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158 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
CHAPTER V
THE NOBLE KINSMAN
HAVING had occasion to mention a noble Earl once or twice,
I am sure no polite reader will consent that his Lordship
should push through this history along with the crowd of
commoner characters, and without a special word regarding himself.
If you are in the least familiar with Burke or Debrett, you know
that the ancient family of Ringwood has long been famous for its
great possessions, and its loyalty to the British Crown.
In the troubles which unhappily agitated this kingdom after the
deposition of the late reigning house, the Ringwoods were implicated
with many other families ; but on the accession of his Majesty
George III. these differences happily ended, nor had the monarch
any subject more loyal and devoted than Sir John Ringwood,
Baronet, of Wingate and Whipham Market. Sir John's influence
sent three Members to Parliament ; and during the dangerous and
vexatious period of the American War, this influence was exerted so
cordially and consistently in the cause of order and the Crown, that
his Majesty thought fit to advance Sir John to the dignity of Baron
Ringwood. Sir John's brother, Sir Francis Ringwood, of Appleshaw,
who followed the profession of the law, also was promoted to
be a Baron of his Majesty's Court of Exchequer. The first Baron,
dying A.D. 1786, was succeeded by the elder of his two sons—John,
second Baron and first Earl of Ringwood. His Lordship's brother,
the Honourable Colonel Philip Ringwood, died gloriously, at the
head of his regiment and in the defence of his country, in the
battle of Busaco, 1810, leaving two daughters, Louisa and Maria,
who henceforth lived with the Earl their uncle.
The Earl of Ringwood had but one son, Charles Viscount
Cinqbars, who, unhappily, died of a decline, in his twenty-second
year. And thus the descendants of Sir Francis Ringwood became
heirs to the Earl's great estates of Wingate and Whipham Market,
though not of the peerages which had been conferred on the Earl
and his father.
Lord Ringwood had, living with him, two nieces, daughters of
his late brother, Colonel Philip Ringwood, who fell in the Peninsular