"And there was Bill Beresford," he continued, "a gallant soldier and the
best horseman in Ireland--good, old 'Ulundi Bill,' as he was fondly
known. There isn't a man between the four seas to-day that can compare
with him, either for a fight or a frolic. Bill Beresford overtopped them
all. He did more to improve and encourage horse racing in Ireland than
any man that ever lived except it was his father, Lord Henry Beresford,
the third Marquis of Waterford. They called him the Nestor of the Irish
turf, and he did deeds of daring and devilment in every corner of the
world. His lordship was killed in the saddle, the place where he would
prefer to die, for he loved horses as much as men, and there was
mourning in all Ireland. His son Bill took closely after him. As colonel
of the Ninth Lancers, Bill saved the British forces at the battle of
Ulundi and was given a big jeweled star and a Victoria Cross for the
job. But Charley is just as good a man as Bill. The Beresfords are all
fighters. No family in Ireland has drawn the sword so often or so
effectively, even if you go back to the invasion of the Normans when
they first came into the country. And what's the matter with the motto,
'No dependence but the cross'?"
Lord "Bill" Beresford was laid to rest on the first day of the twentieth
century and his obituaries said that he was the most popular man in
Ireland. He was the third husband of that beautiful American woman,
Lillian Warren-Hammersley-Churchill-Beresford, originally of Troy, N.Y.,
and afterward of Washington, widow of the late Duke of Marlborough and
still one of the most charming women in London society. There was
another brother, who recently died in Mexico, where he lived for many
years as a ranchman, and left a large family of half-breed children.
The present Marquis of Waterford, Henri de la Poer Beresford, was born
in 1875 and married Lady Beatrice, daughter of the Marquis of Lansdowne,
in 1897. He is a lieutenant in the Horse Guards at London, is said to be
a fine young fellow, and is developing the hereditary traits of the
family. He has a son--the Earl of Tyrone, born in 1901--and three
daughters who are younger.
Carrick Castle, which stands on the banks of the Suir not far from
Waterford, is another beautiful place, built in 1309 by the great Earl
of Ormonde. The Carricks were originally Butlers, and trace their
descent as far back as Rollo, Duke of Normandy, grandfather of William
the Conqueror. Edmund Butler was created Earl of Carrick in 1315, and
his descendants have owned this estate ever since his time. The
beautiful but unfortunate Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII. and mother of
Queen Elizabeth, was born in Carrick Castle and lived there until she
was fifteen years old, when she went to England with Sir Thomas Boleyn,
her father, and Lord Rochford, her brother, who was executed upon the
same scaffold with herself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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