The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-31 00:00:00

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF

CLE V ELAND.

His Grace, after long and severe suffering, ex-
pired at seven o'clock on Saturday morning, at his
residence in St. James's-square. 'William Harry
Vane, K.G., first Duke, and son of the second
Earl, by the sister of the first Earl of Lonsdale,
was born in 1766, and married, first, in 1787, the
second daughter of the sixth and last Duke of
Bolton ; secondly, in 1813, the daughter of Ro-
bert Russell, Esq., of Newton House, Yorkshire ;
succeeded his father in the Earldom, 179?; Lord
Lieutenant and Vice Admiral of the county of
Durham ; Colonel of the Durham Militia; is
patron of 14 livings. This family is descended
from Sir Henry Vane, knighted at Poictiers,
1336; and numbers amongst its ancestry Sir H
Vane, Principal Secretary of State, temp. Charles
1., and Sir Harry Vane, Treasurer of the Navy,
distinguished in the Civil Wars, and subsequently
beheaded on Tower Hill, whose son became the
first Lord Barnard. Seats—Raby Castle, Dur-
ham ; Bridges Cottons, Darlington ; Newton
House, Yorkshire.
CREATION.—Duke, 1833; Marquis of Cleve-
land, 1827; Earl of Darlington and Viscount
Barnard, 1751; Baron Barnard, 1699; Baron
Raby, 1833.

He is succeeded by his son Henry, Earl of
Darlington, M.P. for the Southern Division of
Shropshire, who was born in 1788, and conse-
quently is now 54 years of age.

MEMOIR OF THE LATE DUKE.
"Nee teinere, nec timide."
Neither rashly nor timidly.
Motto of the Vanes of Westmoreland.

The-late Duke and Marquis of Cleveland came
into possession of the Marquisate by letters
patent, dated Sept. 17, 1827, and to the Barony
of Raby with the Dukedom of Cleveland in
January, 1833, having beforehand succeeded to
the Earldom, at the decease of his father in 170').
Among his ancestry, the late Duke numbered
many fbrerunners of note and consequence.
Claiming a common origin with the 'Westmore-
land family, the head of whom we noticed but a
few brief days ago at his decease, and who par-
took of many of the hearty qualities, and much
of the exuberant bonhommie of the regretted
nobleman whom we now obituarize, the de-
ceased 'William-Harry-Vane, dated the first hero
of his pedigree to be the Sir Henry Vane who
was knighted for his valiant achievements at the
celebrated battle of Poictiers. Young Henry
Vane, who, with more stirring blood in his veins
than prudence in his head, joined in Thomas
Wyatt's insurrection, and escaped only the doom
of his comrades through the Royal pity ex-
tended towards his youth, was one of his pre-
decessors, whom he looked back upon with
especial pleasure. An acute and subtle poli-
tician, his ancestor, Sir Henry! in the reign
of James the First, was appointed cotterer
of the Prince of Wales, and under the suc-
ceeding Monarch was created Secretary of
State fbr life. This nobleman, however, did not
sustain his proper nobility of character in regard
to his conduct towards the unfortunate Earl of
Strafford, but exhibited a jealousy unworthy of
his birth. Influenced by private pique, it is
historically stated, that because the Earl had,
upon his elevation to the Peerage, taken the title of
Baron Baby of Baby Castle, Durham, he took an
active part in the prosecution of Straftbrd, which,
however, led to his subsequent dismissal by the of-
fended King. The next Sir Henry, Clarendon cha-
racterizes as a person of " great natural parts, a
quick conception, and of very ready, sharp, and
weighty expression,"—so much so, we know, that
iron-sided Cromwell wished the Lord to deliver
him from this self-same gentleman. In later
times, the worthy conduct of the third Baron
Henry, met with its due appreciation at Court,
and the Earldom of Darlington was then grafted
on the family.
The late Duke, whom death has just overtaken,
must be remembered by all in his younger days
as the dashing Lord Darlington, whose sporting
qualities caused him to be considered the most
promising fieldsman of the day, and by a name
spared no
ndeo expense in in
stoodtlie
so well-known eve shall proceed to speak of him.
Lord Darlington's rank and fortune having
placed him early in life at the summit, we may
say,fe, lie
kennels of human ianstalil
heles, an&
splendour of his. sporting establishment, in his
first on the roll of masters of foxhounds, k • keeping
them upon their own resources; perhaps only
that of the Quorn country exceeded his expendi-
ture.

Everything in Lord Darlington's stud was
managed with order and method : his coverts
and his fences were constantly watched, and
some estimate may be made of the expense
he was at in preserving foxes, by the single fact
of his paying 330/. a year to his own tenants, in
the Raby country, for rent of coverts north of the
river Tees.

Lord Darlington's hounds were usually divided
into two packs—one called the young, and the
other the old pack, al though of course there were
some old hounds in the former. His Grace was
fond of large hounds, and he succeeded in
breeding. them up to the top of the standard—
bigger, indeed, on his own admission, than any
his country requires. The speed of these, how-
ever, with a scent, was quite proportionate to
their size ; their speed was undisputed, nay, were
allowed by all to be the speediest in England.
Sir Bellingham Graham used to say that he
never hunted with a finer pack; brighter-skinned
hounds perhaps were never beheld.
Lord Darlington used to relate a singular anec-
dote of the instinct of a fox-hound. In his fa-
ther's lifetime a hound called' Gleaner was sent
from Yorkshire to the then Duke of Bolton, near
Basingstoke, in Hampshire, and in the almost
incredible space of 60 hours he was back at his
kennel in Yorkshire.

Lord Cleveland abounded in a rich fund of
anecdote, and like most of the Westmorlands,
had about him none of that hauteur which make
the aristocracy so hateful.
Raby, Lady Cleveland's horse, was a beautiful
animal, fifteen hands three inches .high, bright
bay with black legs ; and if he had been bespoken
for the purpose he could not have been more
complete. Her Ladyship rode him many a
season without his ever having given her
a fall, and she customarily rewarded
him for his care of her ,by visiting,

, The stables at Raby were calculated to hold
about thirty hunters, besides coach-horses. Such
a thing as a hack was never to be seen at Raby.
' Everything there went a hunting or in harness.
His Lordship's courteousness to ladies was ex-
hibited in this instance. A hunter was going off
to be put to the hammer at London : " I am sell-
ing that horse," observed the Duke, " solely to
oblige the ladies; a better hunter (continued his
Lordship), no man need ride, but he put his foot
into a grip one day with my boy, and came down,
which the ladies attributed to his having only one
eye. But he must go now."
"Pray my Lord," said a fellow-sportsman,
walking out with him through his grounds, "is
not your kennel here very near the house? Does
not the savour of the boiler sometimes find its
way into the drawing-room ?" "It may," re-
joined his Lordship, "but we are too well-bred
for fox-hunting to mind that."
Dick, his Lordship's whipper-in was ill. "Rave
you heard how Dick is?" said a friend. " I have
been to his bedside, said Lord D., 'he has had
a restless night, nevertheless, I hope he will do
well, but he made me smile when he said, he
had no doubt but he should be able to go out
with the hounds on Wednesday ! He also in-
quired after Lightning's eyes, and how Rufus and
Mortimer had fed !" - •
The Duke, ever since Sie began to keep fox-
bounds, namely, when plain Eao of Darlington,
was daily in the habit of sitting crown, after every
hunting-day, and entering the proceedings of the
day in a book. This his Lordship did in a style
peculiar to himself, and in good language. At
. the end of the season this volume was printed,
and sold for the benefit of a faithful setrant.,
Seven years have now elapsed since his Lord-
ship was actively engaged in the field. Owing
to the advanced life of his Grace, lie gave up
his sporting pursuits in 1835, at which time the
celebrated pack of hounds, called after his name,
were divided between Ithnselfand his son-in-law,
Mark Milbank, Esq., and the country was sub-
divided between them at the same time for sport.
Lord Cleveland was a sportsman, in the real
acceptation of that comprehensive term—not one
of your battuc gentlemen, crawling out when
the day is far Tent, with umbrellas and goloshes,
hut a downright practical sportsman of the old
school, ready for all winds and weathers. For
thirty-eight seasons uninterruptedly, and with
high reputation to himself and the sportsmen
who hunted with him, he went through an un-
exampled course of fine-spirited fields and chases.
His Lordship, in addition, was not an illiterate
man, or one of the mere Squire Westerns of the
day, but a man of cultivated acquirement. He
spent his summers on the Continent, and had a
turn for the polite arts.
alleraficen,es t
chief aroundlglLo\l,dauroiit'eßsaebayt. Crarsitllise was
his
fortress and mansion was in the first in-
stance in the tenantcy of tire Nevilles of West-
moreland, but was forfeited by them in the time
of Elizabeth, for the rebellious part taken by
Earl Charles. The Vanes then came into pos-
session, either by purchase or grant from the
Crown.
Those who have visited tire Duke at Italy can
well attest tire magnificent aspect of the castle
and its domains, which combine in themselves
architecture of the ..Aans;o-Saxon times, and the
richest improvements of the present day. The
Duke took a pride in adorning these ancestral
halls, and many alterations, perhaps absolutely
necessarily to conform it to the modernized tastes
of the day, were undertaken under his supervi-
sion and command. His father made the en-
trance leading to the hall. This hall is uncom-
monly grand ; the roof is groined and sup-
ported -by columns • at one end is a
flight of steps leading to the presence
chamber, music-room, billiard- room, &c.:
over this is t spacious
were held,
in whichda 7 oo
neldot' apartment
the Nevilles, are re-
etknights, who :trrededantcenielitint have fi:e
ti NThe very kitchen is a curiosity, having narrow
been
1 s e
nte ''''-tained at one time.
passes cut out in the massive walls, through
which provisions were conveyed to the banquet.
The present Countess of Darlington has taken
especial delight in ornamenting Raby Castle ;
and the oltiect of her peculiar care has been to
enrich the very curious museum of natural his-
tory, which has been collected with great skill
and attention, and to which the late Duke's
sporting propensities added in many cases ma-
, eriaily.
The Duke's riding and hunting stables, erected
by him a few years hack on a most extensive
scale, though they will now stand only as sad
mementos to those wino remain behind him,
deserve particular notice from guests, as they
were his Grace's greatest pride. The park and
pleasure grounds in which they are situated,
together with the new plantations fumed by the
noble owner, correspond in their beauty and ex-
tent to the dignity of tire castle. On the
estate _ also is an extensive farm, to which
his Grace devoted much of his atten-
tion, and which always afforded a fine specimen
of his agricultural and sporting tastes.
His Grace of Cleveland married twice, viz., in
1787, the second daughter of the sixth and last
Duke of Bolton; and subsequently after her de-
cease, the daughter of Robert Russell, Esq., of
Newton-house, Yorkshire. His son and heir,
Henry' Earl of Darlington, who is a Lieutenant-
Colonel in the army, and has been in Parlia-
ment for various boroughs for twenty years, and
is one of the present Tory Members for South
Shropshire, succeeds to his father's title and
estates. The late Duke was a Liberal in politics.