250 
Aecent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, & Articles. 
: 
j 
The Lady Victoria Tylney Long Wellesley: a 
memoir. By her eldest God-daughter. London: Skeffingtons. : 
Cr. 8vo. 1899. Pps. xii.and 194. Cloth. Price 5s. 
Of the twelve illustrations three are portraits of Lady Victoria Catharine — 
Mary Pole Tylney Long Wellesley, one of the last Earl of Mornington, 
and the others connected with Wiltshire are South Wraxall Manor— 
Draycot Cerne—The Keeper’s Lodge, Draycot Park—and Draycot Cerne ~ 
Church. Of these South Wraxall is from a photograph, the others from 
drawings of little interest. The earlier part of the book is taken up with 
a sketch of the genealogy and descent of the Long family and properties 
in Wilts, from Thomas Long of Draycot in 1490 to Sir James Tylney 
Long, the last baronet, gathered from sources such as Aubrey, &c., which 
are open to all. The story of the apparition of the White Hand as told 
in Burke’s ‘‘ Anecdotes of the Aristocracy” is given at length. Sir 
Walter Long, of Draycot, M.P. in 1592, having a son John Long by his 
first wife, married secondly Catherine, daughter of Sir John Thynne, of 
Longleat, by whom he had a second son, Walter. Lady Catherine and 
her brother, Sir Egremont Thynne, according to Burke, deliberately 
conspired to induce Sir Walter to disinherit his eldest son John, and 
make the son of his second marriage his heir. As the lawyer’s clerk was 
drawing up the deed which was to effect this act of injustice, a lady’s — 
white hand appeared between his eyes and the parchment on which he 
was writing, preventing him from going on with his task. He was so 
terrified that he refused to finish the deed, and another clerk had to be 
called in to doit. On Sir Walter’s death, however, the will was contested 
by his eldest son, and the matter ended in a compromise, Walter retaining © 
the Draycot and John the Wraxall property, which thus became separated. 
Walter’s son, Col. James Long, was created a baronet by Charles II. 4 
From him the descent is further traced to the Sir James Long who ~ 
succeeded to the baronetcy in 1767, and on the death of Lord Tylney in — 
1784 to his vast fortune and estates at Wanstead in Essex. Wanstead 
House, a palace said to have surpassed Blenheim in magnificence, is 
described and illustrated from an old print. In 1785 Sir James Tylney 
Long married as his second wife Lady Catherine Sidney Windsor, 
daughter of the fourth Earl of Plymouth. They resided chiefly at 
Draycot, and their life of active benevolence and philanthropy is happily - 
dwelt upon here. Their son and heir died at the age of 10, the baronetcy — 
became extinct, and the eldest daughter, Catherine, inherited the fortune 
and estates, becoming the richest heiress in England, with a rent-roll of 
£40,000 a year. She married, 1862, the Honble. William Pole 
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