The Lucky Aristocrat
Looking Back: The Autobiography of The Duke of Sutherland. (Odhams, 25s.) AFTER plodding through a couple of deadweight forewords to His Grace's autobiography, one by' Viscount Kilmuir, the other by Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd. concerning the sales and where- abouts of family portraits, one is confronted with photographs of statues representing the Dukes of Sutherland 1 and 2 erected by faithful tenants and toadies.
The present Duke, after announcing his slightly premature birth on August 12,1888, at'Cliveden; built by his great-grandfather, takes a header into the ancestral strawberry-bed, and devotes the first chapter to a. résumé of the profitable unions of his forbears: dukes, duchesses, countesses and earls, who knew how to butter their bread.
The stony fingers of pimp and privilege press heavily on every page; written in guide-book style about as stimulating as yesterday's plum duff, one vainly searches for a witty anecdote. One's hopes are raised when Edward VII and Queen Alex- andra dined with' his parents, but gay Edward's sole contribution was a guttural 'Yes, yes!' Per- haps the indigestibility of such vast possessions affected 'Geordie's' spirits. Four stately mansions, and the county of Sutherland to play with, is a stunning amount of good fortune to put on one man's plate.
As a boy, and onwards, His Grace remains our traditional aristocrat; lazy at lessons, keen with his gun. At ten he shot the first of a total bag of one thousand stags! Prep school, Eton, the Army and safaris occupied his youth. The book is pro- fusely illustrated with photographs of dead animals, crowned heads—a splendid snap of Alfonso dressed for the moors, in what appears to be a divided skirt of striped sailcloth—and ances- tral portraits by Romney and Winterhalter.
The Duke married a nice girl, Eileen, daughter of an Irish peer; she also shared his enthusiasm for the gun. Suitable ministerial appointments presented themselves at suitable periods, delight-
fully punctuated with cruises on his yacht Catania. I suspect His Grace's happiest appointment was that of Lord StesVard to His Majesty's Household in 1936. He was given a room at the Palace to keep an eye on court etiquette. Throughout his dis- tinctly regal career Geordie has consistently, but fruitlessly, championed a resettlement scheme for the Highland crofters, for whose eviction in 1819 his ancestor Granville, second Earl of Stafford, was responsible. Now, in the socially splintered Fifties, the Duke applies himself to dairy farming at his Elizabethan home, Sutton. Place, in Surrey.
BRIDGET TISDALL
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