A BARMAID'S ROMANCE.
Mataura Ensign , Putanga 620, 10 Hereturikōkā 1899, Page 3
Mō tēnei niupepa
A BARMAID'S ROMANCE.
The Duke of Chandos, at the begini ning of the eighteenth century, was conspicuous for the peculiarities and • magnificence of the style in which he lived. Strange to say, at the same , time, he was the soul of thrift. His : country seat, Canons, had' cost him i, £200,000. He dined in public, like the king, with music playing and
■ surrounded by his Swiss guards. In 1719 the Duke, while on a journey, stopped at the Castle Inn, at Marlborough. Just as his gorgeous gilded coach rolled into the courtyard, frightt ful shrieks were heard, and a young • girl of remarkable beauty, but whose locks and white face were streaming i with blood, was seen rushing frantically hither and thither, trying to escape from a brutal man, the hostler of • the inn, who was striking ,her with the butt end of a heavy horsewhip. The enraged Duke ordered the wretch to stop, but the hostler replied that 1 the girl who was a barmaid at the inn, was his wife, and he could do what he liked with her, offering at the same time with a wicked leer to sell his rights to the Duke. The latter took him at his word, threw down twenty guineas, and when he left the town took the unlucky barmaid with him. The Duke had his protegee well educated, and she developed into an ele^ gant and accomplished woman, who afterwards became the wife of Sir Thomas Duval. Sir Thomas, however, lived but a few years, and dying left a fortune of £40,000 to his widow. During this interval, however, the Duchess of Chandos also died, and then, in the year 1785, the noble Duke wedded the ex-barmaid, and the chronicles tell us he never repented the bargain, for he 1 wrote in his will : "I owe the greatest comfort I have enjoyed in this life to my Duchess, Lydia Catherine." And, furthermore, he ordered that in death they should not be divided, and that a marble monument should be erected to her.
