The Washington herald., 1911-07-24
THE MARQUES OF GREwE

certain 'unplaced notapinues peiore ieS
appearance and perhaps Of mystification
to those who remain unplaced after fts
publication. To the peerage expert that
list is full of quaint anomalies. Not the
least OF these is the marquessate given to
Lord Crewe. His elevation by one degree
In the peerage would not seem TO mat
ter much. Still 1t has curious signifi-
canoe. For years the upper ranks of the
peerage have been closed almost except
as a reward for the most distinguished
services to the state.
Until the last coronation there were
but three men living who in their own
lifetime had been advanced from the
commonalty to the rank of earl. namely.
Lords Cromer. Halsbury and Roberts. As
rule sreat hereditary statesmen have
refused to accept any advance in the
British peerage for their services. Lords
Mimic and Elgin were able to count
among their ancestors peers who had
been viceroys Of India before them. Yet
they refused the titles of marques in re-
turn for their services to the British
RAJ" The late Lord Salisbury three
times had been prime minister He could
have had a dukedom at any time during
the last twenty-five years Of his life, but
he had no inclination that way. The
same can be said OF Lord Lansdowne,
who has been a viceroy OF India as well
as the foremost statesman among the
British nobility for years. He is the
twenty-sixth Baron of Kerry. which sat
isfies him.
There are only two living earls who
have been advanced to the degre OF
marquess-the Lords Abergavenny and
Zetland. Both are of illustrious ances-
try. the former bearing a peerage Of so
ancient a date that its origin Is lost in
the midst of antiquity, but which came
to the Nevills by the marriage of Sir
William Nevill with the heiress of the
title, by virtue of which he was summoned
to Parliament In 1850. This venerable
title-Baron Bergavenny-previously had
been a feudal barony in the families of
Beauchamp, Hastings. Canteloupe, and
Braose, but since 1850 1t has come by
direct male descent to the present head
of the house of Nevill, who through 1t
boasts the ancient royal blood of Britain.
Lord Zetland. descendant of Thomas
Dundas. is OF family to which his
torians and genealogists give an origin
of high antiquity and splendor, but which
has been still more remarkable for pro-
ducing a series of men eminently distin-
guished for their services In the highest
offices in Scotland.
But the new Marques OF Crewe can
show no descent comparable with the
members of the old nobility Just men,
toned. 1t is true that he inherited, as
second bearer, the title of Lord Hough-
ton. but at his birth his family were
commoners. 1t was not until he was
five years old that his father was en-
nobled. His father had married a daugh-
ter Of the second Lord Crewe, a new
noble, but a very rich one. When he
died the whole of his vast possessions
fell to his daughters son, the new mar
guess. including eight fine country seats.
Born with a silver spoon in his
mouth" Lord Crewe seems to have
spent his life in the qualification of an
all-overshadowing ambition. Finding 1t
impossible to occupy all of his fine
mansions, Lord Crewe let the auction
eers loose on some of HIS broad and
fine acres in 1904, and by the time they
had disposed Of his Fryston Hall estate
in Yorkshire they had put sum of
seven figures into his pockets.
Let us grant that Lord Crewe is an
able man. At least, he has been secre-
tary of state for the colonies since 1908.
But IL is open to discussion whether
that fact has entitled him to a mar
quessate. More likely It was the connec-
tion with the family of the Earl Of Rose
berry, whose daughter, Lady Margaret
Primrose, he married in 1899, as his sec
ond wife, which gave him a prominent
position in the cabinet. Born of a family
of commoners, he inherited the new BAR
ony of Houghton in 1885, secured from a
radical prime minister an advance Of two
degrees in the peerage in 1896 by being
made Earl of Crewemilne, married an
other radical prime minister's daughter.
and from the present radical prime min
lister obtained a further bar Of stoats'
tail as Marques of Crewe.
He thus has a record which has no
parallel at the present day. For a pre-
back to the time of Bob" Stewart, of
Down, a century ago. This man was an
Irish member of Parliament, but he has
left no footprints on the sand of time.
Yet was able to have made of himself a
baron, viscount, earl, and Marquess of
Londonderry, all in his own lifetime. His
descendants have played big parts on
the worlds stage ever since. But the
grantee of the famous titles Of Castle
reagh and Londonderry was a carpet
bagging swashbuckler of the worst type.
Talking Of Lord Crewe and of Ireland
recalls a story of the new Marques
when he was lord lieutenant of Ire
land, an office he owed to his great
wealth and to Mr.. Gladstone. Lord
Crewe's first wife was Miss Graham,
of Netherby. One of her cousins is
Hermione, Duchess Of Leinster, whose
mother also was a Graham, of Netherby.
Lord Crewe one Sunday afternoon was
taking a stroll at Carton, the Leinster
place in County Kildare, with the duch-
ess. Coming to q gate Lord Crewe
passed through II first, when the duchess
haughtily remarked: ''The Prince OF
Wales even would not have done that"
Perhaps not" replied Lord Crewe; "but
I represent the Queen"
Lord Crewe, the new marques. is
leader of the liberal peers, and therefore
no doubt believes himself entitled to his
new high rank. Had he been member
of the old nobility he would have been
content with the honors he already had
achieved. One thing is certain, he GER
tatniv has Justified his belief In his