MARCHIONESS OF LANSDOWNE

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 2

MARCHIONESS OF LANSDOWNE

LIFE ON RANCH IN UNITED STATES

‘•HORSES WERE CHIEF INTEREST”

The Marchioness of Lansdowne’s delicate beauty and slim, artistic hands are a complete contradiction to the general idea of the suntanned, weatherbeaten horsewoman. But Lady Lansdowne, until her marriage, spent most of her time with horses on her father’s ranch in California, and she still hunts whenever she can.

“Horses were my chief interest in life for many years and I am sorry we could not come to New Zealand in the hunting season,” she said yesterday. It came as a surprise to Lady Lansdowne to hear that followers to hounds in New Zealand take wire fences in their stride. “I have only jumped wire by mistake,” she said. But the thought of hunting over wire across New Zealand country did not appear to disturb her in the least. Hunts in Wiltshire The Marquess and Marchioness of Lansdowe spend most of their time at their home in Scotland, but when they visit their farm in Wiltshire. Lady Lansdowne misses few opportunities of hunting. Scotland, she says, is not riding country, but even there she keeps up her interest in the sport as a district commissioner of the pony club movement. Though she has only been in New Zealand a little more than a week, she has watched pony clubs in action in the North Island and was most impressed by what she saw. The daughter of a Californian landowner, Lady Lansdowne graduated from college at the age of 17 and helped to manage a horse-breeding ranch about 300 miles from Santa Barbara, as part-owner until she married. Lady Lansdowne is still closely associated with farming, as her husband owns farms in both Scotland and Wiltshire. As Lord Lansdowne is a member of the British House of Lords and chairman of several committees, Lady Lansdowne is responsible for running two homes, one in Wiltshire, where they live while Parliament is in session, and the other in Scotland, where they reside for the rest of the year. Christmas in U.S. When they leave New Zealand on Friday to fly to the United States, Lord and Lady Lansdowne will be met in San Francisco by their two sons, who are visiting their American can grandparents. The family will spend Christmas at Lady Lansdowne’s old home in Santa Barbara with her relatives. A few days later they will go to the ranch, now used for breeding Hereford cattle, for a holiday before returning to Britain.