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. 24 Dec 1895. [his son] The Duke of Leeds (deceased) died at Hornby Castle [Map], yesterday morning at 5 o'clock. He recently contracted a severe chill, which led to an attack of bronchitis. He took to his bed about a week ago and gradually sank. George Godolphin Osborne, ninth Duke of Leeds in the peerage of England, Marquis of Carmarthen, Earl of Danby, Viscount Latimer, and Baron Osbome of Kiveton, all in the peerage of England; Viscount Osbome and Viscount Dunblane in the peerage of Scotland; and Baron Godolphin of Paraham Royal, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, a baronet, and a Prince or the Holy Roman Empire, was born in Paris in 1828, the eldest son of the eighth duke. He married, in 1861, the Hon. [his former daughter-in-law] Fanny Georgiana Pitt (age 58), daughter of the fourth Baron Rivers, who was born in 1836 and was Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess of Wales from 1863 to 1873. He was appointed captain in the North Yorks Militia in 1852, and resigued in 1859, but was reappoined in 1861. He succeeded to the family honours in 1872, and has issue living three sons and five daughters. The family descends from Sir Edward Osborne, knight, who was Vice-President of the Council of the North in 1629 and Lieutenant-General of the forces raised there against the Parliamentary Army in 1841. His son was Treasurer of the Navy and Lord High Chancellor, and as Earl of Danby was impeeched by the Commons in 1679. The [his grandfather] fifth duke married [his grandmother] Amelia, in her own right Baroness Conyers, but this title left the main line in 1859 on the death of the seventh duke. The late duke was nephew of the late Rev. Lord Sydney Godolphin Osborne, who wrote much over the familiar signature "S.G.O.," and brother of [his son] Lord Francis George Godolphin Osborne (age 65), who was rector of Great Elm, but joined the Church of Rome in 1875. The Duke of Leeds is succeeded by his [his grandson] eldest surviving son (age 33), the Marquis of Carmarthen, who was born in 1862, was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was formerly a lieutenant in the Yorkshire Hussars. Lord Carmarthen unsuccessfully contested the Newmarket Division of Cambridgeshire as a Conservative in 1886, and has sat since July, 1887, for the Brixton Division of Lambeth, in which constituency his sucoession to the peerage now creates a vacancy. Lord Carmarthen was an assistant Private Secretary to the Secretary for the Colonies (Lord Knutsford) from 1886 to 1888. He was appointed Treasurer of the Household on the formation of the present Ministry. He married, in 1884, [his granddaughter-in-law] Lady Katherine Frances Lambton (age 33), daughter of the second Earl of Durham, and has issue four daughters.