A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



Williams, K.B., who, after her husband's death, 

 bought a property at Thames Ditton and built 

 Boyle Farm, opposite the Home Park at the end of 

 the gardens. 810 The rooms are now occupied by 

 Miss Gordon, daughter of the late Lord Henry 

 Gordon, who has a long connexion with the 

 palace. 



Elizabeth Countess of Berkeley had the rooms 

 in the top story on the east side of the Fountain 

 Court. She married first Augustus, fourth Earl 

 of Berkeley, K.T., and secondly Robert Nugent, 

 afterwards Earl of Clare. She is chiefly remarka- 

 ble for Horace Walpole's remarks on her character: 

 ' Be doubly on your guard against her. There is 

 nothing so black of which she is not capable. Her 

 gallantries are the whitest specks about her.' 8 " 

 The rooms were granted to her in 1782. They 

 are now occupied by Mrs. Henderson, widow of 

 Colonel Henderson, C.B., late Commandant of the 

 Staff College, and author of Stonewall Jackson and 

 the American Civil War, Sic. 



Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Francis 

 Seymour, G.C.B., born 1787, died 1870 ; son of 

 Lord Hugh Seymour, a distinguished naval officer, 

 the personal friend of William IV, who gave him 

 the Guelphic Order. He served for a short time 

 in Nelson's flagship the Victory as a midshipman in 

 1803, was wounded in the face off St. Domingo in 

 1 806, and afterwards saw service with Lord Coch- 

 rane and Lord Gambler. He was sergeant-at- 

 arms to the House of Lords from 1818 to 1841, 

 and naval A.D.C. to William IV. He and his wife 

 Lady Seymour held rooms in the north wing of 

 the south front of Hampton Court Palace from 

 1820 till Lady Seymour's death in 1878. Sir 

 George Seymour was the father of the fifth and 

 grandfather of the sixth Marquis of Hertford. 

 Among his daughters were Lady Harlech, Countess 

 Gleichen, and Princess Victor Hohenlohe Langen- 

 burg.*** The rooms are now held by Lady 

 Giffbrd, widow of the second Lord Gifford. 



Lady Albinia Cumberland, daughter of George, 

 Earl of Buckinghamshire, married Richard Cum- 

 berland, Esq., son of the celebrated dramatic 

 writer. He died in 1 794, and she was granted 

 ' The Maids of Honour's Gallery,' which she held 

 till her death in iSjo. 8 " 2 The rooms are now 

 occupied by the Hon. Mrs. Saunderson, widow of 

 the late Colonel Saunderson, M.P. 



Colonel Sir Horace Seymour, K.C.H., was a 

 younger brother of Sir George; born 1791, 

 died 1851. He was one of the heroes of Water- 

 loo, and is said to have been an unusually handsome 

 man . He had the ' Secretary at War's Lodging ' 

 on the south side of the west front from 1827. 

 His eldest son became Lord Alcester, and his 

 second son, Colonel Charles Seymour, was killed at 

 Inkerman. His daughter Adelaide married Earl 

 Spencer. He also received the Guelphic Order 

 from William IV. 8 " 



Lady Sarah Maitland, born 1792, died 1873. 

 She was the second daughter of the fourth Duke of 

 Richmond and Lennox ; married in 1815 General 

 Sir Peregrine Maitland, G.C.B., who died 1854. 

 Lady Sarah was present at the famous ball in 

 Brussels, the night before the Battle of Waterloo. 

 Her two sons were afterwards severely wounded in 

 the Crimea. She had the ' Cofferer's Lodgings,' 

 in the north wing of the west front, from about 



1857.'" 



The Countess of Mornington ; Anne daughter of 

 Arthur Hill, first Lord Dungannon, married in 

 1759 Garrett, first Earl of Mornington, and was 

 the mother of the great Duke of Wellington and 

 of the Marquis Wellesley, the illustrious Governor- 

 General of India, who used to visit her at the 

 palace. The little garden adjoining her rooms 

 (the Prince of Wales' lodgings on the ground floor 

 in the north-east angle of Wren's building), re- 

 tained for many years the name of ' Lady Morn- 

 ington's Garden," and the catalpa tree she planted 

 still survives as a stump covered with creepers. 

 The Duke of Wellington gave the name of ' Purr 

 Corner ' to a nook in the east front of the palace 

 where his mother and her friends used to sit bask- 

 ing in the sun. 9 * 5 Another son, the Hon. and 

 Rev. Gerald Valerian Wellesley, 8 * 6 was chaplain of 

 the palace, and also held apartments, the rooms 

 known as the Princesses' Lodgings on the first floor, 

 at the east end of the north range. Her daughter, 

 Lady Anne Wellesley, afterwards Fitzroy, after- 

 wards Culling Smith, lived in ' the Queen's Half 

 Storey ' in the east front. 8 " Lady Mornington 

 was granted rooms in 1795, and died in 1831. 

 Her rooms are now occupied by Lady Augustus 

 Hervey, widow of the late Lord Augustus Hervey 

 and mother of the present Lord Bristol. 



Mrs. Sheridan was another inhabitant, the 

 wife of Thomas Sheridan, son of Richard Brinsley 

 Sheridan, who died in 1817 ; she was the 

 mother of Frank and Charles Sheridan, and her 

 daughters were the three famous beauties, Mrs. 

 Norton, the Duchess of Somerset, and Lady 

 Dufferin, grandmother of the present Marquis of 

 Dufferin and Ava. She had ground-floor rooms 

 on the north side of the palace, off ' the serving 

 place ' opposite Wolsey's kitchen, which were 

 given her in 1820 ; she died in 185 I. 8 * 8 



Major the Hon. William Beresford is interesting 

 as the last holder of the ancient office of ' Master 

 of the King's Tennis Courts,' to which he was 

 appointed at the age of eighteen. He had the 

 ' Lodgings of the Master of the Tennis Court,' 

 from 1849. They are now occupied by Mr. 

 Marlovv, superintendent of the gardens. Major 

 Beresford died in 1883. 



Lady Georgiana Grey, daughter of Lord Grey, 

 of Reform celebrity. She acted as secretary to her 

 father, and is often mentioned in the diaries and 

 letters of ministers and literary men of that era. 8 " 



8 * Law, op. cit. 460. 

 8U Lettert, vii, 149, 16 Nov. 1778. 

 851 Law,op. cit. iii,449; Dict.Nat.Biog. 

 8ato Law, op. cit. iii, 467 ; E.V.Boyle, 

 Seven Gardens and a Palace, 269-76. 



811 Lair, op. cit. iii, 447. 



854 Ibid. 452. 



* Ibid. 328, 470. 



Ibid. 48*. 



* Ibid. 473. 



370 



838 Ibid. 333, 479. 



889 Trevelyan, Lift and Lttten of 

 Macaulay, i, 229. Memoirs of an 

 ex-minister (Lord Malmttburj], i, 36 ; 

 Law, op. cit. iii, 413,469. 



