Lady Ossington died before her sister, so all this wealth came to the
Dowager Lady Howard de Walden, furnishing her with the splendid income
of 180,000l. per annum.

The stake in the Druce claim is not only the Dukedom of Portland and the
entailed estates of the Bentincks in the male line; but in the female
line too, including this dazzling dowry of 180,000l. a year.




CHAPTER IV

THE FARMER DUKE'S DAUGHTER AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS' SPEAKER.--BECOMES A
BENEVOLENT VISCOUNTESS


_Place aux dames._ Before relating some of the incidents in the careers
of the fourth Duke's high-spirited sons, the Marquis of Titchfield and
Lord George Bentinck, place must be given to the social triumphs of his
third daughter, Lady Charlotte Cavendish-Bentinck.

With all the advantages that wealth and birth could give her among the
proud aristocracy of England the love affairs of Lady Charlotte did not
run smooth. Her lover was Mr. John Evelyn Denison of Ossington Hall,
about twenty miles from Welbeck in the same county of Nottingham. That
the young Squire--of well-born family though he was--should aspire to
the hand of a Duke's daughter showed no want of spirit on his part. But
after all he was only a Commoner, though he had in him the making of the
First Commoner of England leading to a still higher elevation on the