LAMBTONS-AND THE REST

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 14

LAMBTONS-AND THE REST

STORIES OF A FAMOUS FAMILY, i

Lord Durham's pontifical announcement .of his adherence to the party of Mr. .Baldwin will add another to the anecdotes of a family of which it has beeir said that the human, species may be divided roughly -into two • classes— Lambtons and the Rest. Certainly the Lanibtons.have had their little peculiarities, declares a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian. 1' There; was the old Squire Lambton who used " to. come up ■ to- Westminster clad in garments fashioned : from tho fleeces of his owi flocks, and presenting so odd an appearance that a new 'doorkeeper once refused him admission. He sat down contentedly and waited till a member arrived who could vouch for him. The doorkeeper, not knowing his man, suggested that "his Honour might give him something to remember him by." "That I will, lad,'' said' the Squire, catching, him a tremendous buffet. Then there was the first earl, for whom we can choose between the high falutih estimate of Trevelyftn, Charles Greville's "proudest man iri England," and Creevey's "King Jog." The last mentioned title "the great Radical, the "Dictator' of Brougham's fiery indictment; owed'to Ws priceless ■ mark that a man might "jog along" on forty thousand a year. Shortly afterwards he asked a witty young woman what someone's .fortune was, and she v replied demurely that she believed it was "about a couple of jogs." Durham was Lord Grey's son-in-law, and so dealt with the Prime Minister in Cabinet that Grey creid out that he would rather be a coalminer than submit -to such indignities. Yet he was a man of talent, and inspired a woman as critical as Harriet Martineau with feelings not much of veneration. His son —who was offered Woburh for his honeymoon by the Duke of Bedford of the fifties with the rather embarrassing limitation that the Duke, hoped he would not want to stay there too long—was father of a remarkable family, several of whom, including the present Earl and Sir Hedworth Meux, have given evidence that the pugnapity of the Lambtons has by no means died out.