Читать книгу Lord William Beresford, V.C., Some Memories of a Famous Sportsman, Soldier and Wit онлайн

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It was a great day. I wonder how many good men and true who were there would be able to answer the roll-call to-day?

There were a number of well-known people there besides the Prince of Wales: Lord Westmorland (the handsome Frank) and Lady Westmorland, the Earl of Cork, the Earl of Rosebery, Lord Fitzgerald, Lord Carrington, Lord Clonmell, Lord Charles Ker, Sir George Wombwell, Colonel and Mrs. Owen Williams, and many others.

When the 9th Lancers were at Aldershot, a good deal of mild racing was the order of the day. On one occasion, when Lord William was tooling his coach on to the course, in his endeavours to avoid a runaway carriage and pair, behind which sat a screaming and frightened lady, he managed to upset the coach without seriously damaging any of the occupants. The late Lord Kinnoull, who was on the coach, described it to me. He said he never saw anything so splendid as the way Lord William handled the ribbons. The road was narrow, on the left was a bank with roughly put up rails on top, while speeding towards them on the right-hand side of the road was the runaway carriage. The coachman had lost all control, yet my informant declared if the clatter of the galloping hoofs and the screaming lady had not frightened the horses in the coach, all might have been well. As it was, there was an alarming cracking noise from the wooden railings on the left, a great lurch, and the coach turned over. After this it was difficult to say exactly what did happen, except that there was a general mix up, and the poor lady in her runaway carriage continued her career down the road. It was characteristic of Lord William that he was more concerned about the fate of the screaming lady than with his own predicament.