John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset

Cricket

Dorset was schooled at Westminster, which was where he first became a noted proponent of cricket. He went on to join Hambledon Cricket Club, based in Hambledon, Hampshire, which was the leading cricket club of the day. He was joined there by Sir Horace Mann, a Carthusian, and Lord Tankerville of Eton and Surrey, who was his keenest rival.

Dorset gained a reputation as a keen competitor. The Morning Post in 1773 wrote:

The Duke...having run a considerable number of notches from off strokes, the [opposing fielders] very unpolitely swarmed round his bat so close as to impede his making a full stroke; his Grace gently expostulated with them on this unfair mode, and pointed out their danger, which having no effect, he, with proper spirit made full play at a ball and in so doing brought one of the gentlemen to the ground.

In 1775 a full-scale riot broke out at the Artillery Ground when Dorset's side was not performing too well. In 1782 the Morning Chronicle noted that "His Grace is one of the few noblemen who endeavour to combine the elegance of modern luxury with the more manly sports of the old English times".

Dorset's patronage of cricket was expensive — the Whitehall Evening Post in 1783 noted that the cost to Dorset of maintaining his team, before bets, was £1,000 a year. This was a lot, but less than the amounts some of his contemporaries were spending on racing.

Ambassador to France

In 1784 Dorset moved to Paris, surprising his critics with newfound public dedication, to serve as ambassador to France. He continued to promote cricket amongst the locals and British expatriates. In 1786 The Times reported on a cricket match played by some English gentlemen in the Champs Elysées:

His Grace of Dorset was, as usual, the most distinguished for skill and activity. The French, however, cannot imitate us in such vigorous exertions of the body, so that we seldom see them enter the lists.

Back in England, Dorset became one of the first members of the Marylebone Cricket Club; his public life continued in the post of Steward of the Royal Household — in which capacity his his main role was to keep an eye on the dissolute Prince of Wales, the future George IV.

Personal life

Dorset's best-known mistress was Venetian ballerina Giovanna Zanerini, who was the principal ballerina at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, and used the stage name Giovanna Baccelli. Dorset commissioned a painting of her from Thomas Gainsborough, which is reckoned to be one of Gainsborough's later masterpieces.

The 3rd Duke of Dorset was also known for his affair with the Countess of Derby, born Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, daughter of the 5th Duke of Hamilton and the beauty Elizabeth Gunning. Since her husband refused to divorce her, her child with Dorset was born illegitimate.

In 1790 Dorset married Arabella Diana Cope. They had one son together, George John Frederick, who was born on 15 November 1793. George John Frederick became the 4th Duke of Dorset on his father's death at the family seat, Knole House, by Sevenoaks, Kent in 1799. Knole was then inherited by his sister the Countess De La Warr, who was created Baroness Buckhurst in her own right (a title later inherited by a younger son who is ancestor of the present Earl). Another line stemming from this lady is that of the Baron Sackville. The 3rd Baron Sackville was father of the writer Vita Sackville-West who created a wonderful garden at Sissinghurst. Knole House and Sissinghurst have both been given to the National Trust.

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