Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

88 neo-Palladian pile, the seat of Lily’s father, the Earl of Verulam. A report of the wedding appeared in the Irish Times and is worth quoting in full because of the period flavour it gives: The marriage of Lady Elizabeth Grimston, daughter of the Earl and Countess of Verulam, with Mr H.Hesketh-Prichard, of Highbrook, Ardingley, the well-known author, cricketer, and big-game hunter, who is also ADC to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, took place on Monday afternoon at St Albans Abbey. The officiating clergy were the Dean of St Albans, the Rev and Hon Robert Grimston, uncle of the bride, and the Rev Charles Prichard, uncle of the bridegroom. The Earl of Verulam gave away his daughter, and Capt E.G.Wynyard, DSO, was best man. The bridesmaids were the Ladies Sybil and Vera Grimston, sisters of the bride, and Misses Constance Flower and Claudia Poore, and two children, the Misses Helen Azalea and Viola Baring, nieces of the bride. 45 The bride wore a Princess soft satin robe, draped in fine Limerick lace (the gift of her aunt, Lady Maud Hastings), flowing Empire fashion at the back to the edge of her skirt. The bridesmaids were dressed in Princess white embroidered gowns and large Romney hats, trimmed with ribbon. A largely attended reception was afterwards held at Gorhambury. The honeymoon will be spent at Donnington Priory, lent by Hon Alfred Gathorne-Hardy, and afterwards in Norway. One could read a lot into this. This spell in Dublin was essentially the first time that Hex had been separated from Kate and in civilised society rather than exploring or hunting, and he was married almost immediately. Hex and his mother had been (and apparently continued to be) remarkably close. This in view of the history is hardly surprising, but the language of their letters and their pet names for each other are startling to a modern eye. Kate herself was entirely convinced of a psychic link between them and several times tells how she knew that something had happened before the word reached her by conventional means. We have no record of Elizabeth’s father, James Walter Grimston, as a cricketer. He was better known as in inventor, producing a non-drip tap, supposedly marketed as ‘Ye Tippe Toppe Tappe’, but the family had plenty of form at the game. Elizabeth’s grandfather, James Walter, the second Earl (who died in 1895), played quite a few first-class games between 1830 and 1849, as did three of his brothers. One of them, Robert (1816-1884), was a founder of I Zingari and a notable coach at Harrow School, where he apparently had to be dissuaded from captaining the team from the boundary. 46 There is an interesting press cutting in a scrapbook, but unsigned and undated, which was a letter to some journal or other which reads: I used to see a fair amount of the Grimston girls at one time, when I used to be in Hertfordshire a good deal. Lord Verulam’s seat is at 45 They were not actually nieces, but may well have been cousins. 46 R.L.Arrowsmith and B.J.W.Hill, The History of I Zingari , Stanley Paul, 1982, p.80. Married Man