To these brief notices of the leading members of the family it seems desirable to add a more extended one of the present representative and chief.

EDWARD, only son of William Strutt, F.R.S., was born at Derby, in 1801. After receiving a careful private education, he entered the University of Cambridge, and graduated in 1823. On leaving college he soon began to take an active part in the municipal and political concerns of his native town.* The respect which his father had so justly earned was maintained by the honesty and integrity of the son, who was invited by his fellow townsmen, in 1830, to represent the borough in the Liberal interest. Returned to Parliament, he made no startling, sudden, or brilliant display, but gradually earned the character of a clever business man, of strong sense and sterling worth. He continued to sit for Derby till 1848, when he was unseated on petition. In 1851 he was returned for Arundel, in the place of the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, who had accepted the Chiltern Hundreds.

At the general election of 1852 he was returned, in conjunction with Mr. John Walter, for Nottingham, for which place he continued to sit while he remained in the Lower House.

When Mr. Strutt first entered Parliament, the House was occupied for nearly two years with the Reform Bill, to

*At a public meeting convened at Derby, in 1826, in condemnation of the Corn Laws, Mr. Strutt delivered a speech which showed a remarkable acquaintance with the subject in so young a man, and elicited the warm approbation of the meeting and the public press.

which he gave his strenuous and consistent support in all its stages. On the 10th of May, 1832, when the Reform Ministry had resigned (in consequence of an adverse vote of the House of Lords), and the Reform Bill was in jeopardy, Mr. Strutt seconded Lord Ebrington's motion for that address to the Crown which had the effect of re-instating the ministry, and securing the passage of the Reform Bill through the House of Lords. After the passing of that Bill, he supported, in succeeding parliaments, all those important measures for which it had paved the way— Municipal Reform, the Abolition of Slavery, the Corn Laws, the removal of the grievances of Dissenters and of the restrictions on Trade. He served on many of the most important committees, and took an active part in the management of the private legislation of the House.

His great usefulness in his parliamentary capacity recommended him to the leaders of the great Whig party, and in 1846, when it was deemed advisable to constitute a separate Board for the management of railways, Mr. Strutt was selected as the President of the commission, and sworn on the Privy Council. He retained that office till 1848, when he lost his seat for Derby.

On the downfall of Lord Derby's ministry in 1852, Lord Aberdeen recommended Mr. Strutt to Her Majesty for the honourable office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which he held till June, 1854, when, in order to facilitate a new disposition of places among the Cabinet, he resigned it, and was succeeded by Lord Granville, and was appointed a permanent member of the Council of the Duchy.

In 1856 Her Majesty intimated to Mr. Strutt, through Lord Palmerston, her intention of conferring upon him the honours of the peerage.

In making the offer, Lord Palmerston stated that "the Queen was desirous of marking the interest which she took in the great manufacturing industry of the country, and that she had observed that this important element of national wealth had not, as yet, been suitably represented in the Upper House." The important benefits which had accrued to the commerce of the country from his ancestor's creation, and from his family's successful promotion of the cotton trade, well merited such a distinction, and Mr. Strutt's personal services in parliament had been considerable, so that few modern peerages had been better earned, and none, perhaps, was more generally acceptable to the country.

It was a just and graceful compliment to the town which had risen from his family's exertions, and had long been the scene of their commercial enterprise and prosperity, that Belper was selected as Mr. Strutt's title.

LORD BELPER took his seat in the House of Peers February 3rd, 1857, having been introduced by Lord Glenelg and Lord Overstone.

His Lordship married, in 1837, Emily, youngest daughter of the Right Reverend Dr. Otter, Bishop of Chichester, by whom he has three surviving sons, the eldest of whom, the Honourable Henry Strutt, attained his majority in 1861.

The present family seat is Kingston Hall, Nottinghamshire. This fine estate, which was purchased of the Duke

of Leeds in 1796, was formerly part of the possessions of the Babingtons and here the present noble owner erected the mansion which forms so striking an object from the Midland Railway, near Kegworth. Its style is Elizabethan. The site, which is not that of the ancient mansion, was judiciously chosen, and extensive improvements and planting have rendered Kingston Hall one of the most complete country seats in the locality. That attention to the welfare of those around him, which, as has been said, is a family characteristic, led the proprietor to rebuild the cottages on the estate, and to restore the church, and Kingston has been deservedly styled, "a model village." It should be added that from his first location in Nottinghamshire, Lord Belper at once identified himself with the public business and interests of that county, of which he was appointed High Sheriff in 1850. His Lordship is likewise a Justice of the Peace, and Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, and has been for many years a Deputy Lieutenant for the counties of Derby and Nottingham. In 1860, during the Duke of Newcastle's absence, when his Grace accompanied the Prince of Wales on his visit to America, Lord Belper acted as Vice-Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and LL.D. of the University of Cambridge.

The Parkyns Family.

"Rancliffe! Shalt thou unnamed, unnoticed be ?"

THE introduction of railways has withdrawn many of our finest country seats and places of celebrity from the public view. Bunny is one of these. When fifteen coaches a day passed along a road that now has not one, no stranger ever gained the summit of Bunny Hill without feeling that the prospect repaid the toil of climbing. Some thought the road must have been constructed over such an eminence for the sole purpose of affording passengers the treat of the magnificent prospect. Grongar Hill has not half so many charms to exhibit. On ascending the hill either way, the male passengers were always expected to dismount, and tales are told of several having been so lost in admiration as to have allowed the coach to pass on without them.

On ascending the south side there was the quaint-looking old mansion of Highfields, so often mistaken for a monastic ruin; and when the crown of the hill was reached, there was that expanse

"Of grove, and lawn, and mead,"

with Nottingham in the distance, which is, perhaps, unrivalled as a champaign view.

Bunny is the beau ideal of an English village. A vene