THE SALISBURY LINE 243
still damp, and records his belief that Lady Salisbury " caught the illness off them of which she died." 1
Whether this is true or not, Lady Salisbury died eighteen months later (October, 1839). She was a woman of great charm and more than ordinary ability, and left behind her a large circle of friends among the most distinguished people of the day. Of them the chief was the Duke of Wellington, who placed the utmost confidence in her, and had looked to her for many years for help and advice in all his difficulties. 2 After her death he cultivated a great affec- tion for her daughter, Lady Blanche, to whose eldest son, Mr. Arthur Balfour, he acted as godfather. 3
After his wife's death, the Marquess brought up his daughters with stern discipline. " It is told of him that he would return from the House of Lords in the middle of the night, and at his summons, ' Get up, girls ; we're going to Hat- field,' his daughters had to be out of bed and ready for the journey with the least possible delay." Both as regards their education and their physical development they were brought up like boys, and they became skilled and fearless horsewomen. Indeed, Lady Mildred was, in later
��1 Personal Reminiscences of the Duke of Wellington, pp. 95, 96.
2 Many extracts from her Journals and Correspondence (preserved at Hatfield) are given in Sir Herbert Maxwell's Life of Wellington. It is to be hoped that they may one day be published in full.
8 See Lady Blanche Balfour : A Reminiscence, by the Rev. James Robertson. She married James Maitland Balfour of Whittingehame.
R 2
�� �
