Always when flat racing was over Lord William turned his attention to chasing, which he had liked from his earliest days. I remember standing with him once in a crowd at a big “jump” meeting, and saying to him, “I suppose you have always been too occupied to make a study of the faces round you at one of these meetings?” He replied, “No indeed, I have not been too occupied, but I do not like to look, sometimes a race means so much to a man.” I remarked I thought a certain friend standing near us, and owner of the favourite, was looking rather pale and anxious, but he said, “Oh he’s all right, an old hand at the game,” nevertheless when the favourite was over the last fence I heard a big sigh and when the cheering began after the horse had won by nearly a length the owner collapsed. I wonder what would have happened if he had lost? Lord William told me afterwards that if he had not won that race he would have been absolutely ruined. The faces of a crowd on a racecourse, especially at a “jump” meeting, is an interesting study and instructive.
It is painful to watch the restless hands and nervous twitchings of those to whom it means “up” or “down.” Some of course go who delight in a fair race when the horses are not ridden to death, that is to say never again able to meet such a supreme moment; people who have nothing of any consequence in any of the races, or who, like the late James Lowther, seldom or never bet at all. Then again there are the curiously constituted folk who flock round the most dangerous jumps, presumably, to witness any accident that may occur; some people revel in seeing accidents. One man I have known now for many years, has never to my knowledge, been moved to mirth unless someone has hurt themselves, then he indulges in a waistcoat contortion which answers for laughter, his mouth spreads slowly across his face, but his eyes take no part in his merriment.
Some of the accounts that appeared in the papers from time to time relating to Lord William’s achievements were very funny. The _Sporting Times_ some years ago referred to this in one of their issues I am told, as follows: “Does Lord William Beresford read the _Hornet_? Probably not, but if he does he must be surprised to find that he is the third son of John, fourth Marquis of Waterloo. Why not also first cousin of Viscount Vauxhall, and distantly related to the Countess of Charing Cross?”