Sandia won the old Cambridgeshire in the Autumn of 1897, and Diakka won the Duke of York Stakes at Kempton Park, for which he started favourite.
Lord William found time to go to York and help his brother, Lord Charles, now Lord Beresford, who was standing in the Conservative interest against Mr. Furniss. Lord Marcus also went to give a helping hand. In Lord Beresford’s own book he gives some amusing accounts of his brother’s smart and witty repartees to questions asked by the electors. There was a good deal of excitement in the town at the time. Lord Beresford won by eleven votes, rather a near thing. It was too much for the poor Lord Mayor, he died the same night from excitement and strain.
The three brothers were very happy working together over this election, the affection they had felt for one another in youth had not been estranged, they were still devoted to one another, it was always charming to hear them speak of their relatives. What does this family affection spring from I wonder? It is not often met with; take two well-known families the Scotch Gordons and the Irish Waterfords. The Gordons according to their own account could as brothers never agree, if one told a story of what he had done at cricket, racing, or some such thing, and one of his brothers happened to be present he would flatly contradict him, telling him he did not believe it, and he was telling tarra-diddles; followed of course by a free fight, very often even when staying in friends’ houses. Once speaking of their quarrelsomeness Lord Granville Gordon, commonly called Granny, said, “You know our family is not like the Beresfords one bit, they are always full of praise of one another and inseparable. If you were to say to Lord Marcus or Markey as we call him, ‘That was a great thing you brought off the other day,’ the reply would certainly be something of this sort, ‘Oh yes, but you should see my brother Bill, he can do ten times better,’ or ‘You should see Charlie, no one can touch him’; the same with Lord Charles, it is always how much better his brothers could do things than himself.”
An uncle of mine, the Rev. Francis Gooch, used to fish at Ford Abbey in Northumberland by the kind permission of Lady Waterford. One day when Lord Charles was up there and he was speaking to my uncle he said, “Do you know my brother Bill?” The reply being in the negative Lord Charles said, “Then bedad you don’t know the finest man in the world.” It is really a beautiful and uncommon thing to have lived through the great part of their allotted years, knowing each other intimately, loving each other tenderly, without one spark of jealous fault-finding, superiority, or littleness. The pity there are not more families equally attached, they do not know what they miss; looking back through the sketch book of their lives, that family affection has added warmth and beautiful colouring to many of its pictures, to be recalled and lived through again when the day is far spent and night is near.
In 1898 Lord William owned many winners entered in the name of one or other of the two partners. Caiman as a two year old won the Middle Park Plate, value £2775, Sloan riding; beating the Duke of Westminster’s Flying Fox ridden by Mornington Cannon. I am able to give a beautiful photograph of Caiman at the starting-post the day he won this race. It will be noticed Sloan did not ride very short, as I have already pointed out. It will also be noticed his hand is up to his mouth, this was a habit or trick of his, he always put his hand to his mouth when a horse was walking or in a very slow pace. Whether he had any theories about it or not I do not know.
TOD SLOAN IN LORD WILLIAM’S COLOURS
Photo. Rouch
CAIMAN AT THE POST FOR THE MIDDLE PARK PLATE THE DAY HE BEAT FLYING FOX. TOD SLOAN IN LORD WILLIAM’S COLOURS