TRAGIC END OF AH EARL'S YOU GEST SON.

Wanganui Chronicle, 12 August 1901, Page 1

TRAGIC END OF AH EARL'S YOU GEST SON.

—* ■ - iii the remote li ile village of Willersey on the borders" of Gloucestershire and Worceslsliire, there died on June 11 the Hon. Eric James Lascelles, youngest son of the kits Earl of Hurewoctl h^lf-brother of the present earl, brother of the Countess of Desart, pud. travelling: shownvm His lonely death was the closing incident of a strangely romantic career. Two. years a"o he withrdew from the life to which 'liia social position entitled him, r.iKl, assuming the naroa of Eric Leith, took to the road as a. travelling showman, with a caravan and a pair of horses. His entertainments, which consisted c-f s moving pictures and automatic figures, became a famiL^r attraction at country fairs aid wakes, and of the pioprietor of the little caravan ihe country tolk knew little except ihafc he was "extraordinary civil like" for his business. So well did Eric Leith keep his saci-et that even the lad, Harry Belcher, whom he engaged to drive the van ( about six •weeks ago, learned nothing of his master beyond the fact that he was very silent, very courteous in his manner, and exceedingly enthusiastic in the management of the show. Soon after Belcher joined the caravan his master learned from his family lhat his brother, the Hon. Francis Lascelles, had been arrested in British Columbia on a charge of shooting one of the servants on his ranche and sent to an asylum, as he was insane. From that time -the showman changed. He lost his light, easy view of life. ■ He became morose and depressed, and presently gave way to unbridled intemperance, which brought his strange career to a deeply pathetic end. At the inquest, which was held at Willersey, the lad Belcher described how he and his young master journeyed together from KidJington to Banbury, F«nny Comp- -. ton, Kineton, and Shipston-on-Stour, and : how everything had been arranged for a ' special performance at Willersey wake, j where they, arived on. June 10. In the ! afternoon of that day Eric Leith complained of cramp in the legs, and by night he was lying* in his narrow bed in the caravan seriously ill. Belcher took one of the horses and rode to Broadway for assistance, and Dr Strandring, who saw the showman that night, elicited the confession that the drinking bout had lasted for six weeks. Nest night, : at half-past 8, Dr Standring again entered the little caravan and found the Hon. Eric LasceUes dead. According to the doctor, he .had been, -suffering from epilepsy, and a succession of -seizures; accelerated by intemperance, had caused death. It has since transpired that a letter from the Countess of Desart, which was found among the property of the deceased, expressed deep sorrow that he had given .way to the weakness of intemperance. , For some period of his: wandering life the hon. Eric Lascelles was in receipt of an allowance of £25 a week, which in the later wilder days was : reduceft to £11, a week. One :instalment was waitingl for him: at a local money-order office when he died. .:.The'.'showman's',life, he loved, and the adoption of it was the gratification of a hobby,