Adeline Horsey Recollections. After mamma's death I kept house for papa at 8 Upper Grosvenor Street. My brothers were rarely at home. William (age 17) was educated at Eton [Map], and when he was sixteen years old the Duke of Wellington (age 73) gave him a commission in the Grenadier Guards. Later he went through the Crimean War, and he retired from the Army in 1883, on account of ill-health, with the rank of Lieutenant-General.

Algernon (age 16) entered the Navy in 1840 as a midshipman, and the same year took part in the operations on the coast of Syria. After the battle of Acre he received the Turkish medal and clasps: his promotion was rapid, and as Admiral, his flagship, the Shah, engaged the Huascar, which he forced to surrender to the Peruvian authorities.

Now that I was so much alone I occasionally found time hang heavy on my hands, and I welcomed any excitement as a break in the monotony, for of course our period of mourning prevented us entertaining or accepting invitations. One day my maid told me about a fortune-teller who had a wonderful gift for predicting the future. I was very much interested, and made up my mind to consult the oracle. My maid attempted to dissuade me, saying that the woman lived in Bridge Street, Westminster, which was not at all a nice neighbourhood. I have always had my own way and, disguised in a borrowed cloak, bonnet and thick veil, and accompanied by my protesting servant, I started off to Bridge Street late one November afternoon.

It was dusk when we reached Westminster and found Bridge Street, badly lighted and evil-smelling. We knocked at the door, stated whom we wished to see, and we were ushered through a dark passage into a dirty room reeking of tobacco.

The fortune-teller was a wrinkled old woman who was smoking a short clay pipe with evident enjoyment. When I told her what I had come for, she produced a greasy pack of cards, and after I had "crossed her pahn" she commenced to tell my future.

"Ah!" said she at last, and she looked curiously, "my pretty young lady, fate holds a great deal in store for you. You will not marry for several years, but when you do it will be to a widower - a man in a high position. You will suffer much unkindness before you experience real happiness, you will obtain much and lose much, you will marry again after your husband's death, and you will live to a great age".

I was quite impressed by my "fortune", but I was a little disappointed, for like most girls I had my day-dreams of a young husband, and the prospect of a widower was thus rather depressing.

Strangely enough, the prediction came true, for Lord Cardigan (age 45) was a widower, and nearly all the men who proposed to me were widowers ! I was asked in marriage by Lord Sherborne (age 38), a widower with ten children; by the Duke of Leeds (age 40), who was a widower with eleven children, and by Christopher Maunsell Talbot (age 39), once Father of the House of Commons, also a widower with four children. Prince Soltykoff, the Duke of St. Albans (age 41), Harry Howard, and Disraeli (age 38) were other widowers who proposed to me, so I suppose I must have had some unaccountable fascination for bereaved husbands.

The Times. 20 Feb 1891. We regret to announce that EARL BEAUCHAMP (deceased), Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, died suddenly yesterday at Madresfield Court, his Worcestershire seat. He was taken ill while at luncheon, after a journey to a neighbouring town, and died before medical aid could be obtained, the cause of death being heart disease. His death will be felt as a serious loss, both in the English Church and in the Conservative party. A strong and moderately "high" Churchman, he took a leading position in his own diocese and in the Church at large in the promotion and defence of Anglican interests and; though he did not come prominently before the public as a politician, he exercised for many years considerable influence in the councils of the Tory' leaders. Frederic Lygon (deceased) was the second son of the fourth Earl Beauchamp by Lady Susan Caroline Eliot, daughter of the secoud earl of St. Germans. He was born in 1830, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1852 he was elected a Fellow of All Souls, and the received tho degree of D.C.L. from his University in 1870. As the Hon. Frederick Lygon, he entered Parliament as member for Tewkesbury in 1857, for which place be sat till 1863, when be was elected for West Worcestershire. At his elder brother's death, without issue, in 1866, he succeeded to the peerage as sixth Earl. Both as a member of the House of Commons and as a peer he hold posts in Conservative Governments. In 1859 he was for a short time a Lord of the Admiralty. During the whole of Mr. Disraeli's Ministry which lasted from 1874 to 1880 he was Lord Steward of the Queen's Household. On the return of the Conservatives to power in 1885 he ras Paymaster-General of the Forces for the few months that the Government lasted, and he returned the same post when the general election put an end to Mr. Gladstone's short-lived Administration in 1886. He did not, however, remain in the Goverornent for a year, as he resigned in June, 1887. Since 1876 he had been Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire. The deceased earl was twice married, 1st, in 1868, to Lady Mary Catharine, only daughter of the sixth Earl Stanhope (she died in 1876), and, secondly, to Lady Emily Annora Charlotte (age 37), daughter of the third Earl Mdanvers (age 66). He is succeeded by his eldest son, William, Viscount Elmley, who was born in 1872.