LIVING RIVALS OF VICTORIA.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue V, 24 July 1897, Page 151

LIVING RIVALS OF VICTORIA.

The lady famed in story who was present at the ball on the eve of Waterloo, and is still living (says London Answers), hale and hearty, at the truly noble age of 93, is Lady Louise Tighe. She has a perfect memory, and remembers the incidents of the ball; the figure of Wellington ; the bugle sound which called the men to arms. It was at her father's house, the Duke of Richmond’s, in Brussels, that the historic ball took place. In 1825 she was married to the Colonel, William Tighe. He died in 1878, but the dear old lady, one ot England’s noblest links with the past, still lives on and writes a most beautiful, delicate hand, as if she were still a girl of 19, instead of 90. The woman who has probably had most political influence during the past fifty years next to the Queen is undoubtedly Mrs Gladstone.' Catherine Glynne was the daughter of Sir Stephen Glynne, the owner of the Hawarden and other large estates, and of his wife, Mary Braybrooke. The late Sir Stephen Glynne was her brother, and Lady Littleton was her sister. Thus it is through his wife that Mr Gladstone came into possession of the famous Hawarden Castle, in Flintshire, now wellknown all over the world as his residence. The marriage took place on July 25th, 1839, about six months before that of Her Majesty. She is now considerably over eighty years of age. The most remarkable member of the aristocracy is probably the aged Duchess of Cleveland, famous of her own individuality, and still more famous in the person of her celebrated son, Lord Rosebery. Though the Duchess is well over eighty years of age, she is more jnvenile in some things than many women fifty years younger. Her Grace always dresses in white whenever it is at all possible, and she has a perfect passion for travelling. Half her life is spent on the Continent, or at the Cape ; in fact, she has lately gone there again on a voyage. She perfectly revels in knocking about the world. She was married three years after the Queen to Archibald, Lord Daltneny. and so became the mother of Lord Rosebery, and bn the death of her husband she married a second time, thns becoming Dnchess of Cleveland by her marriage to George, the fourth and last Duke. He died a few years ago. Her Grace was a daughter of Philip Henry, fourth Earl Stanhope. Is there any one in London (or out of it) who has not heard the name of Angelina, Baroness Burdett-Coutts ? This noble woman was born on April 25th, 1814, five years before the Queen, and was the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett. On the death of her grandfather’s widow, Harriett, Duchess of St. Albans (who had in early life graced the stage), Miss Burdett succeeded to the vast fortune of the Coutts family, and took that name in addition to her own. It would be impossible to tell one-tenth of what she has done and given, not only to the London poor, but for England. Every good society, every charitable scheme, every devoted cause had in her its certain helper with her purse, work, and, until lately, voice. The Baroness has given up to a quarter of a million at once in furtherance of schemes for aiding the London poor. The Queen created her a Baroness in her own right in 1871, and in 1881 she married W. L. Ash-mead-Bartlett, who took the surname of Coutts. She still goes on at 83 years of age with her noble work of relieving the needy, and London’s wish is ‘ Long may she yet live !’