William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford

“ It is not altogether unknown for young A.D.C.’s attached to the staff of Government houses to get swelled heads, treating everybody not in immediate connection with their household as canaille, unless of course they happened to be globe trotters with handles to their names, but anything of this kind was quickly suppressed by Lord William, who was kindly and courteous to all, be they princes, princesses, subalterns, Bohemians or what nots. Perhaps a little extra pleasant to a pretty face, and who will blame him? ”

“ Even the peasant women who knew nothing about racing but something about men, bet on their fancy, some for the one with the curly hair, others for the brave blue eyes, and so on.
Each of the brothers had to ride 12 stone and be on his own horse. The Beresford Blue was worn by them all. Lord Charles, being the eldest, donned the black cap, which sounds rather as if he were condemning someone to death; the others wore white and blue caps respectively to distinguish between them.
THE FAMOUS BERESFORD BROTHERS’ RACE
(1) LORD WILLIAM; (2) LORD MARCUS ”

“ The last was, undoubtedly, a man well fitted by his courtly manners, his high rank, and his real talents, both in the cabinet and in the field, for such an office; but powerful parliamentary interest prevailing, major-general Beresford was appointed, to the great discontent of many officers of superior rank, who were displeased that a man, without any visible claim to superiority, should be placed over their heads. ”

“ It was at this battle of Ulundi that Lord William so distinguished himself and won the name of “Fighting Bill,” appearing in Vanity Fair in September the same year under that title, though I cannot congratulate “Spy” on the production, for he represents Lord Bill as a “beery”-looking person, which is the last thing he ever looked in life, but in the picture it will be noticed more than any other of his pictures or photos the resemblance in the eyes and upper part of his face to his uncle, the third Marquis. ”

“ But I must not be frivolous, as Lord William was a stern upholder of the dignity of the Court, and very properly so, only the “make-shifts” necessary for more or less impromptu ceremonies in India and foreign countries at times lend themselves to amusing situations; and why is it people always want to laugh more when they know they must not do it?
I remember at a big function at Simla, when Colonel Chesney was being made a K.C.S.I. by Lord Ripon. Lord William had arranged for a number of us to be allowed into the holy of holies to watch the ceremony. ”

“ CHAPTER III. A FIRST BALL. Nevertheless, Lieutenant King was quite as well acquainted with Nan Beresford as he was with the other members of the family—and this was how he came to know her. The Beresfords had for many years been the intimate friends of the Strathernes; and though they saw less of each other since Lady Beresford, on becoming a widow, had gone to live permanently in Brighton, still the London season brought them in a measure together again. Lady Beresford took rooms in Bruton Street during the fashionable months of the year for herself and her grown-up daughters ”

“ William Beresford, whose wife I have the honour to be. Physically the type is vigorous, or has the appearance and gives the impression of being vigorous, because it has never the time to be otherwise, since it is always engaged in nursing its ailing or decrepit relatives. Intellectually it is full of vitality; any mind grows when it is exercised, and the brain that has to settle all its own affairs and all the affairs of its friends and acquaintances could never lack energy. ”

“ It is not as a soldier, it is not as a statesman that I claim applause for Lord William, though both may be owed, but for his thoroughness in whatever he undertook, his unfailing cheerfulness, his loyalty, energy, and marvellous pluck. ”

“ He retired from the bench at the close of 1897, and a viscounty was conferred upon him on his retirement, a dignity never given to any judge, lord chancellors excepted, “for mere legal conduct since the time of Lord Coke.” He died in London on the 24th of May 1899. ”

“ Those few months of leave in 1885 picked Lord William up wonderfully, and he thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the time after his nine years of India, a big slice out of the prime of a man’s life, but he had the satisfaction of feeling he had faced the music, so to speak, by beginning his life afresh, yet returning after nine years comfortably off, and holding a high position of great responsibility, thanks to nobody but himself. ”

“ No one was more pleased with his friend’s suc [33] cesses than Lord William, for they were fast friends, and when Captain Candy married the sister of his likewise friend and brother officer, Lord Rossmore, he acted as best man.
It was generally known about this time that the then Prince of Wales was interested in racing, and had been for some time, but owing to Queen Victoria’s objection to the Royal colours appearing on a racecourse, His Royal Highness had been running his horses under other people’s names. ”

“ The largest stakes Lord William ever went for was probably over Sandia in the Cambridgeshire. Either St. Cloud or Sandia ought to have won easily. Lord William and Sloan were under the impression they had won with Sandia, but Mr. ”

“ We now enter on the short third volume of Lord William’s life. He landed in England during the spring of 1894, bringing with him various faithful retainers, also some favourite horses and ponies. In June of that year he paid his first visit to the Deepdene, Dorking, as a guest of Lily Duchess of Marlborough, having been invited at Lady Sarah Wilson’s suggestion to make up a party for Ascot races. ”

“ In 1314 he was made one of the commissioners of oyer and terminer for the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, to try certain assessors and collectors of the revenue charged with breach of trust. In 1315 William de Beresford, the chief justice of the common pleas, being suddenly summoned to the king, the business of the court devolved upon Thrikingham and Bacon exclusively. ”

“ In November 1885 he was again returned to parliament as member for East Marylebone (re-elected 1886) , and in Lord Salisbury’s ministry of 1886 he was appointed a lord of the admiralty. The press agitation in favour of a stronger navy was now in full swing, and it was well known that in Lord Charles Beresford it had an active supporter ”

“ William (7) , the eldest son of James, summoned as baron 1467, was created viscount by Edward IV by patent 12 April 1481, Earl of Nottingham by Richard III 28 June 1483, Earl Alarshal 1485, and Marquis of Berkeley 1488, with remainder to the heirs of his body. In order to spite his brother (8) Maurice, who was his heir presumptive, he suffered a recovery of the castle and lands of Berkeley, and so gained the fee simple, convening the same to be held to his own use in tail general, with remainder to the king (Henry VII) in tail male, with remainder to his own heirs. ”

“ The world is ever prone to think that brilliancy excludes wisdom, and gaiety is the enemy of common sense. As a matter of fact there was a world of deep feeling and strength of character underlying Lord William’s light-hearted manner.
At a big dinner party at Government House, Bombay, I remember hearing a number of people discussing Lord William, his career, racing successes, deeds of daring, etc., when someone asked the rather unexpected question, “What is his religion?” ”

“ It is a paradox, but a probability, that had he been duller-witted, a more ponderous person, he would have carried more weight alike in the councils of the Admiralty at Whitehall and of the nation at Westminster. ”

“ A man has not lived for nothing, and must be something in particular, when his friends can truly say that of him.
I have waited a long time before undertaking this work, hoping some more able pen than mine would [vi] give to his old friends and future generations some record of Lord William’s eventful life, a few memories of his many kindnesses and unostentatious charities, his pluck, deeds of daring and unfailing cheeriness. ”

“ It is good for all to find their own level; travelling assists them, gives them a new education. There is much to be learned in a large mixed cosmopolitan concentration, where princes, rajahs, judges, generals, police, subalterns who know everything, old men who believe nothing, middle-aged men who suspect everything, all rub shoulders, look well groomed and comfortable, yet all with the same longing for home in their hearts.
At Bombay, Lord William met his brother, Lord Charles, then in attendance on the Prince of Wales ”

“ Lord William’s contemporaries, besides those already mentioned, were the present Sir Hugh McCalmont, afterwards a brother officer and life-long friend, the late Lord Jersey, and the present Lord Minto. Lord William was fag to both the latter in succession, Mr. Charles Moore, another life-long friend, and, I believe, Lord Rossmore.
[8]
At the age of sixteen, Lord William left Eton and went to Bonn to study French and German under a tutor named Dr. Perry, others studying there at the same time being the Hon. Elliot and Alec Yorke, and the Hon. ”

“ Foreign Secretary; Mr. Mackenzie, [109] Home Secretary; Mr. Mackenzie Wallace, [110] Private Secretary; and Lord William Beresford, Military Secretary, a galaxy of talent. Lord Clandeboye, afterwards Earl of Ava, in the flower of his youth and beauty, was among the aides-de-camp. Sir Frederick Roberts’s staff was hardly less brilliant. It included Major W. G. Nicholson, [111] Major Ian Hamilton, [112] Captain Neville Chamberlain, [113] and Colonel Pole-Carew. [114] Besides being the best-known man of his time in [Pg 139] India, Beresford was probably the best Military Secretary in history. ”

“ In Mr Beresford we discover a closer identity between the man and the mask, though he has written several books where he does not figure, The Hampdenshire Wonder, the tale of an incredible child, The House in Demetrius Road, and Goslings, a fantastic commentary upon life. Mr Beresford is more at his ease when he tells his own tale. ”

“ He owed more to his financial and marital disasters than to anything else in his life except the influence of Betty; by inclination he was tempted to deny God through his foolish tendency to immolate himself. Only when he got clear of cant, from a morality that depended on repression to one that depended upon the liberation of impulse, did he achieve freedom and success. Mr Beresford, it will be seen at once, by presenting us with a slice of life (unconsciously perhaps) teaches us how to live. ”

“ M. P. Breadalbane, Earl of Belgrave, Lord, M. P. Buccleugh, Duke of Barwell, Thomas Smith, Esq. Barker, Francis, Esq. Bootle, R. Wilbraham, Esq. M. P. Bissett, Maurice, Fsq. Banks, Sir Joseph, Bart. Bolton, Duke of Butler, Rev. Mr. Black, Captain Alexander Bosville, William, Esq. Buckingham, Marquis of Barwell, Richard, Esq. M. P. Bland, General Beaufort, Duke of Bearcroft, Edward, Esq. M. P. Bath, Marquis of Black, Mr. 4 copies Bond, Mr. Berkeley, Earl Beresford, Right Hon. John Bull, Mr. bookseller, Bath, 6 copies Baleman, Mr. Beach, Captain Baldwin, Mr. bookseller, 20 copies Brown, Mr. ”

“ He may not always have been aware of the amount of good he did, for kindly acts towards ourselves make us kindly to others, thereby forming a common good. That the happiness of everybody depends to a certain extent on the forbearance and help of others was part of Lord Bill’s religion. His charities, which were many, were not of the order that creates multitudes of sins, but covered them up, often, and helped those who had made grievous mistakes, to begin afresh.
The nice little church at Simla used to echo with the sound of Lord William’s clinking spurs as he walked up the aisle. ”

“ What were you crying for?”
“I don’t want you to go away,” said Lion, in a trembling voice. “Why must you go, daddy, and leave me alone with——”
The loyal little fellow caught himself up without finishing the sentence, but Mr. Beresford knew only too well what the concluding word would have been, and he sighed heavily.
A wealthy man, with congenial work to occupy him, with a lovely wife and a sweet little son, there were plenty of people who envied him with all their hearts; but Paul Beresford, like many of those who seem the most prosperous, had a secret sorrow that embittered his whole life. ”

“ It was hardly this spirit which sent Jim Loring and Raney out.... The whole wrangle is a great opportunity for our friend Beresford, but he is at least honest and intelligible; [Pg 101] if conscription comes, he'll refuse to serve and the Government can shoot him. He was committed to a war without being consulted and he's not going to die of malaria in Salonica to please a House of Commons which he helped to return five years ago to carry the Parliament Bill. ”

“ The old lady by the fire-place looked up and smiled. A simple, childlike pleasure shone in her bright, unseeing eyes; the furrows about her almost invisible mouth were twisted into a simper of infantile satisfaction. She held up a tottering wrinkled finger.
"Hush!" she said in her thin, delicate voice. "Hush! Someone singing."
The face of the infant curiously changed. The smile was smoothed from his puckered mouth; as sudden attention dawned in his eyes. He struggled to sit up in his mother's arms. He raised a tiny hand and pointed upwards.
"He's imitating her," whispered his grandmother. ”

“ Mr Beresford has exploited himself with some eloquence; he has the sense of selection, he is not crabbed, and he informs with fine passion those early years through which fleets a fine woman figure. In these books, as also in Housemates, Mr Beresford shows that he knows love, and isolation, and pain: those other young men with whom we are concerned feel these things, too, but hardly one so passionately. Mr Beresford's merit is that he is more ordinary, thus that he is less unreal than the passionate persons his rivals are or would be. ”