The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-12 00:00:00

DEATH OF THE COUNTESS
WALDEGRAVE.

Frances, Countess Waldegrave died on Saturday
morning at her residence in Carlton-gardens from
pneumonia and syncope. On the previous night,
having been unwell for some days, she came to London
from Strawberry-hill to obtain medical advice. Her
physician, Dr. :Du Pasquier, deemed her case so grave
that he called in Dr. Andrew Clarke, but soon after
the latter left her ladyship died.
Lady Waldegrave was a daughter of one of the most
famous of English tenors, John Brehm. By birth a
Jaw, this remarkable man, who added to his reputation
by composing several operas and popular songs, became
a convert to the Church of England, and died at a ripe
old age in 186. Lady Waldegrave was born at the
beginning of 1821, and was married four times. Her
first husband was Mr. John James Henry Waldegrave
of Navestock, in Essex. Not long after his death:
which occurred in 1840, she married the seventh Earl
of Waldegrave, who died in 1846. She then came into
possession of Strawberry-hill and the Earl's estates in
Essex and Somerset. In the following year she became
the wife of Mr. George Granville Vernon Harcourt,
of Nuneham-park, eldest son of the Archbishop of
York. Her fourth husband was Mr. Chichester
Fortescue, now Lord Carlingford.
The death of Lady Waldegrave creates a void in
English society that will long be felts Her reunions
at Strawberry-hill and Carlton-gardens were in many
respects unique/ Her political sympathies were un-
mistakably Liberal, but men of all parties were to be
found among the constant frequenters of her draw-
ing-room. Her name is closely associated with
Strawberry-hill, "the little plaything house" which
Horace Walpole built and decorated a little more
than a hundred years ago. In 1842, after the well-
known sale bad been hold, she determined to restore
the interest which this strange Gothic mansion bad
previously possessed. The task was by no means easy
but her resolution seemed to increase in proportion to
the dsfficulties she had to encounter. In the end
Strawberry-hill became what a writer on the subject
calls "a first-class country house in a land where
country houses are palaces ;" without, however, losing
much of the distinctive character which Walpole had
Impressed upon it.—Monday's

In noticing the death of the Countess Waldegrave,
the Pall Mall Gazette remarks that it is " au event
that will cause very sincere sorrow in a very wide
circle. The position she occupied in modern London
soCiety was based not only on her exquisite tact as a

hostess, but on a genuine kindliness of heart which
roilected in h-r manners gave them a peculiar charm
in the eyes of all who came in contact with her. Lady
Waldegrave, like the late Lady Palmerston, is generally
credited with having done much to 'keep together' the
Liberal party. It is perfectly true that among the
guests at Strawberry-hill and Carlton-gardens, as at
Cambridge House in former days, were to be found many
Liberals; but all shades of political opinion were re-
presented at these pleasant gatherings, which had little
or nothing of a party nature about them, and where all
present were welcome, and were made to feel them-
selves welcome, without reference to the views they
might happen to take of the public questions of the
day. Lady Waldegrave was, indeed, so thoroughly
good-natured that it would have been quite foreign to
her temperament to take into consideration the poli-
tical professions or convictions of her numerous friends
and acquaintances. She delighted in collecting them
around her, and to make other people happy seemed to
be the chief happiness of her life, Few, if any, ever
had a more tender heart for her own particular friends,
or a more general friendship for her fellow-creatures,
than Lady Viraldegrave. This was the secret of her
popularity, which was of a far higher character than
the worthless article that commonly goes by the
name."