Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/396

322 NOTES AND QUERIES. ti2S.vm.APRiL23,io2i. The Bt. Hon. the Countess of Banelagh, 60. [Margaret Lady Ranelagh, 1674-1728, j daughter of the 3rd Earl of Salisbury. Ex- tolled as a beauty by Fielding, ' Tom Jones,' iv. 2. A full-length portrait -by Kneller is the present property of the Marquis of Salisbury.] St. James's Place (m. No. 31). Sir Andrew Fountaine, 50. [" 30 June, 1711. I am to dine to-day at Sir Andrew Fountaine's who has bought a new house." Swift to Stella.] Arlington Street (m. Nos. 39 and 40). Bishop of Bangor, 25. [The see was in the occupation of Hoadly, 1676-1761, and the Bangorian controversy was in this year, 1718, at its full fury.] His Grace the Duke of Kingston, 150. [Fathar of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.] Sir Richard Child, 140. [Son of Sir Richard Child, author of ' A New Discourse on Trade.' This year raised to the peerage as Lord Castlemain.] The Rt. Hon. the Lord Carteret, 140. [1690-1763. Afterwards first Lord Granville. His portrait by Hoare has just been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. " Greatness with learning deck'd in Carteret see With justice and with clemency in Lee," wrote Fielding.] Robert Walpole, Esq., 100. William Pulteney, Esq., 100. [It comes as a surprise to find Walpole and Pulteney next-door neighbours, but their antagonism did not show itself till about 1725.] Bond Street (m. No. 41). His Grace the Duke of Graf ton, 155. [Charles, 2nd Duke, 1683-1757.] Dover Street (m. No. 43). Sir Thomas Hanmer, 250. [Elected Speaker in 1714. Married the widow of the 1st Duke of Graf ton.] Dr. Arbuthnott, 50. [John Arbuthnot, 1667-1735. Physician to Queen Anne, 1705. Wrote ' The History of John Bull.' " Arbuthnot . . . Whose company drives sorrow from the heart." Gay. " If the world had but a dozen men like Arbuthnot I would burn my ' Travels.' Swift.] Berkeley Street (m. No. 43). His Grace the Duke of Devonshire, 300. [This was the first house destroyed by fire in 1733. The present Devonshire House was designed by William Kent for the third Duke.] Clarges Street (m. No. 45). Mr. Shepherd's market, 10. [What is the present-day value of " Mr. Shepherd's market ?] J. PAUL DE CASTRO. 1, Essex Court, Temple. ISABELLA DE'FORTIBUS, THE LAST LADY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. ISABELLA, COUNTESS OF ALBEMARLE, and the last member of the noble De Redvers family, Lords of the Isle of Wight (1100- 1293), was one of the two daughters of Baldwin (3) de Redvers (d. 1245) and Amicia, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Glou- cester, one of the barons who extorted Magna Charta from King John. At &n early age she married William de Fortibus, Earle of Albemarle, and became a widow at the age of 23 years. Aveline, the youngest daughter and only surviving issue of this alliance, became, on the death of her brothers and sister, heiress to the vast possessions of her mother and the greatest heiress in the kingdom. Under these circumstances it is not surprising to learn that in 1259 she married Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Lan- caster, the younger of the two surviving sons of Henry III. Aveline died in her mother's lifetime, sine prole, in 1274. On the death of her brother Baldwin, in 1262, the Lady Isabella became Countess of Devonshire and succeeded to the feudal lordship of the Isle of Wight, hereditary Chamberlaihship, and the other honours be- longing to, her family. Very touching is the picture of this lion-hearted woman, widowed and childless, more feared than loved, drawn by the Rev. E. Boucher James in ' Letters Archaeological and Historical relat- ing to the Isle of Wight ' (vol. i. 204), in the isolation of her immense possessions and struggling as the last of her race to preserve in her keeping what she esteemed to be the brightest j ewelin the inheritance of her fathers. The Countess was strongly attached to the Church, nor was she wanting in that munificent liberality which had marked her predecessors of the De Redvers family, making grants to the Abbeys of Monte- bourg, Quarr, Breamore, and other monas- teries. At the same time, though a devout churchwoman, the Countess would not brook any encroachments on her rights, and her resistance sometimes went beyond the warrant of law. Some litigation, for in- stance, took place in 1267 between the Countess Isabella and the Prior of Breamore, in connexion with the manor of Lymington. The following particulars relating to the dis- pute are taken from the fourth volume of the ' Victoria County History ' of Hampshire : The prior's claim was based on a grant made by the will of Baldwin, the late earl, who was