PREFACE

THE favourable reception given on both sides of the Atlantic to the first portion of this work seems to justify the publication of this volume.

The materials used throughout have been derived from various sources. By far the greater portion of the Diaries, all the Duke of Wellington's letters, and those of the Duke of Rutland, were confided to me by Mr. James Shelley Bontein, who inherited the bulk of Lady Shelley's papers from his mother, Katherine Shelley, who married, in 1859, Mr. James Bontein, a grandson of Sir James Bontein of Balglass. Mrs. Bontein, a daughter of Lady Shelley's son Adolphus, lived both before and after her marriage almost entirely with Lady Shelley. I have also drawn largely upon an extensive collection of letters, journals, and memoranda for a mass of information not included in the Bontein papers; these I inherited from my mother, the "Fanny" of the Diary. All the interesting letters written by the celebrated Mrs. Arbuthnot-a correspondence which casts a flood of light upon that lady's real character, and the nature of her intimacy with the Duke of Wellington—were supplied by the Hon. Mrs. John Trefusis, Mrs. Bontein's daughter. From Sir John Shelley, of Shobrooke, from Mrs. George Shelley, and from

Mr. Spencer Shelley valuable materials have been received.

It should have been stated in the preface of the first volume that the crayon sketches of St. Cloud, Malmaison, and Waterloo were drawn by Lady Shelley herself. In response to a wide demand for some explanation as to the connection of Sir John Shelley's family with that of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a genealogical table has been drawn up by Mr. Horace Monckton. I am also indebted to Mr. Sydney Hankey for a reproduction, from a print in his possession, of that fatal Derby of 1818, when Sir John Shelley's horse, Prince Paul-the favourite-was beaten by Mr. Thornhill's Sam, a catastrophe to which Lady Shelley alludes in her Diary.

My thanks are offered to H.S.H. Princess Münster for her kindness in permitting the inspection of the Maresfield collection of pictures, sketches, and other interesting mementoes of Lady Shelley; and, above all, for her sympathy and assistance. I am also grateful to H.S.H. Prince Münster for allowing the reproduction of a hitherto unknown portrait of Wellington which forms the frontispiece to the present

volume.

My acknowledgments are due to that great work, the Dictionary of National Biography, whose accurate and comprehensive pages have spared me many laborious hours.

I take this opportunity to thank both Mr. Murray and his son, Mr. John Murray, for the help which they have rendered in matters of research. Only those who have undergone an experience similar to my own know how much the value of a biographical work depends upon assistance of that kind.

Now that my agreeable task is ended, I feel a

natural reluctance to part from those silent friends whose letters and journals have been my companions for so long. I sincerely trust that in my endeavour to make these volumes interesting I have not given offence; and that I have always remembered what is due to those who can no longer answer for themselves. Mrs. Arbuthnot's letters, now for the first time given to the world, will form a valuable contribution to the political and social history of England; while those written by the Duke of Wellington reveal the softer side of a personality which seems to have been so little understood.

In these pages Lady Shelley has drawn her own portrait with fearless fidelity; and it will be generally acknowledged that she was a clever, romantic, artistic, and fearless woman, beautiful both in feature and in mind.

RICHARD EDGCUMBE.

May 1913.