The Washington herald., 1911-08-22
SOME STORIES OF BRITISH LORDS

Open a peerage register where you
choose, and you can scarcely fail to hnd
a page that doesn't contain at least one
rolling stone" in whose veins is an
adventuresome strain which has carried
him through many strange adventures
before he subsided into the dignity Of
the aristocrat or the wearer Of a coronet
Indeed, you may find several Of them
wearing their coronets and helping to
make Great Britain's laws this very day.
Few men have reached the House OF
Lords through stranger byways than the
present Lord Hardwicke (earl, viscount,
and baron). AS young man Of twenty
four, he left England for a mine in Tas-
mania, having no idea then that he
should ever succeed to a title. AS late as
1894 this future peer was plying his pick
in silver and lead mine In that far
away country. A year later he was en-
gagged in "pegging out" claims in the
West Australian gold fields.
From Australia he wandered to the
United States and drilled rocks in Mon
tana ten hours a day at union wages.
Then he went to Alaska on his round
about way to the gold mines of South
Africa. For ten years his lordship worked
hard and on wages which once sank as
low as five shillings a day. There were
long night shifts underground at tenn
perature, he says, of IS degrees, when
there was bitter frost on the surface, and
more than one escape from death.
Courtenay. Robert Percy, third (and
presenD Lord Lyveden, can look back
on a career even more adventurous, be-
fore the House of Lords opened its doors
to give him welcome. The son of a coun-
try parson; he was private in the Royal
Artillery before most youths of his class
had left Eton. Throwing of his uniform,
he had a spell as strolling actor before
launching on the singular and varied ca
reer which led him by devious ways to
his coronet Among the many roles he
played on the stage of life during his
years of 'wanderlust'' were those of
ship steward, caterer, and market garden
er. In one menial way or another he
roamed all over the earth, one memorable
day narrowly escaping drowning. only
to have a still narrower escape an hour
later by falling masonry shattered by an
earthquake.
Only last year ano,ner famous roll
ing stone" disappeared from the roll Of
British peers. in the person Of Augustus
three times baron, who, twenty-five years
before he came to his unexpected earl
dom, was working as a seaman before
the mast. thus following in the foot
steps Of the late Earl of Aberdeen, who
was washed overheard to his death be-
fore he even began to think Of claim
ing his titles Wearying Of the high
seas, the future Earl of Egmont went
to London and put on a firemans he'll
met for a time. before finding a snug
berth as keeper of Chelsea town hall
A spell Of work in a Cheshire salt mine
was followed by a trip to South Africa,
from where he was summoned to his
titles and his thousands Of acres in Sus-
sex and Ireland.
Lord George Drummond, heir to the
Perth earldom, some forty years ago
turned his back on England and shipped
as a stevedore to America, where he
played in succession the unaristocratic
parts OF porter, packer. and night gate
man on the elevated railway in New
York. before his i'll health put an end
to his activities: and it is said, he owed
his support for some time before his
death to his wife's busy and devoted
needle.
Thus, as we turn over the leaves of
the peerage, the strange panorama OF
romance passes before our eyes One
sees Lord Leitrims brother and heir
stoking his way across the Atlantic, TO
herd cows in Texas, as the present Earl
OF Caithness is said to have done be-
fore him, on his Berriedale ranch. IT
am tired of London society," this heir
to the Leitrim earldom said before start
ing. Il have found that it is all arti-
fetal and unreal. So I have decided
that II I stuck to London drawing-rooms
my life would ferment into mere froth,
like those of the nobility around me-"
Other scenes exhibit brother of the
Earl of Harewood in his showman's
van. presenting his automatic pictures"