olonization found in her a sympathetic patroness in days
when South Africa was little more than a name to the large majority of
Englishmen. At her expense in 1886 a party of twenty-four families was
sent to the Wolseley settlement, an estate acquired by purchase, about
seventeen miles from King William's Town, where full preparations for
their reception had been made by a committee. Within two years and
a-half the settlement was closed, the cheapness of untaxed drink having
changed the settlers from abstainers into drunkards.

The Viscountess was not daunted by this failure to realise her hopes,
and in 1888 another attempt at colonization was made under her auspices.
Twenty-five families, mostly from Hampshire, sailed for the Cape and
formed a new settlement, called by the name of the poet Tennyson. This
time the experience of the past was a warning, the enterprise was
attended by fairer prospects of success and before her death she had
the gratification of knowing that the settlers were contented and happy.

Another of the Duke's daughters was the Dowager Lady Howard de Walden,
who became immensely rich on the death of Lady Ossington. Their father
had so willed it that if the fifth Duke died without male heirs the
London property was to pass to his daughters. Lady Ossington had no
children and her rich dowry passed to her sister, who thereby had a
double portion. Ossington Hall, after having been for so many years the
home of a Duke's daughter, reverted to the Denison family.

From allusions made by Lord George Bentinck to his friends, when he had
lost heavily on the turf, it was understood that his mother and sisters,
especially Lady Charlotte, were always ready to help him over his
difficulties. It is surmised that they knew more of his secrets and of
the secrets of the Marquis of Titchfield than the old Farmer Duke who
frowned upon betting transactions and was not known to have been
involved in the excitements of a duel and gallantries to actresses, not
to mention a nebulous secondary existence as Thomas Druce.

Ossington is within easy carriage distance of Welbeck, but the
eccentric brother rarely saw his sister and the latter was astonished at
the transformation of the Abbey and grounds brought about by him. Before
the alteration of her ancestral home she made an interesting sketch of
it, as it was in her father's lifetime.

CHAPTER V

EARLY LIFE OF LORD JOHN BENTINCK, AFTERWARDS FIFTH DUKE OF
PORTLAND