Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-04-30
DUKE OF DoRsET AT FIVE
Story of the Little George John Fred erick sackville, Who Was
 Killed at Twenty-one.

There is an old story that once, when Queen Elizabeth was asked to confer peerage upon one of her subjects, she replied: T have knighted him for Falor, that is the highest honor have in my power to hestow" If the great queen abode royalty by her decision in the instances of such heroes as Drake, Froblsher and Hawkins, whom she merely knighted. says Margaret Jack son in sThe Little Duke of Dorset" in St, Nicholas, she changed her mind in the case of her own brilliant kinsman, Thomas Sackville. For cn the same day (J0ne g, 1567) on which the duke or Norfolk knighted him in her pres ence, she caused him to be raised to the peerage as Baron Buckhurst, of Buckhurst, in Sussex, A year before this time she had given him the manor of Knole, in Kent, with it's old house, which had been built in part some 300 years before. He did not, however, ob- tain full possession of his property un- til many years later (1603). and in the same year ns ceased to be simply Baron Buckhurst, for James l. then created shfm earl of Dorset He at once set to work to rebuild part of the house, and by employing 200 workmen for two years, completed the task It is this house which stands to-day in it's beauti- full park. one of the most famous of the manor-houses of England. It covers four acres of ground, and with,its many wonders-its 52 staircases Gone for each week of the yearl, it's 365 rooms (one for each day). it's $40 windows, it's re- gently discovered priests cell--many of the readers of St Nicholas are familiar, for Vita Sackville-West has aroused a new interest in her home by her letter, printed in the League of November, 1902.
 Her father, Lord Sackville. who was British minister to the United States, 1881-18Ss, is the present owner of Knols park.
 There is. no duke of Dorset now, fol the last time that the title descended from father to son was more than 3 hundred years ago. in 1799. when George John Frederick Sackville found himsen (by the death of his father), at the age of five, fourth duke of Dorset, being also earl of Dorset, earl of Middlesex. Baron Buckhurst of Buckhurst and Baron Cranfield of Cranfield. Rather . heavy load for one small boy to carry! For he was a boy like other boys, even if he came to a dukedom and ranked next to prime before ever he had come to knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic.
 He grew up in the beautiful county of Kent, known as the Garden of Eng land" and We can imagine him playing with his little sisters, Mary and Eliza beth, among the stately beeches of Knole park--perhaps, too. playing at hide-and-seek in those s65 rooms, which all belonged to him. Later he went to school at Harrow. and to college at Oxford. He must have been clever, fol his university gave him the degree of doctor of civil law before he was 20 years old, and very few people (and most of those gray-haired) can write ID. c. L. Oxon.' after their names now adays. He must also have been popu- lar, for he was lieutenant colonel com mandant of the militia of Sevenoaks (the nearest town to Kncle) at the same age.
 There has been very little recorded of his short early life, and there was, alas, no later life to chronicle. At the age of 21 he was killed by a fall from his horse in the hunting field, when on a visit to his mother in Ireland. The title went to his cousin, who was the fifth and last duke of Dorset Thus George John Frederick never lived to gain the fame of his great ancestor, the poet and statesman, the first earl of Dorset.