[257] Lady Blessington (1789–1849) was at the zenith of her career, editing Books of Beauty, writing novels, and entertaining celebrities at Gore House, Kensington. She was married when young and beautiful to Lord Blessington, an elderly and easy-going Peer, whose daughter by his first wife was the wife of Count d’Orsay. This unfortunate young woman was eclipsed in the affections of d’Orsay by her stepmother. After Lord Blessington’s death, d’Orsay and Lady Blessington presided over a brilliant salon at Kensington Gore, principally attended by the male sex. Lady Blessington recorded in several volumes her conversations with Byron. Disraeli, as a young man, flaunted his most elaborate waistcoats at Gore House.
[258] See ante, p. 99.
[259] Eldest daughter of third Earl of Courtown.
[260] Philip Henry, fourth Earl, and Lucy Catherine, daughter of Robert Low Carrington. Lady Wilhelmina married in 1843 Lord Dalmeny, by whom she had a son (the present Lord Rosebery) and three other children. After Lord Dalmeny’s death in 1851, she married in 1854 the fourth Duke of Cleveland. She was one of the Queen’s train-bearers at her Coronation. She died in May 1901.
[261] Daughter of the fifth Earl Cowper, and niece to Lord Melbourne. She afterwards married Lord Jocelyn. She was a great favourite with Queen Victoria. After the Queen’s marriage and her own marriage she became one of the Queen’s Ladies of the Bedchamber, and held that post till shortly before her (Lady Jocelyn’s) death.
[262] Third daughter of the first Earl of Verulam, and afterwards wife of the fourth Earl of Radnor. The three young ladies mentioned here were afterwards train-bearers elsewhere to Queen Victoria at her coronation.
[263] Daughter of Vice-Admiral Josceline Percy, and afterwards wife of Colonel Charles Bagot.
[264] Marie, Countess of Blebelsberg, born 1806, married Prince Charles of Leiningen (see p. 95). She died 1880.
[265] Colonel Sibthorp, the eccentric member for Lincoln, whose personal appearance was much satirised in Punch.
[266] Afterwards Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton and Lord Lytton of Knebworth. He was distinguished as a writer of novels that enjoyed a great vogue, and as a genuine man of letters. His abilities were of a far higher order than his writing. His ability was his own, but he wrote for the public. He earned a considerable fortune by his pen. For a time he chose to be a politician, and was Secretary for the Colonies in Lord Derby’s Government. His marriage was famous for its failure. His son Robert was Viceroy of India, Ambassador in Paris, and a poet of more than average merit.