66 BECOBDS AND REMINISCENCES OF QO OB WOOD 



furniture, and the stairs also secured by impedi- 

 ments — by whicli means, before an entrance could 

 be effected, the troops would be upon them in the 

 very act, and scarce a man could have escaped. 



Whole libraries have been written upon the life 

 and exploits of the great Duke of Wellington — 

 great indeed he was, having captured three thousand 

 cannon from the enemy and never lost a single gun 

 — but unless Lady de Ros had consented in her old 

 age, and, after much pressure, to place on permanent 

 record her memoirs, many interesting phases in the 

 character of that many-sided man would have been lost. 



I suppose her Ladyship to have been one of the 

 last survivors of the long list of those who received 

 invitations and were present at the Duchess of Rich- 

 mond's Waterloo Ball ; her sister. Lady Louisa Tighe, 

 who still survives, being the last of the family, is 

 now in her ninety-second year. During my residence 

 at Goodwood, some seventeen of those who had taken 

 part in that historic ball, visited there ; but only 

 Lady Louisa, to my knowledge, survived her Lady- 

 ship, who departed this life on the 15th of December, 

 1891, in the ninety-sixth year of her age. She was 

 present at the jubilee of George IIL in 1809, also at 

 the Queen's jubilee in 1887, and had been acquainted 

 with no less than nineteen prime ministers.* 



* Since writing the above, I find Lady Sophia Georgiana Cecil, 

 another sister, still survives, in her eighty-ninth year. 



