-past six,' to quote the Annual Regis-
ter," one of the chains returned to the
"Red Lion" at Putney with a wounded gentle-
man of the name of Payne. Mr. Heaviside was sent
for, and found that a pistol shot had gone through his
groin, from which the unfortunate gentleman died at
half-past four on Thursday afternoon.' The cause of
the duel was, as the faithful chronicle reports, 'truly
melancholy.' It appears that an unfortunate attach-
ment had arisen between Mr. Payne's father, who was
a married man with four children, and a Miss Clark, of
Newcastle.' The young lady was a cherished friend of
Mrs. Payne, at whose house she was a frequent
visitor ; and the opportunities of unrestrained
intercourse thus afforded to the husband led to an
intimacy which came to the knowledge of Miss Clark's
brother. He remonstrated warmly, and the guilty
parties separated, with a promise that they would meet
no more; but, unfortunately, a visit paid by the young
lady, who was exceedingly beautiful to London,
brought them again into contact, and the brother, in-
dignant at Mr. Payne's perfidy, pursued him to Scar-
borough and called him out. It was arranged that
the belligerents should proceed to London, and that
the hostile meeting should take place with little delay
upon Wimbledon-common. As the antagonists took
their places, pistol in hand, at twelve paces from each
other, Mr. Payne whispered into his second's ear that
he should not return Mr. Clark's fire.