MY RECOLLECTIONS BY THE COUNTESS OF CARDIGAN AND LANCASTRE MY RECOLLECTIONS First Impression, September 1909 Second Impression, September 1909 Third Impression, September 1909 Fourth Impression, October 1909 Photo Alice Hughes The Countess of Cardigan. MY RECOLLECTIONS BY THE COUNTESS OF CARDIGAN AND LANCASTRE LONDON EVELEIGH NASH FAWSIDE HOUSE 1909 "My soul to Fancy's fond suggestion yields. And roams romantic o'er her fairy fields ; Scenes of my youth developed crowd to view To which I long have paid a last adieu ! " BYRON Stack Annex DA C/7A3 CONTENTS CHAPTER I EARLY MEMORIES My birth and parents : A childen's party at St. James's Palace : Asleep in William IV.'s chair : My French governess, " no meat and no flannel " : The Ghosts of Mayfair : Our friends at 8 Upper Grosvenor Street : We act plays before the Duke of Wellington : Anec- dotes of Lord Forester and Theodore Hook : I hear Tom Moore sing : The Opera : Lord Hertford at St. Dunstan's, some stories about him : Lord de Ros Pp. 1-12 CHAPTER II IN THE 'THIRTIES Children's parties in the 'thirties : A fight for a partner, the looker-on wins the prize : Mrs. Fitzherbert's house in Tilney Street : My friends : Rehearsals of the Eglinton Tournament : Lord Lonsdale at Carlton V 2056389 Contents House Terrace : The lovely Sheridans : Children and their governesses : Then and now a comparison Pp. 13-23 CHAPTER III COWES Early recollections : Smart simplicity : Lady A.'s blue satin gown : An unkind comparison : Her Stock Exchange transactions : Her losses : Her " Little Impropriety" : Her mania about Lord Cardigan's will : " Bel and the Dragon " : Lady Clare : A children's party for Princess Victoria : On board the Zarifa : My Royal visitor Pp. 24-33 CHAPTER IV PRESENTED AT COURT I am presented at Court : A fancy dress ball at Buck- ingham Palace : Death of my mother : The fortune- teller's prediction : Comedy and tragedy Pp- 34-50 CHAPTER V COUNTRY-HOUSE VISITS Houses and their owners : Homes of memories : Country- house visits in the 'forties : How the modern girl vi Contents would regard them : A ball at the King's House : Badminton, Berkeley Castle, Bretby : I take part in theatricals : De Grammont and the lovely Lady Ches- terfield : Lord Howe and his daughters : Lady Victoria Talbot and Lord Anson : I take undeserved blame : Christmas in Beaudesert : " L' Adieu " : Louis Napo- leon and Lady Desart a pretty compliment : Simple amusements : Belvoir Castle : Cassiobury : A high- way robbery : Our cowardly friends : I meet Lord Brougham : Some other country-houses Pp. 51-70 CHAPTER VI THE COUNT MONTEMOLIN A royal lover : The Count Montemolin proposes for me : We become engaged : I visit the Archduchess Beatrix : The late Don Carlos as a Baby : The Count's weak- ness : I resolve to give up all ideas of a Spanish mar- riage : I am dogged by Carlist spies : I break off my engagement : The Count's after-career : His death : Fever or poison ? Pp. 7 1-90 CHAPTER VII MY MARRIAGE The Earl of Cardigan, a popular hero : A story of his father : Lord Cardigan's first marriage : Entertaining an agent unawares : Spiteful gossip : I leave home : vii Contents Death erf Lady Cardigan : On board the Airedak : England to the rescue ! : I am married at Gibraltar : We visit Madrid : A prolonged honeymoon : Mrs. Trelawney's too solid flesh : A passage of arms with Lady A. : Happy days at Deene : Lord Cardigan's last ride : His death : Lord Ernest Bruce's joy at his son's prospects : Still waiting ! Pp. 91-112 CHAPTER VIII WIDOWHOOD Sad days after Lord Cardigan's death : I go to London : His Lordship's double : Count Lindemann : I refuse to marry him : The reason why : My friendship with the King : His Majesty a born artist : Lord Ernest Bruce : Robert's little joke : Bad weather at sea : The captain and the parson : House-parties at Deene : Lady Aubrey Pp. 113-120 CHAPTER IX DEENE AND ITS HISTORY A home of the past : The Abbots' hunting-box : The Great Hall : The Brudenells as landowners : An old cavalier : Imprisonment in the Tower : The first Earl of Cardigan : " Wanton Shrewsbury " : Successive owners of Deene : Secret hiding-places : " The King's viii Contents Room" : Family portraits : The ballroom : The Balaclava relics : I restore Deene Church : Lord Cardigan's tomb : The entrance-hall at Apethorpe : The ghost : What did the bones mean ? Pp. 121-134 CHAPTER X NEWMARKET AND MELTON My first visit to Newmarket : Then and now : Death of Henry Blackwood : Wife and mistress : Admiral Rous : An appreciation of him : Mrs. Rous : Caroline, Duchess of Montrose : Her unpopularity on the course : " Corrie Roy " and "Carrie Red" : "Auntie Craw ! " : George Bruce " duffer " in name only : Lady Grey de Wilton : The Empress Elizabeth of Austria : Sunday jumps : A meet at Belvoir in 1873 : I discuss Disraeli's proposal of marriage with his Majesty : The ill odour of politics Pp. 135-143 Why I enjoy life : " The Parrot Club " : " Women deceivers ever " : Frances, Lady Waldegrave : Her residence at Strawberry Hill : The husband she liked best : Elope- ments : A stingy nobleman : Lord Palmerston, an b ix Contents awkward remark : Lady Bradford : Her flirtation with Jim Macdonald : My revenge for some undeserved snubs : Straw in the square : Why we all laughed Pp. M4-I57 CHAPTER XII MY SECOND MARRIAGE Paris : I ride in the Bois : An unknown admirer : The Count de Lancastre : I become engaged to him : His descent from the Plantagenets : Our marriage : Dangerous shots : A tenants' dinner at Kirkstall Abbey : A speech from the table : We visit Lisbon : Sailing on the Tagus : Home again : The Count in the hunting-field : Follow my leader : We return to Paris : Queen Isabella of Spain : A description of her : A Queen without a change of linen : We visit Madrid : A gay time : Cosas de Espana : The Count de Lancastre's bad health : Father Black's bigoted behaviour : I go back to England, Home, and Duty : Death of Lancastre : A message from the other world Pp. 158-174 L'ENvoi PP. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE COUNTESS OF CARDIGAN Frontispiece From a photo by Alice Hughes LADY LOUISA DE HORSEY AND HER THREE CHILDREN Facitigjare 14 THE EARL OF CARDIGAN 28 LORD CARDIGAN GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE 34 BUST, BY BOEHM, OF THE COUNTESS OF CARDIGAN 64 DON CARLOS Luis MARIE DE BORBON, COUNT MONTEMOLIN JZ PHOTOGRAPH OF LETTER 76 From the Count Montemolin to Miss de Horsey, received February 27, 1849 PHOTOGRAPH OF ENVELOPE 78 Which contained the above PHOTOGRAPH OF LETTER 8 April 23, 1849 THE EARL OF CARDIGAN LEADING THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE ,, 92 THE COUNTESS OF CARDIGAN 106 About the time of her first marriage DEENE PARK, WANSFORD, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 121 xi List of Illustrations QUEEN HENRIETTA MARIA Fatinspafc 124 From a picture by Vandyke, at Deene LOUISE DE KEROUALLB AND HER SON, THE DUKE OF RICHMOND 127 From a picture by Lely, at Deene THE WHITE HALL, DEENE PARK 128 THE TOMB OF THE EARL OF CARDIGAN 132 In the Brudenell Chapel of St. Peter's, Deene ANTONIO MANUELO COUNT DE LANCASTRE 160 xu CHAPTER I EARLY MEMORIES My birth and parents : A children's party at St. James's Palace : Asleep in William IV. 's chair : My French governess, " no meat and no flannel " : The Ghosts of Mayfair : Our friends at 8 Upper Grosvenor Street : We act plays before the Duke of Wellington : Anecdotes of Lord Forester and Theodore Hook : I hear Tom Moore sing : The Opera : Lord Hertford at St. Dunstan's, some stories about him : Lord de Ros I WAS born on December 24, 1824, at 6 Charles Street, Berkeley Square. My father was Spencer Horsey de Horsey, of the ancient family of de Horsey, who married Lady Louisa Maria Judith, youngest daughter of the ist Earl of Stradbroke, and I was their eldest child. My parents were then handsome young people, quite devoted to each other, but I have A I My Recollections sometimes heard that my mother's character supplied the strength of mind my good-natured father lacked. We were a very united family, as the saying is. My little brothers, William and Algernon, were full of fun and, as I had no sister, I might have developed into something of a torn-boy had it not been that my mother generally took me about with her. Looking back on those days, the inevitable "I remember" begins as a matter of course and, although my earliest recollections must needs be of the lovely young mother who adored us all, and who was so adored by us, I think my most impressive youthful memory is concerning a children's party given for Princess Victoria at St. James's Palace, by King William IV. and Queen Adelaide. We had received an invitation, and I can quite well recall curtseying to the kind old King. Both he and the Queen were very agreeable, and there was a pretty girl with them who was none other than the late Queen Victoria. I suppose the party was delightful it must 2 Early Memories have been, but I remember getting very, very tired and longing for my cosey bed at home ; indeed, so drowsy did I finally become that I looked round to find some place where I could rest undisturbed. At last I discovered what seemed an ideal substitute for my bed, in the shape of a large gilt chair, handsomely uphol- stered in red brocade. Without more ado I climbed into it, and was soon fast asleep. Meanwhile mamma, chatting to her many friends, had not noticed the flight of time, and when she suddenly remembered me, she found to her great alarm that I had apparently vanished. I had crept away quite unnoticed during the dancing ; what had become of me ? "Adeline, Adeline," called mamma, but I was too sound asleep to hear! At last she discovered me in what proved to be King William's own chair, and I have heard her say that H.M. was greatly amused when he saw a little girl curled up in the big imposing chair which had hitherto only felt the weight of Royalty. When I was quite small, we removed to 3 My Recollections 8 Upper Grosvenor Street, a house associated with the memory of my first governess, Mile. Clemence Isaure Angelique, daughter of the Vicomte d'Albenas, a French nobleman who had emigrated to England during the Revolu- tion, and who, like so many other members of the aristocracy, had encountered the slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune so keenly that Mile. Clemence was obliged to earn her living as a governess, instead of enjoying the life her birth and attractions merited. I remember her as a handsome girl of nineteen, charming, but a little difficile, for she had fads which were not understood or tolerated in those days when girls were more " sensible " than they are now. Mile. Clemence disliked meat, and would never eat it, a whim which was considered very "odd," and she also refused to wear any flannel garments. The result of this was that poor Mile. Clemence went into a decline which caused her death, at least we were always told so, perhaps with the idea of pointing a moral to young people who hated flannel. Mile. Le Bon took her place, and until I 4 Early Memories came out dear Le Bon never left me. My brothers had a tutor, and I learned Latin and Greek with them. Mamma was very deter- mined that my education should be as perfect as my own natural abilities, aided by the best teachers, could make it, so I studied Italian and German with Mile. Le Bon, Spanish with the well known Trago, and as a child I read the best authors in these languages. Music and dancing were not neglected, and I took lessons from Mile. Duvernay, afterwards Mrs. Lyne Stephens. She was not at all pretty, but she had a lovely foot, and was the embodiment of grace and charm. Dear days ! so long ago and yet so vivid to me. How happy we children were at 8 Upper Grosvenor Street! I wonder if the present occupants ever see any of the ghosts of the celebrated and amusing people who were once frequent visitors there. If only houses could speak, what tales they could tell ! but then no " House " has written its recollections. The little part of London we call Mayfair always seems to me to be full of memories 5 My Recollections of the time when Society was composed of brilliant men and witty women, beauties and dandies who held sway without puffing para- graphs in the newspapers. If some of those dwellers of Mayfair could revisit the pale glimpses of the moon and Mayfair I feel sure they would be thankful they had been consigned to their family vaults before Curzon Street was ruined by the hideous Anglo- American palace recently planted in its dig- nified Georgian midst, or Park Lane, the " Petticoat Lane " of the West End (for reasons I need not state) became a patchwork of all styles of houses. But to return to 8 Upper Grosvenor Street. Here came Lord and Lady Chesterfield, the Ansons, Lord Castlereagh, known as " Young Rapid," and Lord Westmorland, who was called " Old Rapid." The story goes that when George III. was recommended to give " Old Rapid," who was rather stupid, the vacant Order of the Thistle, the King said, " Well I'm afraid he'd think he was meant to eat it." Lord Westmorland was quite blind when I 6 Early Memories remember him. His daughter, Lady Georgina Fane, always sat next to him at dinner and cut up his food to prevent any contretemps arising through poor "Old Rapid's" affliction. The Duke of Wellington was constantly at our house, and we children were devoted to him. He delighted to see us act little French plays, and what an event those theatricals were ! How we revelled in seeing the dining- room turned into a theatre ! The folding-doors were opened, curtains and footlights were arranged, and we felt then that life held nothing better for us. One of my recollec- tions is of my little brother wearing a dressing- gown in the character of an old man, grumbling that " Cette me'decine m'a bien tourmente'e," and I can almost hear now the laughter that greeted him. The Duke was at that time very much attracted by Miss Jervis, the daughter of Admiral Lord St. Vincent ; she sang very well, and it was an understood thing that she was always asked wherever the Duke went, and a place kept for her beside him at My Recollections table. Miss Jervis married Dyce Sombre, the son of an Indian Begum, who treated her in the most approved Oriental manner, for he tried to smother her ; their separation was a cause ctlebre, and she afterwards married Cecil, Lord Forester. A great joke a propos of Forester was his invariable reply of " Nothing," whenever he was asked what he had heard or done, and " nothing" could ever induce him to be more communicative. I can conjure up a very charming recollec- tion when I think of Lady Tavistock, who was a friend of my mother, and at her house I heard Tom Moore sing and play his Irish melodies. I can quite remember how good- natured he was, and how delightfully he sang ! One of my childhood's friends was Theodore Hook. We were always allowed to listen to him after dinner, when he would seat himself at the piano and recite to his own improvised accompaniment, all the fun, politics and scandal of the day. Had gramophones been then in- vented, what a record for posterity such an evening would have provided ! 8 Early Memories My mother was passionately fond of music, and as a child I often used to go to the Opera with her and her great friends Count and Countess Zichy. The Count was a brother of Prince Metternich and the Countess was a ward of Lord Hertford, whose box was on the pit tier, and from this box I saw all the cele- brated dancers and singers of the time. I suppose few people alive now can say, as I can, that they have spoken to the wicked " Lord Steyne," who, as every one knows, was the Marquis of Hertford. I think Thackeray did a great deal to malign Lord Hertford, and he did not quite deserve it. There is, of course, no doubt that he was a rout. The Society he lived in, his great wealth, his epicurean tendencies all combined to make him exceptional in his passions and un- scrupulous in his mode of gratifying them. But after all he only wore his rue with a difference, and he always looked a great nobleman, never forgetting his manners, how ever much he neglected his morals a refresh- ing contrast to the fast young man of to-day, 9 My Recollections who is apt to forget manhood, morals and manners in his desire to have " a good time." Lord Hertford was persona grata at Court ; every one visited him, and his breakfast and luncheon parties at St. Dunstan's were con- sidered delightful. There were, of course, all kinds of rumours about the orgies at St. Dunstan's after the Opera, when closed car- riages took the prettiest members of the corps de ballet up to the Regent's Park house, so securely hidden in its lovely sylvan grounds. Scandal said that once there the ladies dis- carded the conventional attire of the ballet and waited on Lord Hertford and his friends at supper wearing less than what is now con- sidered good form to appear in as Salome. On these occasions the trees glowed with hundreds of coloured lamps, the supper was a Lucullus-like feast, and soft music from a con- cealed orchestra made night romantic ; the guests were among the best known members of the haut monde, and the lovely houris played their part. But what a change when the fashionable 10 Early Memories world came up to breakfast with his Lordship a few hours later! The lawns were dewy fresh, and ladies, lights, and music had appa- rently vanished into the morning mists, but unkind people used to say that the ballet slept off the fatigues of the night safely locked away in Blue Beard's rooms. The velvety-skinned Alderney cows in the hayfields gave a touch of pleasing rusticity to the Arcadia in Regent's Park, and I used to love going to St. Dunstan's and drinking a glass of warm milk at these breakfast parties. I saw Lord Hertford afterwards at Dor- chester House sitting in a wheeled chair (he suffered horribly from gout) with a beautiful bloodhound on either side of him. He was a tall, fine-looking man, and a great figure in the society of his time. Peace to his memory ! St. Dunstan's remains outwardly unchanged to-day ; the house is merely older, the trees are more luxuriant, the lawns are still softly verdant, but the " Marquis of Steyne " and the light-hearted dancers are as the snows of yester- year ! ii My Recollections Lord de Ros had a pretty place in Regent's Park, and I once went with my mother to a garden party he gave, where I recollect meet- ing the Duchess of Beaufort and my young friends her six daughters. Unfortunately Lord de Ros was a great gambler ; he was suspected of, and then found out, cheating at cards, with the result that he was cut by every one, and London society knew him no more. He died not long after the scandal, and some one suggested the following epitaph : Here lies Lord de Ros Waiting for the Last Trump ! 12 CHAPTER II IN THE 'THIRTIES Children's parties in the 'thirties : A fight for a partner, the looker-on wins the prize : Mrs. Fitz- herbert's house in Tilney Street : My friends : Re- hearsals of the Eglinton Tournament : Lord Lonsdale at Carlton House Terrace : ,The lovely Sheridans : Children and their governesses : Then and now a comparison THE chief excitement of my early days was the number of children's parties to which I went. Everybody of consequence gave them, and very charming they were. History repeats itself apparently in this instance, as, after a period when juvenile entertainments were rather in abeyance, society has taken them up with the enthusiasm of the 'thirties and 'forties. Prince de Talleyrand, the French Ambassador, gave great entertainments to his niece, after- wards the Duchesse de Dino, and I remember 13 My Recollections going as Psyche, in lovely gauze draperies and glittering wings, to a fancy dress ball at his house when I was six years old. My brother Algernon went as a gorgeous Hussar in a blue and gold uniform, and I think his costume was the sensation of the evening. All the ladies were enchanted with the little man and voted him " a darling," greatly to mamma's pride and delight. Count Batthyany had parties for his sons, and at one of these I felt a heroine, for I was the cause of a fight between Julian and Frank Fane. I was in great spirits that evening, and my costume of a Spanish lady became me wonderfully ; in fact so charming did I appear that I was overwhelmed with entreaties from would-be partners. The Fane boys were my old friends, but Julian and Frank's two minds just then had only room for the single thought which should first dance with me ? and neither seemed in- clined to give way. I was a little coquette, and I enjoyed looking on at the quarrel, especially as I was the cause of it. For some Lady Louisa De Horsey and her three children. In the 'Thirties time Frank and Julian respected the cove- nances, and confined themselves to angry looks and mutterings of, "I tell you I'll dance with Miss de Horsey first!" "And I repeat she shall be my partner ! " " She shall not ! " She shall ! " etc. etc. Then the storm burst ; the two brothers wasted no more words, but com- menced to fight, regardless of their gay dresses and their host's drawing-room. I began to get frightened, and wished I could slip away. Julian and Frank did not seem to notice me, and I was just going to run off when some one touched me on the shoulder, and turning round I saw Ernest Fane, the brother of the combatants. "Well, Adeline," said he, "isn't this a pretty to-do? I've been watching Frank and Julian quarrel, and as I particularly want to dance with you, suppose we let them fight it out and enjoy ourselves." I was only too willing, so Ernest and I were soon dancing, quite forgetting Frank and Julian, who stopped their dispute only to find their brother had carried me off. My godmother, Lady Verulam, also gave 15 My Recollections parties every fortnight, and so did Lady Kinnoull at Hay House. I had many young friends, and among them were the children of Colonel and Mrs. Darner, who lived opposite to us in Upper Grosvenor Street. Mrs. Darner was born in 1798, and was the youngest child of Lord and Lady Hugh Seymour. Before Lady Seymour died she en- trusted Mary to the care of the celebrated Mrs. Fitzherbert, and it was an understood thing that she was to be the child's guardian. Unfortunately, as this arrangement was not mentioned in Lady Seymour's will, the execu- tors refused to let Mrs. Fitzherbert keep Mary. The Prince Regent, who was very fond of the little girl, wished to settle ; 10,000 on her provided she remained with Mrs. Fitzherbert, but finally the Marquis of Hertford, as head of the family, offered to adopt Mary, and as the Chancery Judges readily agreed, the Marquis nominally took charge of her, but ultimately placed her again in Mrs. Fitzherbert's guardian- ship. Mary Seymour married my father's friend, 16 In the 'Thirties Colonel the Right Honourable G. L. Dawson Darner, and their son became the fourth Earl of Portarlington. The Darners removed from Grosvenor Street to Mrs. Fitzherbert's house in Tilney Street, Park Lane, an old-fashioned residence with a large bow-window, overlooking the Park, where George IV. used to sit and watch the passers-by. Maria Damer was my great friend, and she afterwards married Lord Errington ; Louis Napoleon was very much in love with her, and she could have married him had she not pre- ferred love to ambition. We also knew General Cavendish's children, my dear friend " Yaddy ' Seymour and his brother Charles who was killed at Inkerman. Then there was Louisa Hay, Lady Kinnoull's daughter, who married Sir Thomas Moncrieffe, and had twenty-four children (fourteen only survived), and among them were the lovely Georgina, afterwards Countess of Dudley, the ill-fated Lady Mordaunt, Lady Forbes, and the Duchess of Atholl. B 17 My Recollections I also knew the three daughters of Lady Jersey, and another friend of mine was Anne Balfour, daughter of Lady Eleanor Balfour. She married Lord Charles Fitzroy, and, had she lived, she would have been Duchess of Grafton. Lady Wilton's girls, who were after- wards Lady de Ros and Lady Catherine Coke, were among my friends, and I was very fond of the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort's charming daughters, Blanche, Rose, Henrietta, Emily, and Edith. General Cavendish was Groom-in-Waiting to the late Queen, and his influence at Court enabled his daughter and myself to sometimes visit Buckingham Palace when Queen Victoria gave a State Ball. We were very excited when we knew such an event was on the tapis, for it meant no less a privilege than being allowed to sit in the Royal dressing-room and look at the pretty young Queen being attired in her lovely ball-dress. We were too awestricken as a rule to even dare to whisper, but I think the Queen found more honest admiration in our childish eyes than in all the 18 In the 'Thirties honeyed flatteries of a Court. She was always very kind to us, and Miss Cavendish after- wards became one of her Maids of Honour. I have mentioned that mamma generally took me about with her, and this was fortunate for me, as I saw a great many interesting people. Thus I can remember going to the rehearsals of the Eglinton Tournament which proved such a fiasco owing to the heavy rain. The rehearsals were held in a salle d'armes in Sloane Street, and I thought them very amusing, and I wished I was going to be one of the performers. Mamma was a great friend of the "Queen of Beauty," Lady Seymour, and her sisters, Mrs. Norton and Lady Dufferin. They possessed all the good looks and charm of the Sheridans, and I often went to Mrs. Norton's house, where handsome Sydney Herbert was generally in attendance. Lady Conyngham was another celebrity I met, but I didn't admire her at all. She was a coarse fair woman who seemed very dull, not at all the sort of person one would think would have fascinated George IV. so completely as 19 My Recollections she did ; and, what was more to the point, obtained so much money from him. I remember hearing it said that when the King transferred his affections from Lady Hertford to Lady Conyngham he exchanged St. James's for St. Giles'. One afternoon I was taken to a concert where I met Count Bruneau with a very ugly daughter, the image, of himself. The Countess was a great beauty, and was credited with a catholic taste in lovers, the favoured one being a Mr. Burnaby. He, however, preferred the study of the occult to the lady, a catastrophe which greatly annoyed and distressed her, and she would lament to an unsympathetic but highly amused audience that " On ne peut plus rien faire avec le petit Burnaby depuis qu'il est devenu sorcier ! " I also remember Lord Lowther, afterwards Lord Lonsdale. He was very anxious to marry an Italian singer who was his mistress and was enceinte by him. The lady refused to become his wife, but had she done so, her charming grandson would now have been Earl of Lons- 20 In the 'Thirties dale. One day I went with my father to see his Lordship at his residence in Carlton House Terrace. We were shown into a rather untidy room and Lord Lonsdale came forward to greet us wearing a dirty flannel dressing-gown and surrounded by fifteen little King Charles dogs. " Not much like an Earl," thought I with the sweeping criticism of a child, who is generally the most severe of critics. I must indulge in a few words about the position of the governess when I was a child. The prevailing idea seems to be that the early Victorian novelists presented an accurate picture of the troubles that beset the paths of young ladies who were obliged to earn their own living. I have no patience with what I consider is entirely false, and the Bront6s are largely responsible for the fancied woes of the gover- ness. In many of their novels she is a colour- less silly girl, who always fancies herself injured ; the servants are rude to her ; her employers are barely civil, and their friends ignore her. She is usually a clergyman's daughter, and as a reward for her persecuted life she sometimes 21 My Recollections marries a curate, when her unmannerly pupils have grown beyond her control. This type of governess is always on the verge of tears and lamentations, and spends her time in writing long martyr-like letters to the dear ones at home in the creeper-clad parsonage. All I can say is, I never had a governess of this description and I don't think any of my friends had. The ladies who taught us were clever sensible women who were treated as ladies, but who were tactful enough not to become too familiar with their employers and their friends. The governesses in aristocratic families moved in quite a world of their own ; they visited among themselves ; they had their own " set," and they formed a sort of society in society. They took their pupils whenever they visited each other, and I can recall many delightful afternoons and even- ings spent with cheerful smiling young women who seemed thoroughly to enjoy themselves, and who did not long for a small smothered life in the shape of marriage with a parson. The men- tion of governesses naturally recalls memories of their pupils, and I think there is a marked 22 In the 'Thirties contrast in the manners of young people then and now ; children in my young days were much sweeter, more natural and far better behaved. The horrible modern child with blast ideas and cynical self-conceit did not exist years ago. We had our faults, but they were those of impulsive childhood, not the faults of the boy and girl of to-day which are, I am afraid, the result of the over-indulgence of a decadent and degenerate society. CHAPTER III COWES Early recollections : Smart simplicity : Lady A.'s blue satin gown : An unkind comparison : Her Stock Exchange transactions : Her losses : Her " Little Impropriety " : Her mania about Lord Cardigan's will : "Bel and the Dragon" : Lady Clare : A children's party for Princess Victoria : On board the Zarifa : My Royal visitor MY family's association with the Isle of Wight began in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when one of my ancestors, Sir Edward Horsey (a great friend of Sir Walter Raleigh), was Captain of the Isle of Wight. Sir Edward died in 1582, and his monument may yet be seen in Newport Church. The Cowes of my childhood was very different from the Cowes of to-day, and I do not think it has changed for the better. When I first used to stay at the Isle of 24 Cowes Wight steam yachts were quite unknown, and the harbour then presented a much prettier spectacle when the sailing yachts were moored there every summer, and smoke-trails did not spoil the purity of the horizon. We were always delighted when the time came for Cowes, as we anticipated having a very pleasant visit. Numbers of our particular friends took houses for August and September a long period in comparison with the crowded Cowes week which now marks the close of the London season. Papa, who was one of the oldest members of the Royal Yacht Squadron, was very fond of yachting, and as we children were all imbued with his love of the sea we often went sailing with him. People used to start out about eleven in the morning and did not return before the dinner-hour. There were many cheery parties given at different hos- pitable houses, and the whole place was full of light-hearted gaiety, over which the shadow of the American millionaire and knighted plutocrat had not yet fallen. 25 My Recollections Simplicity in dress at Cowes was as much de rigueur then as it is good form now, and blue serge gowns and neat hats were worn by all the smart women. Talking of dress, I shall never forget Maria, Marchioness of Ailesbury's first appearance at Cowes, when she and her husband came to stay with us. Lady A. evidently wished to create a sensation, so she walked on the Parade wear- ing a pale blue satin dress, and a delicate India straw bonnet on her profusion of blonde ringlets. She was soon aware, however, that so far as her costume went, she was quite "out" of it, and she eventually hurried home to change her gorgeous gown for one of more serviceable serge. The Ailesburys visited us at Cowes for several seasons, and then, as they liked the place, they took a house every summer. Al- though Lady A. was considered a beauty she was excessively thin, and her scragginess was the source of a joke some years later. She was devoted to Lord Wilton, but one day she went on board Lord Cardigan's yacht, which 26 Cowes was lying off Calshot, and stayed the nigh before returning to Cowes. Lord Wilton, who was furious about it, made quite an unnecessary scene with Cardigan, and some kind friend said that after all it was only a case of two dogs fighting over a bone ! Poor Lady A., she was scraggy, but to be called a "bone" must have greatly annoyed her, if the remark ever reached her ears, and I am sure it did ! Lady Ailesbury gambled on the Stock Exchange, but although she was a keen business woman she often lost heavily, and when she was in town she went to the City to see her broker every morning. She had an agent who did most of her Ex- change transactions, and who also made bets for her at Newmarket. Henry Forester (the only racing member of the Forester family) used to call this agent " Lady A.'s Little Impropriety." One evening at Cowes, a messenger came over from Southampton to say that Lady A. had lost ,40,000 on the Stock Exchange. 27 My Recollections There was a terrible to-do, but Lord Wilton, and George, Marquis of Ailesbury, settled it between them. The famous Ailesbury pearls had, however, to be sold in consequence. The one engrossing idea that possessed Lady A. was how she could induce Lord Cardigan to make his will in favour of her son, Lord Charles Bruce, and she tried every means in her power to gain her end. In fact it became a mania with her, and I remember when she stayed at Deene after Cardigan's death, that one day when I returned from riding, I found her in the library ransacking my husband's papers. I asked her what she was doing, and she replied, " I am looking for Cardigan's will, for I feel sure he made a later one to benefit my dear boy." I assured her that, although I knew Lord Cardigan had made and destroyed many wills, his last will was the only one in existence, but I do not think she believed me. Lady A. was worldly to her finger-tips, and she used often to say, "I'm always civil to girls, for you never can tell what they will become." 28 The Earl of Cardigan. Cowes Lord and Lady Belfast lived at Cowes when I was a child. She was called " The Dragon " on account of her fiery temper, which was both devilish and dragon-like. One day Lord Adolphus FitzClarence said to Lord Belfast (who was enjoying a peaceful time during his wife's absence from home), " Well, Bel, we get on very well without the Dragon, don't we ? " an irreverent joke, apocryphal certainly, and afterwards the Belfasts were always known as " Bel and the Dragon." Lord Belfast was a typical easy-going Irish- man, and he was always in debt, a fact which never troubled him in the least. When the bailiffs periodically visited the establishment they were made welcome in quite an open- hearted way, and they were even persuaded to wear Lord Belfast's liveries and act as tem- porary footmen, greatly to " Bel's " amuse- ment. I can remember Lady Clare, a curious old lady, a sort of connection of the Belfasts, who often came to Cowes. She had been a great friend of George IV. and was one of the 29 My Recollections privileged ladies who usually dined with him at the Pavilion in the gay days of the Regency. Lady Clare was very fond of yachting, and we children used to go out with her and Lord Belfast in his brig. These excursions were a fearful joy to us, and we would not have missed them for the world. Unfortunately, although Lady Clare was devoted to the sea, she was a very bad sailor and Neptune never failed to make unpleasant demands from her. We were cruel children, and longed for this eventful moment, for we knew from past experience exactly when and where Lady Clare would display symptoms of sea-sickness. I can almost see the three of us attentively watching the suffering lady, and hear Algernon whisper, " Now Adeline look ! ! " Our great and culminating excitement was to see the rouge and face-powder mingle in streaks down Lady Clare's cheeks, and we always wondered why she used paint that came off so soon. 30 Cowes I can remember a children's party given for Princess Victoria and the Duchess of Kent by Lord Durham at Egypt (House). It was arranged that the Princess should "discover" me and my brothers sitting on the grass apparently amusing ourselves by singing Spanish songs to our guitar accompaniments ancl that we should be asked to repeat our songs for her benefit. The artless ruse was quite successful, and we duly sang to the Princess, who graciously approved of our performance, and said that I had a " very sweet voice." I suppose it was a great honour, but I remember at the time thinking I would far rather have been romping about with the other children than amusing Royalty. After this I was unfortunate enough to excite a good deal of jealousy among my young friends, and I was snubbed by them in consequence. However, I didn't care, and talked to the governesses instead of to the pupils. Lord Wilton had a beautiful yacht called the My Recollections Zarifa, on which he used to entertain large parties. Once the wind dropped and we were becalmed on the other side of the island ; Lady Wilton and her children, papa and myself, Lady A. and Lord Uxbridge were on board, and we had to stay all night, until a freshening breeze at 8 A.M. the next morning enabled us to get back to Cowes. In 1842 I went to Osborne with my mother to see Lady Isabella Blatchford, who lived there, and on whose death the estate was purchased by the late Queen Victoria. Some of my most pleasant recollections of Cowes in later years are of his Majesty King Edward VII., who, when Prince of Wales, often came to see me at my lovely little house Rose Cottage and also visited me on board my yacht, generally accompanied by Lord Suffield. My friend, Sir Allan Young, was very useful to me once when I was yachting, as I had a very inefficient captain who, on my first visit to Dieppe, smashed into the pier, and con- siderably damaged the Sea Horses figure-head. 32 Cowes Sir Allan piloted us most skilfully out of the harbour, and I remember Vanity Fair noticing the incident and stating that Lady Cardigan was broken-hearted at the loss of her figure- head. 33 CHAPTER IV PRESENTED AT COURT I am presented at Court : A fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace : Death of my mother : The fortune-teller's prediction : Comedy and tragedy MY mother presented me at Court in February 1842, and shortly afterwards I went with my parents to the first fancy dress ball given by Queen Victoria. Our dresses were lovely. My father wore the uniform of a Garde Fran9aise, and my mother was dressed as a Court lady of the same period. I went as a Louis XV. shepherdess. Mamma took endless pains in seeing that my costume was perfectly designed and carried out, and the result amply repaid her. I was very pleased with my own reflection when at last I was ready after what seemed hours of prepara- tion. My hair was exquisitely poudrt, and my 34 I 3 a U c