Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-03-20
An Eccentric Lord.


The late Lord Kilmorey was owe,
ninety when he died. He had been in
the Guards. and "was with Sir John
Moore's army in the advance from
Salamanca to attack Soult, and in the
subsequent disastrous retreat to Corun-
ma" and chad seen as much of travel,
sport, and adventure, as much OF life in
its various phases. good and evil, as
any man of his generation. But it
was not advisable to dwell upon the
earlier part of his career. In later life
he had a passion for buying places on
the Thames. improving and then selling
them. On one occasion, it being nee
essary for his projected Improvement,
that he should add a scrap OF waste
land to his property. he at once fenced
it in. At night the fence was pulled
down.
HE put it up again; and again it laid
low, the work of reparation and demoli-
tation being repeated several times. At
length he devised plan of his own to
meet the case He wrote at the top of
half dozen separate sheets of foolscap
paper, Lord Kilmorey proposes TO
give next Christmas to the poor of the
parish f2OO' These sheets of paper he
distributed about the parish, one sheet
at the public-house, another at the
butchers, a third ut the chemists, and
so on ut other places of resort. He then
proceeded to put up the fence again.
That night it was leveled as usual.
The next morning he went the round
OF the places where the foolscap sheets
had been lodged and made the follow
ine-entrv in eac}: To cost of putting
up fence pulled down last hight. 95., to
be deducted from the above f200. ~
A disturbance the next night was
treated in the same way, and then the
fence was allowed to remain, and at
Christmas the Earl distributed the f2O0.
without deduction. Another coveted
corner he was unable to obtain,
though he tried even more high-handed
measures. The piece of land belonged
to a latndress, who refused to accept
another piece in exchange or double its
value in money. SO the Earl waited
till the laundress' linen was hanging
out to dry and the wind blew off his
own land towards the drying-ground.
and then he lighted bonfire of green
wood and kept the dense smoke blow
ing upon the linen for many hours. But
- tIlt ldHtIcSo itIIl w Hcl own. du,l llic
Earl's quick resentment ere long evap-
grated with the smoke of his own bon
fire." The Earl was equally unsucess-;
full in his attempts to force a charitable
institution for female orphans to sell
him certain triangle of land which he
coveted. His own property ran close
up the entrance gates of the institution,
and there he established marine store,
festooned with unsightly vessels, in
hope to annoy the Governors into sub
mission. When he was nearly eighty
he had a fall at wayside railway sta
ton and broke two ribs, but he insisted
on continuing his journey. At the ter
minus he refused to leave the carriage,
which was shunted on to a siding, and
there he remained for more than
week. Some of his friends will re-
member having visited him in his ex-
temporized hospital At the authors
office, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the Earl
one day met another client who was
eighty-two and as proud of his age as
the Earl himself, who was then eighty
five. The solicitor said
"'Let me introduce gentleman of
eighty-fve to gentleman of eighty
two 'Eighty-twO, SIR echoed the
Earl, slightly raising his hat to Mr..
Levien. Ill run you round the square
for fiver.' Some days afterwards Mr..
Levien called on the writer again, and
remarked. slowly and with much
SOlemnity; I've been thinking great
deal about that bet. / wish had taken
it. '-London Atheaguns.